Chris Rock may have been Oscar night’s biggest winner.
The comedian nimbly accomplished the impossible by keeping the nearly four-hour show from being anything but boring. “He was fantastic,” Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Cheryl Boone Isaacs told EW directly after the show. “I’ve gotten so many compliments.”
No small feat considering that many of Rock’s zingers were aimed squarely at Hollywood and the Academy itself. “He’s Chris, man!” she added. “You’ve got to let him go. And he did.”
David Hill, who produced the telecast with Reginald Hudlin, agrees. “It’s probably one of the toughest hosting jobs in the world,” Hill says. “There are only a handful of people who can do it. Chris was not only funny, he was thoroughly enjoying himself.”
So what’s Rock to do for a follow-up? The past couple of years have seen him act (Empire), direct (HBO’s Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo), and do both for 2014’s Top Five, the hit romantic comedy he also wrote . But his IMDb page lists zero projects in active development — a rarity for any A-lister — and the only word from his camp is that he’s still deciding what to do next. Whether he’ll try to top himself at next year’s Oscars is still up in the air, but one thing is certain: The president of the Academy has his back. “He rocked it!” Isaacs gushed.
Sounds like the ball is firmly in Rock’s court.
Additional reporting by Nicole Sperling.