"Don't look for me on Sunday because I'm not going to be there," said Professor Russell Williams II about the Academy Awards after giving an informal talk about them Wednesday evening in the Wechsler Theatre.
Now a full-time faculty member and artist in residence, Williams actually was there 15 years ago, when he won two consecutive Oscars - as the sound mixer for "Glory" in 1990 and "Dances with Wolves" in 1991. He was the first African American to win multiple Oscars, a distinction not matched until Denzel Washington won a second Oscar in 2002 for "Training Day," a film on which Williams also worked.
"I was very impressed with the slate this year," Williams said of the nominations, citing the notable international presence in the acting categories as a plus - nominees hail from all across the globe, from New Zealand to South Africa to Iran to Japan.
While he did not reveal for whom he voted this year, Williams did convey some opinions about the diverse crop of movies contending for this year's gold:
"Cold Mountain"?
"A movie that left me kind of cold," he said.
"Mystic River"?
"One of my favorite movies this year in several categories."
"Pirates of the Caribbean"?
"I would have never seen this, but the kids dragged me to it and I had a great time."
During his presentation, Williams showed souvenirs from his two years attending the Oscars as a nominee - a letter signed by then-Academy president and screen icon Karl Malden notifying him of the nomination, the official invitation to the ceremony, photos of him standing outside his limousine before going to the ceremony, stills of him accepting the award and letters of congratulation from Jack Valenti and Oprah Winfrey.
Between showing clips of nominated films from his own screener copies, Williams emphasized his high esteem for Sean Penn and "Mystic River," the technical and audio aspects of "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" and the entire category of best supporting actor, which he says is the tightest of the bunch.
As for the decision to move the ceremony to the end of February instead of the end of March, Williams said that it enables the nominations and awards to be more timely, and therefore allows room for films that have been in release for a while to "hang on." But he did express concern that designers for the stars would be hit hard by the date change.
"I really don't think that they took into consideration the weather," he said. "It's raining like hell in Los Angeles now. Imagine all those Armani and Valentino dresses getting wet"
