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AT THE MOVIES

Once upon a time in Hol-
lywood, being president of
the Academy of Motion Pic-
ture Arts and Sciences was a
pretty stress-free, largely
ceremonial gig. But times
have changed, and casting
director David Rubin, who
was elected Tuesday eve-
ning to lead an organization
in the midst of an ongoing
transformation, may not get
much of a honeymoon pe-
riod.
Taking over from outgo-
ing president John Bailey,
whose two-year tenure was
punctuated by a string of
controversies, Rubin has in-
herited a range of thorny is-
sues facing the 92-year-old
institution, from an ambi-
tious museum project that
has faced cost overruns and
delaysto flagging ratings for
the Oscars telecast, which
hit an all-time low in 2018, to
seismic shifts in the way peo-
ple watch and define movies.
The Times spoke by
phone with Rubin, whose
numerous credits include
“Men in Black,” “Gravity”
and HBO’s “Big Little Lies,”
about where the academy is
headed and how he plans to
tackle some of its most sig-
nificant challenges.

The academy has changed
dramatically in the last
several years. The voting
membership has grown by
more than 50% since 2012
and has become more
international and more
diverse. What is your over-
all sense of the state of the
academy today and how it’s
changed since you first
joined the board of gover-
nors six years ago?
I don’t really think about
the academy in terms of the
size of its membership so
much as the composition of
its membership. Because I
think what’s happened in

the last several years is a

parallel in the academy’s

membership to what the

world looks like and what

the world of filmmaking

looks like. Our efforts to

increase the number of

women and people of color

in the academy, which have

been tremendously success-

ful, are creating in many

ways a change of culture in

the academy. And that’s

what we hoped would be

achieved.

The academy appears to be

on track to meet the goal it

set out in 2016 to double the

number of women and

people of color in the or-

ganization by 2020. But

looking beyond those

benchmarks, how will we

see the push toward inclu-

sion continue going for-

ward?

We’re going to be pro-

moting our various initia-

tives to engage more people

in the film community,

because the way you en-

courage the future members

of the academy is to provide

opportunities to women

and to people of color. And

we’re doing that through

various initiatives: the

Academy Women’s Initia-

tive, which really empowers

women in the global com-

munity by hosting events all

over the world designed to

increase opportunities for

women, and the Academy

Gold program, which is this

amazing internship and

mentorship program for

college-age students.

I’m also hoping that the

academy can exert some

influence over studios and

production companies and

filmmakers to encourage

them to offer opportunities

to people of color and to

women because that’s how

you encourage talent and

that’s the next generation of

brilliant storytellers. It’s not

only about numbers. It’s

about the changing of cul-

ture.

The opening of the Acade-

my Museum was recently

pushed back again, to next

year, and just a couple of

days ago we learned that

museum director Kerry

Brougher is leaving the

project. Can you shed any

light on what happened

with Brougher, and are you

confident that the museum

is where it needs to be in

terms of construction and

fundraising and everything

else?

Everything is on track,

and Kerry Brougher con-

tributed tremendously to

getting us there. I think the

business of opening the

museum has to do with

when we’re all satisfied that

this is a world-class muse-

um that represents all fac-

ets of the academy. And just

like the release of a film, we

will choose the right mo-

ment for our opening and

announce it when the time

is right.

When the idea of creating a

“best popular film” Oscar

was proposed last year,

there was immediate blow-

back and the proposal was

shelved. But at the same

time, the academy does

need to figure out how to

get people more engaged

with the Academy Awards.

Could we see the “popular

film” idea being revived in

some form, or are there

other things you think

would help boost public

interest in the show?

We’re always discussing

and are always open to new

ideas in terms of engaging

our audience for the Oscars,

although I think we also

each year rely on how the

crop of movies captivates

the audience and we work as

hard as we can to promote

the way those movies have

connected in order to en-

sure that we have engage-

ment from our viewers. So I

wouldn’t take anything off

the table except to say that

we’re always open to explor-

ing ways of connecting with

the audience in our partner-

ship with ABC.

At the same time, the acad-

emy is trying to wrestle

with deeper changes in how

people are watching mov-

ies. As the audience shifts

more and more toward

streaming and the bounda-

ry between TV and film

continues to blur, there are

some people who think the

academy needs to hold the

line to preserve the tradi-

tional moviegoing experi-

ence and others who think

it should roll with the

changes. You’ve worked in

both film and television.

Where do you come down?

I come down in feeling as

though it’s not an either/or

proposition. I would always

want to protect and pro-

mote the joys of sitting in a

packed theater and staring

up at that screen, and I also

understand that audiences

of all generations are watch-

ing stories in many, many

different formats.

One of the things I’m

looking most forward to in

the coming year is to hope-

fully assemble the best and

brightest of our colleagues

in an effort to address the

question: What is a motion

picture? Because I think

we’re all grappling with a

changing landscape, and I

think it’s exciting to try to

define those things so that

we all know how we’re re-

warding excellence. But I

don’t see it as an either/or. I

see it as a dialogue that’s

about to happen and it

would be great if we could

come to some agreement on

that.

You’re the first casting

director to serve as acade-

my president. There’s

never been a competitive

Academy Award for cast-

ing, and casting directors

have only had their own

branch since 2013. Is an

Oscar category for casting

something you’d be inter-

ested in exploring?

My involvement with the

academy has not been fo-

cused on that per se. It has

really been about promoting

the academy’s mission in

general. Of course, I’m

thrilled to read that [the

British Academy on

Wednesday] announced an

upcoming casting award in

2020, and I’m also obviously

thrilled as a representative

of the casting directors

branch to have been elected

president of the academy. It

will likely serve to increase

awareness of our involve-

ment in the collaborative

art of filmmaking. But other

than that, I would say let’s

just see what the future

brings.

The academy is under a

much more intense micro-

scope than it used to be,

and we’ve seen that a lot of

people are ready to jump

on it for perceived missteps

and that controversies can

quickly blow up on social

media. Why do you think

that is, and what are you

prepared to do to help

improve the academy’s

image overall?

I’m very interested in

providing context for the

decisions that the academy

makes. I think where misun-

derstandings occur are

when not enough detail is

provided, when there’s not

enough communication

with our members and the

press.

I would be interested in

assuring that people under-

stand where the well-inten-

tioned work of the academy

comes from, as opposed to

necessarily just announcing

conclusions, because I think

that is where misunder-

standings and mispercep-

tions arise. So I think cor-

rect and complete messag-

ing is key to have buy-in

from our members on the

hard work that the academy

board is doing.

Challenges for the Oscars and museum

The new president of

the motion picture

academy talks about

changes in progress.

By Josh Rottenberg

CASTINGdirector David Rubin, the motion picture academy’s new president,

faces a host of issues, such as getting the Academy Museum up and running.

Kenneth Dolin