LOS ANGELES-- Chris Rock, comedian and one-time-only Oscar host, is not even sure if he will bother to watch Sunday's Academy Awards.
"It's weird," he tells Sun Media about his conflicted feelings.
"Hopefully I'll watch it, I don't know. Because, really, the only part of the Oscars I ever watch is the opening monologue. But it's not a comedian (Australian actor Hugh Jackman hosts this year) so I don't know."
Comics have a keen interest in each other, Rock explains.
"If you told me Steve Martin was hosting ... well ... every comedian stops everything for the opening monologue: 'Okay, what the eff is Steve Martin going to say?' He is one of the best standups of all time."
The same would apply if Billy Crystal or some other comedian hosted, Rock says. The rest of the show is a wash-out.
"I never watched it before I hosted it, to tell you the truth," he says of the bulk of Oscar night.
Yet he loved hosting.
"It was one of the best gigs I ever did. I had a good time. If they ever asked again ... I turned it down six or seven times before I ever said yes. First of all, I had no desire to be the only black person on television. Then, when I realized that Jamie Foxx was probably going to get nominated, and Don Cheadle and Morgan Freeman, then I thought: 'Okay, this is going to be hip, right?'"
Rock says Jackman, like any host, is taking a risk.
"It's a hard job. It's really difficult when the general public hasn't seen the movies that are being nominated. It's really hard and it puts the host in a really weird position because you have to play the room -- but there's more people at home."
