Tom Hanks’ Colin Jost Zinger Was Originally About A Fellow Oscar Winner Until A Last-Minute Change

Tom Hanks’ Oscar-less streak now stands at 25 years, after Brad Pitt won Best Supporting Actor over the A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood star. “America’s Dad” still made a winning appearance during the ceremony, as he was asked to say a few words about the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opening later this year. “There’s never been a museum dedicated to the art and sciences of motion pictures. But it is being born, this labor,” Hanks said, before adding that he visited the building earlier that morning. “I was putting up some drywall. Scarlett Johansson had brought her orbital sander. Brad Pitt was on the roof working with his shirt off.” Good joke, good joke, but then came the even better kicker: “As was Colin Jost. And dude, that was no contest.”

Jost, who was probably still reeling from Chloe Fineman’s fantastic ScarJo impression during “Weekend Update,” was not the joke’s original target, according to Entertainment Weekly. It was supposed to be Helen Mirren until a (fortunate!) last-minute change:

Minutes before going onstage, Hanks was working on a last-minute tweak to his script, asking to swap in a reference to Colin Jost (instead of Helen Mirren) in one part of his bit… He suggested they pan to Jost in the audience as he name-checks the comedian.

The camera did not cut to Jost, but it did cut to Hanks, and Margot Robbie and his That Thing You Do! co-star Charlize Theron, when the producers bafflingly turned the lights down on Bong Joon Ho & Co. after Parasite won Best Picture.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)