W
hen the Academy’s
board of governors
elected John Bailey
president in August, he became
the first cinematographer to
hold that post. Bailey, 75, who’s
shot such iconic films as
American Gigolo, Ordinary People
and The Big Chill, stepped in
as the 8,300-member Academy
undergoes a soul-searching
transformation, reaching out
to a wide and diverse array of
new members, establishing
a new code of conduct to com-
bat harassment after expelling
Harvey Weinstein and wres-
tling with the very idea of what
defines a movie in the midst of
the digital revolution. At the
same time, he’s presiding over
the Academy, with its $100-mil-
lion-plus annual budget, as its
$388 million Academy Museum
nears completion.
Bailey lives with his wife, Carol
Littleton, a film editor who also
sits on the Academy board, in a
California Mission Revival home
in Los Feliz Oaks. The couple —
who met in 1963 in the Biboli
Gardens outside of Florence’s
Palazzo Pitti when they were col-
lege students spending their
junior year abroad — collects
photography and Native American
art. And, of course, they have lots
of conversations about movies.
How are you defining the job of
Academy president for yourself?
I come from a very different
starting point than most of the
Academy presidents of the past
John
Bailey
The Academy president
has a museum, a new code
of conduct and an evolving
meaning of movies under his
purview. But he won’t speak
at the Oscars By Gregg Kilday
RÉSUMÉ
JOHN BAILEY
President, Academy
of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences
PROFESSION
Cinematographer
BIG HIT
As Good as It Gets, which
grossed $314.2 million
and received seven Oscar
noms (Jack Nicholson and
Helen Hunt won)20 years. I’m really only the second
president to come from the so-
called crafts [following production
designer Gene Allen in the ’80s]
and the first cinematographer, so
I come from the position of being
a filmmaker making films in the
trenches, and that gives me a dif-
ferent vantage point.In the past, there has been tension
between the crafts branches
and the above-the-line branches.
What’s the current situation?
I don’t know if I would call it
divisiveness, but there’s been
sensitivity. There’s always been
a sense that the crafts were
perceived as kind of second tier,
and one of the ongoing disputes
has been centered and defined
by the Oscar telecast itself. Therehave been periodic attempts
to remove some of the categories
from the telecast presentation,
all under the guise of wanting to
understandably present a very
strong entertainment package, but
my feeling is we are in an era now
where there is intense interest in
the crafts — in cinematography,
editing, design, costume, music.
So I certainly feel the 17 branches
should all be represented.Bailey’s first
camera, a Tower
sold by Sears. At
age 11, he brought
it to Yellowstone
and “took a lot of
pictures of bears.”Cinematographer
Karl Struss, who won
an Oscar for 1927’s
Sunrise, created this
montage of scenes
from the film.THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 70 FEBRUARY 28, 2018
Photographed by Michele ThomasCreative Space