It’s that time of the year again. Hollywood is buzzing about the Academy Awards, which take place on 13 March, and everyone is excited to see who will go home with a gong.
Well, everyone except silver-screen legend Goldie Hawn.
In a recent interview the 77-year-old actress didn’t hold back about how she feels about today’s Oscars.
The Oscars used to be elegant, Goldie said.
“I’m not old-fashioned, but sometimes jokes are off-colour. And I’m missing reverence,” she told Variety magazine.
The Snatched star said the awards ceremony has become too politicised. “I want to see people in awe. I want to see people believing again. I want to see people laughing more in a way that isn’t just at someone else’s expense.”
The Oscars Slapgate scandal shows how much things have changed, she said, referring to the infamous moment last year when actor Will Smith walked on stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock, who was presenting an award.
“I mean, you could look at it and say, ‘What the hell just happened?’ Somebody lost control. They lost their self-regulation. Their bigger brain wasn’t thinking, and they did something that was horrendous and also showed no remorse,” she added.
Goldie commented on last year’s Oscars when Will Smith slapped Oscar host Chris Rock after he made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. (PHOTO: Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Goldie was mortified by the incident but says Chris did a brilliant job in controlling his emotions and maintaining his dignity. “That’s an example of what we’d like our world to look like. But unfortunately, it isn’t right now.”
She also reflected on winning her best actress Oscar for the 1969 film Cactus Flower.
Goldie, who was 25 at the time, didn’t attend the ceremony because she was filming a movie overseas and missed the television broadcast.
“I never got dressed up. I never got to pick up the award. I regret it. It’s something I look back on now and think, ‘It would’ve been so great to be able to have done that’,” she says.
Goldie and partner Kurt Russell at the Oscars in 2014. (PHOTO: Gallo Images/Getty Images)
A few years ago, the actress, who also received a best actress Oscar nomination for 1980’s Private Benjamin, took a break from showbiz.
In a 2020 interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, she said that older men, some of whom were in their seventies, were still being cast in big films, but the same couldn’t be said for older actresses.
“I wasn’t going to wait for a phone to ring. And I certainly wasn’t going to continue to produce, because I produced for like 25 years and I didn’t want to do that anymore. I’d done it, I did it, it was done. Great, but now it’s time to move on,” she said.
Goldie returned to acting in the 2018 Netflix film The Christmas Chronicles in which she co-starred with her partner, Kurt Russell, as Santa Claus and Mrs Claus, but spends most of her time doing philanthropic work.
Following the 9/11 attacks, she took a step back and reflected on her life. “It shook me to the core and I said, ‘Am I going to make movies, or am I going to do something?’ ”
She chose the latter and started a programme called MindUP that’s used in schools around the world to help kids manage stress. “The programme is now in place in some 50 countries. It’s changing children,” Goldie says proudly.
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Even though her charity work keeps her busy, The First Wives’ Club actress is still open to making films. “Perhaps a Marvel movie with a wild, crazy character,” she says. Other than that, she’d “love to do Mrs Claus one more time”.
Goldie and her family (from left): son Oliver Hudson, partner Kurt, son Wyatt Russell and daughter Kate Hudson and grandkids Ryder Robinson, Wilder Hudson, Bodhi Hudson, Rio Hudson and Bingham Bellamy. (PHOTO: Gallo Images/Getty Images)
For now, she’s happy to work with the kids in the programme and spend her free time with Kurt (71), her three kids, Oliver (46) and Kate Hudson (43) and Wyatt Russell (36), and seven grandchildren. “It brings incredible joy. Family is so important,” she says.
