by Nathaniel R
img via "Hot Ones" on YouTube
We're not the first to observe this but lately Oscar winners/hopefuls have been appearing on "Hot Ones". The popular YouTube show features celebrities testing their tolerance for increasingly molten hot sauce on chicken wings. They then try and promote their work while in visible pain. The show launched seven years ago and went viral in its second season with a Key & Peele episode. The early seasons were mostly musicians, comedians, and tv personalities but major actresses are appearing regularly now. Cate Blanchett's episode was released yesterday...
...and watching her try to promote TÁR at episode's end, with watering eyes and painful confusion, has a certain glorious appeal. Not unlike watching Lydia Tár herself come undone as she makes repeatedly self-sabotaging (and others-sabotaging) choices with consequences in the Oscar hopeful drama. The film goes wide today in movie theaters.
Cate isn't the first awards hopeful this season (the show's 19th). Viola Davis appeared for The Woman King and near the end of season 18, Lizzo did an episode before her Emmy win for Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Girls
Cate and Viola were not the first Oscar winners on the show. Many Oscar nominees have appeared now but the first Oscar winner to do the show pre-pandemic were Charlize Theron in season 5. She was followed by Natalie Portman in season 6, and Halle Berry in season 9. Since the pandemic they've had Brie Larson in season 12, Matt Damon in season 15, and Daniel Kaluuya in season 18.