Forks, Unicycles And A Cage: Hollywood Producer Todd Lieberman On His First Time At The Oscars – Guest Column

Editor’s note: Todd Lieberman is the Oscar-nominated producer of The Fighter with credits including Beauty and the Beast, Wonder and The Muppets. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he contributes occasional guest columns for Deadline.

I’ll never forget the first time I attended the Oscars. The glitz, the glamour, the unparalleled show of all shows. Getting to experience the majestic beauty of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The stunning cocktail gowns and tuxes. To say I was intimidated would be an understatement as I had never been anywhere this stuffed with important and famous people. Rubbing elbows with movie stars (or in my case, clumsily crashing my elbow into Nicolas Cage) and seeing the who’s who of Hollywood all in one place – I felt as if I’d reached the Hollywood mountaintop.

It was March 25, 1996, and yes I was at that glorious event, but not as an invited guest; I was there to work as a waiter during the Governors Ball. Let’s rewind a bit ….

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I moved to Los Angeles in May 1995 to pursue the Hollywood dream and slept on the floor of a downtown apartment with four friends, crammed together, all with similar lofty ambitions. And during the Christmas-to-New Year’s break when they left town, I remained, broke and lonely. Historically, everyone flees L.A. for the holidays, and as a naïve new resident, that became self-evident by counting two total human interactions over 10 days – a bike shop clerk (story later) and a guy who knocked on my door selling weed (I declined).

During that meditative/lonely week I tasked myself with two goals: 1. Write a list of goals. 2. Read two “thinker” books. I quickly and confidently chose two titles that were staring at me from the bookshelf: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. Writing a list of life goals presented a tougher challenge, but I spent the first day successfully brainstorming with no limitations. The result included the outlandish (go to the moon), the aspirational (attend the Oscars and talk to a celebrity there) and the achievable (get a job) — but amusingly, my first one to tackle was to ride a unicycle (No. 2 on life goals list right after “start a family one day”). I didn’t understand why, but the pull of those books and the unicycle was strong that day. Luckily, my grandfather had sent me $100 for the holidays, and rather than sensible purchases like food, I sought out a helpful bike shop clerk and bought a brand new one-wheeler for exactly $100.

So I went about my tasks, spending the days reading and the nights falling on my ass – a lot. I lived right above the Grand Central Market and used the roof of the building’s parking lot as my school of hard falls. Periodically, I’d see a shadowed face watching me from a window situated just above the roofline, providing me additional motivation to conquer this strange skill before the new year.

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With each day, the readings offered differing philosophies — “And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair,” and “To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world…” — propelling me into each night, where I started to feel my cycle-confidence growing. Then it clicked. I was gliding around like a pro. And as I rode around the roof like a dog unleashed, I noticed my voyeur friend watching again – but this time I wasn’t falling. So, as a proud new unicycle expert, it felt natural to ride over and bathe them in my new talent … but as I got closer, I saw who it was. Holy. Shit. Nicolas Cage. Talent-bathing suddenly morphed into fear, and I could only think to do one thing. Wave tentatively. He then shut the blinds aggressively.

Fast-forward to the Governors Ball 1996, where I’m crashing into the very same Nicolas Cage – who had just won his Best Actor Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas…Bam! I lose my balance and ice goes flying like a brief hailstorm. One stubborn cube grazes him on the cheek, which propels him to bump into Jim Carrey, causing his newly acquired gold statue to nearly pop from his grip and hit the deck. They glared at me as I stumbled through some version of “Sorry…and….hi Mr. Cage…I’m the guy on the roof with the uni……uh…you know…uhhhh…congrats?” They paused for a veeery awkward beat with looks of shared bewilderment, and quickly turned around and walked away. Miraculously I didn’t get fired but mentally noted the epic nature of checking off so many goals with one unified catastrophe.

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It’s hard to top that encounter for an Oscars memory, but I do remember two additional moments from the evening: 1. Saying hello to fellow Clevelander Lew Wasserman (actually I just walked by him and said hello to myself) and “permanently borrowing” a fork and a knife from the dinnerware because I didn’t have any at my apartment. Yes, as embarrassing as it is, I took a tableware setting from the Oscars.

Since then, I’ve checked off many additional items from that initial list. Family? Check. Moon? Not yet. But only recently did I figure out why the unicycle along with the opposing forces of those two books were calling me so loudly that day. One wheel, with zero support and no brakes, always coming full circle once balance is achieved – even for just a moment. A recognizable metaphor for many who move to Los Angeles and embark on the film business journey. Exactly one year after this incident, I was hired for my first Hollywood film job. With the help of a friend who worked for … Nicolas Cage.

And 14 years after the 1996 ceremony, I attended the Oscars as a nominee along with David [Hoberman] for our film The Fighter – and the very first move I made when finally scouting out my assigned Governors Ball seat? I symbolically laid down a fork and knife that I had brought from our home dinnerware set. Full circle.

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