Kim Basinger explains her 1990 Oscars outburst

http://lebeauleblog.com/2016/02/07/kim-basinger-on-good-kissing-her-academy-awards-outburst-and-conversations-with-god/

Twenty-five years ago, Kim Basinger was trying to sell her new movie, The Marrying Man. She says as much in this interview with Movieline Magazine. While Basinger refuses to discuss a number of topics, she opens up about quite a few things that might surprise you. Basinger doesn’t hesitate to criticize Hollywood which to hear her tell it sounds like one bad experience after another. She also talks about her grand plans for the town of Braselton (which she bought and then dumped five years later at a huge personal loss) and an outburst at the Oscars in which she shamed Hollywood for not nominated Do the Right Thing for Best Picture.

LG: There was also talk about your appearance at the Oscars last year, when you reprimanded the Academy for ignoring Spike Lee and his Do the Right Thing. What made you do it?

KB: Never wanted to do it, never intended on doing it. I don’t know what happened to me. I’d seen Do the Right Thing three times and I’m affected by certain films. I don’t put anybody up in the high sheets of God’s clouds for any reason, but I saw Do the Right Thing and the one thing that I really condone is the truth. Whatever truth is, let it come out. I don’t care if you’re going to get tarred and feathered. They can kill you but they can’t eat you. So on top of my horrifying, terrifying, out-of-my-mind fear, this was the biggest audience we were ever going to have on the face of the map. This is like getting up in front of one billion people. The room is pretty big, as Billy Crystal would say. So I said let’s let the truth get out more than it’s been getting out lately. I saw all of these nominated films and I saw that Spike Lee, who I hadn’t even met, had done the truest film of all. Take Driving Miss Daisy – I saw something that I’ve seen ever since I was a child, the depiction of something about the South that has always irritated me, okay? This is something I couldn’t stand. I wasn’t standing up for blacks or whites or any color, I was just saying, “Guys, you all are liars, you are leaving out another truth here.” I didn’t mean for it to be a shocking thing.

LG: Nonetheless, you did raise some eyebrows. What reaction did you receive?

KB: When I came off stage there wasn’t a word. I just ran back and stripped off that gown, because it was taking up four seats in the audience, and I had to sit through the rest of this. And I’d see people looking at me. I passed Dan Aykroyd and he was shocked. When I sat down I looked to the left of me and in that whole auditorium who would be sitting at the end of my row but Spike Lee and he passed a note all the way down to me saying thank you. A lot of people wouldn’t get near me after the Oscars. I walked across to this Governor’s Ball and walked out and went home back to the hotel. No parties, no Spago, I just couldn’t do anything else political. But I don’t care what people think.