Andrew Garfield, Goldie Hawn, Oprah, Emma Stone and Extra

Sterling Ok. Brown is having a ball. It’s T-minus in the future earlier than showtime on the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 2, and he’s centerstage at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre. 

Upbeat and informal in shorts, sneakers and a black hoodie, Brown, 48, and Ana de Armas are practising traces off a teleprompter as they put together to co-present the Reside Motion Quick class. “I gotchu,” says Brown, a Finest Supporting Actor nominee final yr for his American Fiction function, as he chats and hyperlinks arms with the 36-year-old actress, who obtained a Finest Actress nod in 2023 for Blonde.

And, having nailed their first run-through, the Paradise star exclaims, “Let’s do it!”

Rehearsal shenanigans unfolded all through Saturday morning as a spirited succession of A-listers took the stage to grasp blocking, traces and timing forward of Hollywood’s greatest evening.

After fumbling her first phrases, two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone laughed and, in self-deprecating vogue, introduced, “Oh God, that is going to go nice.”

A gentle stream of dazzling stars, together with Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph, Miles Teller, Whoopi Goldberg, Miley Cyrus and Oprah Winfrey (with BFF Gayle King in tow within the entrance row!), have been largely dressed down and makeup-free as they labored out kinks, navigated nerves and took within the huge Hollywood theater, largely empty save for a bustling manufacturing workers and crew.

At one level, a jeans-clad Stone, 36, peered out on the orchestra part peppered with cardboard placards emblazoned with every nominee’s headshot. Having perfected her traces — and handed an Oscar statuette to a stand-in winner — the star flashed an enormous smile, waved and headed out into the wings.

Andrew Garfield, a two-time nominee, and Goldie Hawn, who took house the Finest Supporting Actress Oscar in 1970 for Cactus Flower, have been in equally excessive spirits as they labored on timing and giggled collectively from centerstage.

Co-presenting the Animated Function and Animated Quick classes, the unlikely duo navigated their bits and at varied moments, sweetly linked arms or arms.

When Hawn, 79, trying sharp in a black pantsuit and along with her blonde hair down, briefly fumbled a line, she mentioned, “Okay, right here we go…” Garfield, 41, with a sweater slung over his shoulders, glasses and his button-down untucked, rubbed Hawn’s again — and, after they ultimately nailed their run-through, the 2 shared an enthusiastic high-five.

In typical vogue, the 2025 Oscars are set to be star-studded, because the Academy beforehand introduced that the listing of presenters will embody Emilia Pérez star Selena Gomez, The Brutalist‘s Joe Alwyn, Nosferatu‘s Lily-Rose Depp and Willem Dafoe, and Gladiator II‘s Connie Nielsen.

Different presenters on the Conan O’Brien-hosted present embody Winfrey, Brown, Armas, Hawn, Ben Stiller, Nick Offerman, in addition to 2024 Oscar winners Randolph, Stone, Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy. 

The listing of stay performers, in the meantime, contains Depraved stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, Queen Latifah, Doja Cat, Lisa of BLACKPINK, and Raye.

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The 97th Academy Awards will air stay from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2 at 7 p.m. ET on ABC and Hulu.