How to De-Age the Oscars with Amelia Dimoldenberg

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0:44This episode of The Town is brought to you by The Madison, the new original series on Paramount+. Academy Award nominee Taylor Sheridan's most intimate story yet, unlike anything he's ever done before. The Madison follows a family raised in a world of digital distraction, forced by tragedy to truly see one another and come together. Authentic, multilayered, and did I mention starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell? Don't miss The Madison. New series streaming March 14th, only on Paramount+. It is Friday, March 13th. It's a question I hear a lot, and you probably do too. Do young people care about the Oscars?

1:22I know that's a question the Academy debates a lot, and specifically how to get more Gen Z and even young millennials who grew up on YouTube and their phones and seeing celebrities all the time and not necessarily going to the multiplex every weekend to care about the movies enough to tune into Hollywood's annual commercial for itself. In recent years, the Academy has started adding more influencers to the press invites. They beefed up their social media presence. And for the first time last year, the show streamed live on Hulu in addition to airing on ABC. Amazing it took that long. It's largely because the younger audience on streaming and mobile is watching online, and the show's ratings actually improved last year to 19.6 million viewers, a post-pandemic high.

2:07Still lower than pre-pandemic, but more encouraging, the show was up 19 % among adults 18 to 49, per Nielsen. And among adults 18 to 34, the improvement was 28%. Of course, the Academy recently agreed to move the entire show to YouTube in 2029, in part, yes, to help reach that younger demo. One of those efforts to de-age the 98-year-old show is Amelia de Moldenburg. She's the popular host of Chicken Shop Date on YouTube. She's got more than 3 million followers there, tons more on other platforms. And she's now in her third year as the social media ambassador and red carpet correspondent for the Oscars.

2:48She's basically the official interviewer for the show. She gets a nice spot on the red carpet. She posts videos in the lead up to the show. She's got a new one with Conan O 'Brien that just posted. I thought it'd be a nice opportunity to have her on The Town to talk about her role for the Oscars and her ideas for making the show more relevant to young people, plus her own business as a top creator and how she's planning to transition that into more traditional movies and TV. So today is a bonus episode with Amelia de Moldenburg and how to make young people care about the Oscars. From The Ringer and Puck, I'm Matt Bellany and this is The Town.

3:25Okay, we are here with Amelia de Moldeberg, who is the official social media ambassador and red carpet correspondent of the Oscars. Third year in a row for that. Am I correct? You are correct. Third time's the charm. I've seen you on the red carpet before, but it just means you are the official person that everybody has to talk to on behalf of the Academy. Exactly, yeah. Because I think in years previous, the social media ambassador maybe didn't do the red carpet hosting. Okay. And I think that maybe that's what I'm bringing to the table. That's my skill set. So, yeah, I added in the title of red carpet correspondent as well because I wanted it just to be clear that that's what I'm doing.

4:12You know, I'm not just going to be going running around like... Posting TikToks. Exactly. Even though we do love that. But I'm there with a purpose to interview the guests and the nominees. And yeah, I've had a great time doing it so far. And I'm excited to do it third time in a row. Well, when they hired you for the first year, I looked at that. I was like, okay, that's actually smart. I'm often very critical of the things that the Academy does. But I looked at you joining. I was like, that is extremely smart because they are clearly trying to bring in a younger audience. and you have a much younger demo than the Oscars are typically associated with.

4:51And when I was thinking about the Oscars this year and how they've got some very cool young stars in the mix, like Chalamet and Michael B. Jordan and Jesse Buckley bringing in this younger demo, I was like, I'm going to have Amelia on the show and just ask her, how does the Oscars appeal to a younger audience? Is it even something they should try at this point because you read all about how people just consume clips online. They're not actually interested in it. It's your mother and your grandmother's Oscars. How can you get young people to care about this? Well, I think young people care about movies and they care about actors.

5:34And that has never died down, that love. And I think the Oscars really represents that and a love for movies, a love for film, and a love for actors. and so I think it's in with it's within that that I think the appeal lies I also think there's like the Oscars is obviously is like such an incredible awards show that still I think um hold some so holds weight within Gen Z and you know um and beyond wouldn't they just rather watch you having fried chicken with the stars I think that in terms of red carpet it's fun like for me I find it really fun because it's an it's an opportunity to have like a conveyor belt of talent that just lets you go past you and you know they can't get off they can't get off and that's that's really exciting to be able to have the opportunity to like potentially interview like loads of actors that my audience would have would love me to to speak to and I don't really get that opportunity it's very difficult to get um time still with with talent that that at that level right um and so at least you know when you're when you're at the Oscars red carpet you've got more of a chance than you would have otherwise um but yeah I think that the Oscars are still I think just in general people do like to have um some stare on like what they should like and what they shouldn't and I think you know there's so much out there to watch and consume and I think people have always like throughout history have enjoyed being told this is a good movie or this is a good actor And so I think it maybe also helps distill the vast world of art and culture that's out there.

7:21I also think bringing in someone like you is an acknowledgement of the clip culture that we live in, where you are very good at creating moments with people and stuff that can travel across the internet. And it's just a different style of interview and content than, you know, someone on the red carpet asking who are you wearing for the 400th time. For sure. And I do think that the prep that goes into the red carpet interviews that I do, I think maybe some people wouldn't expect the level of research and preparation that we do. Oh, you do? Okay. Yeah, it's like I'm revising for my exams. It's very detailed.

8:05And obviously, I'm watching all of the movies. And then we're writing specific questions for each nominee. You know, it's not just like we have, I have general questions, but I try to not use them. I try to be asking specific questions to each person. And then I have to memorize them because I don't like looking down at my cards when I'm in an interview because I want it to feel like I'm just having a chat with them. And it feels so like off the cuff, but actually I've like been like in a dark room for the past like week. and before that prepping for like the past month to know what I know all these random facts about um the celebrities and then in the end I just forget all of it and just go oh so like like what's your favorite biscuit or something and um but then maybe I will remember something that the uh about the movie but it just depends it kind of it's like half improvised and half prepped and all that stuff but yeah you got a good question for Leo oh my god well I really I I always prep for Leo and then obviously never happens.

9:08Oh, he's never, he's never talked to you. No, he's never. Why not? It's a conveyor belt. You're the official Academy red carpet correspondent. Okay. If I get Leonardo DiCaprio this year, I will literally eat my shoe. But I would love to. I know his publicist. I'm going to make that happen. Thank you. Do publicists like you or not like you? Hmm. I feel like maybe, I don't know. I don't get like specific feedback from publicists. But what I would say is that it's definitely changed. Like I started my show Chicken Shop Day on YouTube over 10 years ago. And back when I started it, I could not get anyone.

9:46I was trying, I was cold emailing everyone. I would turn up to gigs and try and befriend managers. Like all of these different things. I was incredibly persistent. I was verging on annoying with people. And you know, why back then there was no reason for a talent to come on a YouTube show. like why would they come on a youtube show now it's part of the circuit and now it's like i think it would be probably a number one thing to do would be to go on to go on a podcast or to go on a youtube show or to go on hot ones or chicken shop date or whatever that is and it's completely done done a 180 so i think publicists like me a lot more now than they used to or even know who i am now but yeah publicists are very important as you know like oh yeah i feel like they especially with what we do and interviewing people, you know, so, so many of the interviews I've had have, have definitely relied on, on simply the publicist in liking the show and persuading their talent to do it.

10:45Yeah. And someone like Andrew Garfield gets a huge bump out of your show. I mean, that I think kind of completely recontextualized him. And, you know, I, I've, I've met him and spend a little time with him and, you know, people who know him know that he's a very fun and kind of cool guy but that i don't feel like that was his persona until your show well that's my favorite thing to do i think is to be able to like re-imagine someone's personality to a wider audience and often yes as you said it's that's actually their real personality they are incredibly charming funny all of these things but for whatever reason they haven't had the opportunity to be able to show that or um in for what for whatever reason and i love being able to bring that out of someone.

11:29And I feel like that kind of happened as well with Jack Harlow quite a few years ago, especially to the UK audience. The UK audience wasn't really familiar with his personality at all. And maybe globally, too. He's incredibly funny. And I think off the back of that interview, I gained a massive audience in America. And I think lots of people thought that he as well was more charming than he let on in his music videos. That's funny. Did you get Timmy last year? I did on the carpet and I was shocked because he, he came past, he walked past by me and I was like, and he walked past and I thought, Oh my God, we've lost him.

12:08And then suddenly I was like prepping for someone else. And then suddenly he just zoomed in to frame and I was just like, Oh, okay. Right. It's happening. It's happening. Um, someone either, someone told him you should do this or he likes your show. Yeah. I think he, he knows the show and I've been trying to get him on my show for a long time, but it's just not worked out. And I would still love him as a guest on chicken shop day, but I was so happy that I got, you know, 60 seconds with him at the Oscars. And I'm hoping to this year as well. I want to know about your business. What is the business of Amelia?

12:40Like what, like you've done what? 115 episodes of your show. Now you do brand deals, you have sponsorships. You do this for the Oscars. Like you're doing a movie, you're doing a rom-com for MGM. Like what is your business like? Well, in terms of like my actual business, I have like, I have two employees and then I have my, and then I have three employees on the payroll. Did you forget an assistant? Yeah, my two managers, I've got CAA, I've got my publicist in London and in America. and then I've got like my stylist and all those things so those are all of my outgoings and my expenses but in terms of how I make my money I guess yeah through commercial work and then my chicken shop day obviously the ad sense on YouTube that kind of pays for the running of that show so I don't do any sponsorships on the show because I want to keep it authentic chicken shop day I think is is is is a comedy series like first of all that's how I see it yes I'm interviewing people but I see it more as like a performance between me and them.

13:48And I just want to keep it as close to the, to the real deal as possible. I don't want to then be looking to camera and trying to sell someone a, a fizzy drink. And 3.34 million subs. Not bad. Not bad. But yeah, that took me a while to get, honestly, I think because of like the way I came through and I was one of the early ones who was doing this type of format. It just took a while for the internet to kind of catch on and the algorithms to get to where they are now, which makes it feel like you're just overwhelmed with content. But yeah, I make most of my money through commercial deals. And tell me a little about the movie project.

14:25Well, the movie, I've been developing it for like the past two years, and we announced it really recently, which is super exciting. But yeah, I've always wanted to make my own rom-com movie. I feel like I'm making a rom-com with Chicken Shop Date, but you know, there's something about making a movie that is, is gonna like, that's what stands the test of time i think that and it's based on your format it's based on this yeah that so it's yeah it's about a it's me it's based on me and it's about a pop culture it's a pop culture journalist who falls in love with someone that they've interviewed and it doesn't go to plan or does it uh yes interesting and you fully you fully own your your show your chicken shop date show yes which is one of the best things i've ever done is own the ip to my show and i would always say that to other people who want to start their own idea that owning your IP is just, I think, key.

15:17And so many content creators don't. You'll be surprised by how many actually don't own the rights to their own show. And I feel really privileged, actually, but also I'm really happy about that. But then when it came to doing a movie, you went to a studio. You didn't go the Markiplier route where you pay for your own movie and put it in theaters and it grosses$30 million. dollars no but i definitely don't have enough money in the bank to fund my own movie i mean i wish i did but i hear that them it's millions and millions and millions of millions of dollars no he says he made it for like less than five i mean which is still a lot of money but like five yeah actually my friend my friend alexi wasser she just made a great film called messy and she made it for like peanuts um and you know what yeah maybe i should maybe like that is a good idea and I that's the background I come from but I also am someone who is at the age of where traditional media is still um um alluring to me you know I'm I'm like on the cusp I'm like a millennial and that to me has always been something and movies again just like movies just still are so relevant and yes social media and content is is having a moment and it's incredibly popular but it also traditional media is there's it's still there and people love it i get why the academy loves you talking about how movies are still so relevant i feel like a lot of people don't feel that way a lot of young people feel don't feel that way yeah i guess and i maybe i'm a bit out of touch then with with what like young people are really watching but me anyway and and i feel like the way that i've approached my work always has been to kind of reference what i'm into and what my interests are and then put that into my work and hope that it resonates.

17:10And I'm someone who, yeah, is really interested in movies and actors and that world. And I love meeting them and interviewing them and watching them. And I don't watch, yeah, I don't watch Twitch or live streamers. And maybe that's obviously what so many people are watching, but it's just not what I'm watching. What do you think about YouTube airing the Oscars? that's happening that's happening in the 2029 show will be exclusively on youtube exclusively yes oh my god so am i going to be hosting i don't know uh we'll see but yeah they're they have a whole plan they're gonna try to get young people to watch via their phones or on their apps on their tvs it's kind of amazing it's a huge step i actually think it's a big risk for the academy because they have this built-in audience that's been watching the Oscars for as long as they've been alive and they've always known them to be on ABC.

18:08And when you hear Oscars, you think ABC or Hulu or wherever you watch it now. And they're just not going to think to watch on YouTube. I don't think. Really? Is that YouTube? They're going to have to do a huge marketing campaign to educate people that the show is now on YouTube. But also YouTube is the biggest street, is the biggest streaming platform in America, right? It is. And I think most people, a lot of people now, you know, they have it on their television. Yep. And I think - No, and most of the viewing on YouTube, like people are watching on their TVs now. Not most of them, but a lot of them.

18:44So I do think it's, you know, you're going to be pressing another button, right? Yeah. To get it on. You and I know that, but I don't think the 70 year olds that have been watching the Oscars their entire life are going to think that. I mean, we saw it with football When Thursday Night Football went from Fox over to Amazon, they had a drop-off for the first couple of years because there's a friction cost of thinking about where to watch that football and, oh, it's not on TV, it must not be on. And they had to educate people. Yeah, well, I guess if there is a drop-off, then if you're saying there's a drop-off, but then eventually people understand how to press the button on their TV remote.

19:22Maybe you could star in the campaign to educate people. That could be the face of learning how to operate your television. Yeah. But they'll probably go with Julia Roberts to tell older people how to do that. Are you kidding me? Not after my rom-com debut. That's true. That's true. I know. You haven't been invited to participate in the actual Oscars show yet. We need to get you into the program of the show. We do need to get me into the show. And I actually just interviewed Conan, actually, for my show. and I should have mentioned it to him then, but I didn't. But yeah, he... Well, hopefully you charmed him enough where he will think of it on his own or he'll listen to this show.

20:07Exactly. It's not too late, Conan. He'll be definitely listening to the show. Snoring? Gasping during sleep? Feeling fatigued? Wake up to ZepBound Terzepatide, the first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and adults with obesity. Z-Bound is an injectable prescription medicine that may help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and obesity to improve their OSA. Z-Bound should be used with a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity. Z-Bound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 mg injection. Z-Bound contains terzepatide and should not be used with other terzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines.

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21:49Get tips along the way. Add expert assist to talk to tax experts and let our experts do your taxes for you with expert full service. Tax Act helps you find the deductions and credits you deserve so you can get them over with. Visit taxact.com to learn more. Conditions apply. See taxact.com for details. So what else could the Academy do to get young people interested? I love the musical performances of the Oscars. I think that's one of their real real strengths and i was actually locked outside for cynthia and ariana grande's performance they opened the oscars but because i was still finishing off on the red carpet i missed it yeah but um it's just unfortunate that the oscars are dependent on the nominees so if stuff gets nominated that is not cinematic you or fun or a pop star like it's just not as interesting of a show i just feel like you there's interesting ways to make like the movies that are nominated you know resonate with a wider audience you know there's like creative decisions that you could make that you could be doing stuff on stage i think it's definitely possible it's too easy to say oh no just because there's an art house film or or whatever that like it's not going to be interesting like think like think outside the box and that's why i do love being able to interview or just a wide range of different nominees and try and you know find the fun in in their movie even if their movie is about the holocaust or whatever it's like there's all all right who are you rooting for i mean this year will be a little different i think with k-pop demon hunters the song will be a big hit but yes i loved it yes who are you rooting for who am i rooting for good question um i really loved i really loved hamner i didn't think i would love it as much as i did yeah you and craig craig's our producers craig is super into hamlet really yeah i loved it jesse buckley's performance is like nothing else i've seen but i also loved rose burn so much um and if i'd have legs um i thought tim timothy chalamet was fab actually timmy so you're not you wouldn't vote for leo over timmy timothy was my my one but if i do meet leo on the carpet i will i will tell him it's him you'll tell him that you voted for him if you had Yeah, I will tell him I voted for him.

24:07I will tell everyone I voted for them. You don't have a vote, but you rigged it to vote for him? I love the secret agent. Oh, you did? Yeah, Wagner Mora is great, too. He's a fun guy. You should get him. You should get him. I did. I just interviewed him because I do interviews at the luncheon. Oh, I didn't see you there. Yeah, I was locked in a room with chicken nuggets and chips, and I didn't see anyone. I did see you at Sundance. I saw you at the party for the Charlie XCX movie. You did not see me. I said, is that Amelia de Moldeberg? And Craig was like, yeah, that's her. Thanks for saying hi.

24:44I'm sorry. Listen, I don't know you. We're meeting right now via this awkward Zoom. Well, next time you see me at the Oscars, say hello. Do you get invited to the Beyonce party? No, but I really want to. Yeah, I don't either. But that's the ticket. You should. You're the social media ambassador. This is what I'm saying. I should be there. And I love her so much. I know all of her songs, and I would be there on the dance floor. Apparently, people are dancing until like seven in the morning there. The key, though, is that these parties don't go up to people and ask them to come on your show. Bill Maher does that, and people hate it.

25:21It's why he doesn't get invited to parties. It's because when Bill Maher's at a party, he's like, oh, you should come on my show, and people feel awkward about it. Excuse me, Matt. people come up to me oh there you go all right yeah you're a little bit more friendly friendlier than bill maher another way because someone's coming over i know they're gonna be like i love your show and i would just love to come on and i'm like well the thing is we actually only film in london so i can't really make that happen right now so yeah yeah that doesn't happen to me people don't do that about the town all right so i'm waiting to come on i was knocking down the door yes exactly i'm sure um you're like who is this guy so what is success for you on the red carpet is it a viral video is it keeping it classy and keeping up the you know the aura of the oscars is it getting more young people to watch like what do you judge yourself on for your performance at the oscars um i judge on like on different things i think obviously it's I've prepped for like every nominee so I would love to get as many interviews as possible with with the nominees um it's always just your heart sinks when you see someone walk past and you know you're not going to get that interview um but with all my interviews I'm never looking to make something viral like that's never been my mo and I also think doing approaching things that way doesn't work I'm trying to get um show a different side of someone's personality and or just kind of let that personality shine, like what you mentioned before with my previous interviews.

26:53If I can come away and people have watched it, watched my interviews and think, oh my God, they are amazing. That nominee is incredible and so charming and funny. I've never seen them like open up like this or be like this. That to me is success. Yeah. Well, good luck to you. I will of course say hello to you. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me. Thanks to you and good luck with the show. All right, we are back with the call sheet. Craig, I think I've asked you this before, but I can't imagine you are into Colleen Hoover books. No, my wife is though. Oh, she is. Yeah, my wife reads them as well.

27:30This weekend, we've got another Colleen Hoover book in theaters, Reminders of Him, which is an interesting one because obviously it ends with us, was a huge global smash, 300 million worldwide. We know what came out of that movie. then the follow-up which was regretting you i believe yeah that one was not sony that one came out through paramount that was the one with dave franco and mckenna grace and allison williams exactly that one did only 90 million although still pretty good for that kind of a movie in this theatrical environment opened to 13.6 and now we've got another one this one coming from universal called reminders of him this one has even less star power i think the stars are micah Monroe and Tyreek Withers, who I was not familiar with.

28:18And I don't know, this tracking on this is 14 million. And that would be higher than the opening of the previous one. I'm going to take the under on this one. This tracking would have been higher than regretting you? Just a little bit. It's basically the same. It's about the same as regretting you. There was probably some overhang from It Ends With Us on the last one. And now with the third one, maybe it'll go down a little bit more also no star power and it's kind of an odd weekend i think uh hoppers is gonna take the crown overall but i don't know are you are you confident or not confident in the colleen hoover fans the problem is we don't know how popular this book is in her collection i know we are probably not the ideal people to be discussing the colleen hoover uh adaptations but um yeah i just given the tracking that i've seen and given the pre-sale numbers i've seen i think this one's going to come in a little less and you won't be there to contribute to the box office performance of this movie sadly no as you know i have some oscars events that we are committed to by the way do you have any goals for the oscars this year do i have any goals for the oscars we're going we're going we're going to be roaming around like do you want is there anyone you want to meet is there anyone you you know anything you want to do like give it give me your goal um i haven't thought about that i i'm not nominated so i don't think i'm going to win anything um yeah you don't have to remember to thank your agent no i'd like to have a few small beers with um anyone associated with one battle after another that is our modello with someone we are going to have a few small beers a few modellos with somebody from one battle after another it will likely not be leo or benicio or even chase infinity it will probably be a dp on the movie or something but we will do that um that is our goal we will if we get a picture of it we'll put it on the the town Instagram page.

30:08All right. Meantime, taking the under on reminders of him. Sorry, Universal. That's the show for today. I want to thank my guest, Amelia DeMoldenberg, producer Greg Horbeck, editor John Jones. And I want to thank you. We will see you next week.

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