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I'm very surprised at Carol didn't get a best picture. Todd Haynes is an Academy darling, his period pieces are nothing short of brilliant, and they hold up. And I definitely feel like Carol speaks to, even though it's set in the past, it speaks to themes we're dealing with in life right now. It's really really shocking that it didn't get it.
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I think Straight Outta Compton is one of the greatest biopics, but I am biased on that one, obviously. There are some things the Academy gets wrong and it's important to call them on it. But in other instances, there are simply just better actors. They're doing a better job than they've done, but there's still room for improvement.
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Alejandro González went from Birdman to this - these are incredible ledges that he's stepping out on in making these films The Revenant. I think his only threat for best director is Room, to be honest.
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The idea of watching an entire film basically from one person's perspective - and not even really from their perspective, but it's probably the most intimately shot film that's in any of these categories. If you're not familiar with Son of Saul, basically it's a film about a Jewish guy who's in concentration camp, but he helps dispose of the bodies after they leave the gas chamber. So, you watch the entire movie looking at Saul's face and looking at his interactions with people.
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Obviously movies like this Fast and the Furious 7 don't get any love from the Academy. If they do, it may be special effects or sound editing or something like that.
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Sylvester wins, obviously best actor in a supporting role in 2016. That's the whole point of this. We're all getting dressed up to go to the Oscars to hear Sylvester Stallone, let no one get this twisted. The academy can't pay for a better moment than this: this is the Oscar's original darling.
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I don't think Jennifer Lawrence deserves to be in this category leading role? Joy is a great movie, obviously. She's a great actress and I don't want to take anything from her, but it ain't American Hustle.
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Every time I see myself in print or on TV, I feel like a little white girl. I feel fat.
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I feel like the only person who has a chance against Alejandro González is Lenny Abrahamson. The Room was very awkward, very odd, very uncomfortable as it should have been. And then it became very beautiful. It tugged all the emotional chords beautifully.
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Brie Larson had a great run, don't get me wrong, she's had amazing films, but this movie itself, the entire concept of it as her as a mother and coming back and trying to assimilate herself in the child's life - Room is a beautiful movie.
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Even if I don't see Brooklyn I have to see Anomolisa, because it's Charlie Kaufman. No one is doing things that they should't be doing more in cinema than Charlie Kaufman. This is how I look at it: he had an incredible story that was going to resonate regardless, but just shooting that movie is too easy for Charlie Kaufman.
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Best original song nomination in 2016 should be Wiz Khalifa for "See You Again," but this is an amazing song and it's easily the biggest song out of any of the songs nominated. It was a huge hit. And really, I'm just happy for Weeknd as a person.
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Son of Saul film is extremely emotional; you're watching people walk in, you're watching people die. It centers around a child that goes into the ovens but survives the gassing.
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I sat down with my long time business partner and Rap-A-Lot CEO James Prince to review the music that we had and quickly came up with an outstanding track list.
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You can't write a book if you've never read a book. And if you've read five books and you try to write a book, your book will mainly encompass the themes and the context of the five books you've read. Now, the more books you read, the more you can bring to a book when you decide to write one. So the more rap I learned, the more I was able to bring to rap when I decided to rap. But this was all subconscious.
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The top two for me are Spotlight and The Revenant movies. Everything says The Revenant, but Spotlight is special. I think this movie would have been a lot more jumpy and fast-faced if anyone else had done it. This movie is very unassuming in how powerful it is. It very calmly, and very cooly, eats you up inside. I think if there's anything that will upset the Revenant run, it's gonna be Spotlight.
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I don't want to call anyone an outright winner without having seen everything.
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I knew that Sylvester Stallone's involvement would outweigh everything else from the film. I think people went into Creed expecting a boxing movie and something that superficially ties Stallone in, but Creed was really well written.
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Music in Rocky has always been pivotal.
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Basically, I'm going to take what you did, the bare-bones structure of what you were trying to do, how you were attacking the song, and attack it in pretty much the same way, just with more intensity to show you that you could've come harder. Like, I've been in situations where I've had to tell a cat how to rhyme his rhyme.
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I don't make my music for just me or a few people. Hopefully everybody that makes music wants to be embraced by the people they tryna make it for, you know what I'm saying. It's just a matter of time before everybody gets the message that I'm tryna send out.
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I honestly never sat down and said "OK, here's my style," because my whole thing was knowing everyone's style. Everything I've ever written has bits and pieces of everything I've ever heard. Any rapper that tells you different is a liar.
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Brookline was a very small film and it was only here for a very short time and I wasn't able to catch it.