LONDON – In 2020, Rebel Wilson flew from Australia to present the best director trophy at the BAFTA Film Awards.
Her humorous speech, which referenced a lack of women nominated in the category and bemoaned that box office flop “Cats” was overlooked entirely, was one of the funniest moments of the night.
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Now, Wilson is heading back to BAFTA where she’s been asked to host the ceremony Sunday at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
“I’m very pumped, very pumped for Sunday for the BAFTAs, but definitely like a pretty nervous because like it’s a live event and it’s just like it’s a one and done situation,” she says.
“Even though I’ve been thinking of jokes and stuff, I’ve never really said them out loud to anybody... So we’ll say, fingers crossed.”
And these jokes will definitely be at the expense of the star-studded audience, albeit in a loving way.
“It is tradition to make a few quips about people. And they’re pretty successful people, which is why they’re there and been invited to the BAFTAs,” she explains.
“At the end of the day, like I do love them, and I love the films that they’ve made,'' she says. " But yeah I, as the host, you have to kind of make a couple of jokes as well.”
Wilson is eschewing the popular practice of having multiple costume changes because she wants to concentrate on what’s happening during the ceremony. There will be one special red carpet look before she wears a Miu Miu dress for her appearances on stage.
“Dune” leads BAFTA nominations with 11, “Power of the Dog” has eight and “Belfast” is in the running for six.
Shirley Bassey will open the show with a James Bond theme as part of the celebration of 007′s 60th anniversary.
Emilia Jones will sing a version of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” alongside signing interpreters — a nod to “CODA,” a nominated movie and one of Wilson’s favorites this awards season.
As for whether her turn in “Cats” will be referenced again, Wilson jokes that she’s holding out hopes for follow-up films.
“Everyone will want to be in the sequel to ‘Cats,’ that’s the thing. Maybe I should use the BAFTAs as just a casting call for ’Cats 2.”