Oscars: What they’re saying

The Academy Awards expanded the best picture race to 10 last year, and the effect was clear on Sunday as the compelling subplots and competing story lines widened to handle Hollywood’s 10-horse race. Here were a few of the things being discussed on the red carpet, inside the Kodak Theatre and backstage in the press room.

After accepting his Oscar for actor in a supporting role, Christian Bale wasn’t sure if he remembered to thank all the right people — like fellow “The Fighter” actors Mark Wahlberg, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams and Jack McGee.

Backstage, he asked reporters: “I’ve got a question for you guys, actually.... Mark, Melissa and Amy and Jack. Did I mention them? I did? Fantastic. Good. That’s a huge relief!”

Bale actually missed Leo’s acceptance speech for supporting actress — he was out at the bar with his wife and the real-life Dicky Eklund (the character he played in “The Fighter”).

“I was literally banging on the door” asking to get back into the theater. “That was my mistake. I’ll know better if I ever return to the Academy Awards.”

Bale said he had just come back to California from China, where he has been filming Zhang Yimou’s “The 13 Women of Nanjing,” so he missed most of the campaigning leading to Sunday night’s ceremony — not that he missed that part of the job.

“The beautiful thing about it is I’ve been in China ... so I actually haven’t had to deal with it,” he said. “It really has to be the performance that stands by itself. If I had lost, I wouldn’t have regretted anything.”

Of course, he said that Oscars are subjective things, unlike motorcycle racing, which he referenced in his acceptance speech.

“I love motorcycle racing. It’s all about who’s fastest,” Bale explained afterward. “That guy went forward better. ... This is all just a matter of opinion. It’s so abstract. But at the same time, I just can’t help but be touched so dearly by it. I just will treasure this moment.”

But it will be back to work quickly for Bale — and just because he’s got an Oscar now, it doesn’t mean he won’t be doing comic book movies anymore. (He’s reprising his role as Batman in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.”)

“When I finish the movie in China, it’s straight to Batman,” he said. “Much more Batman.”

— Yvonne Villareal

Trent Reznor, the Nine Inch Nails singer and rock auteur who won the original score Oscar for his work on “The Social Network,” said in the lobby of the Kodak Theatre as the show was about to begin that his first true foray into Hollywood — and the Hollywood awards season — has, in fact, tamed some of his relentless competitive spirit.

“I’ve gotten to know the other nominees, and I like them. They’re really cool, and there’s so much I know I can learn. So there’s none of that cutthroat competition I would usually have.”

He waited a long beat and then added a conspiratorial whisper: “That’s just a lie.”

— Geoff Boucher

For the last few months, director Lee Unkrich has been overwhelmed with praise for his work on “Toy Story 3.” But backstage at the Oscars, Unkrich said he was so nervous about taking on the job initially that he almost refused it.

“When [Pixar head] John Lasseter asked me to direct this movie, I was completely flattered, but I wanted to throw up,” he said, “because I knew it was a huge, crushing responsibility on my shoulders, and I could have easily ended up being the guy who screwed up the ‘Toy Story’ movies.”

“Third movies are always terrible,” he added. “They’re never, ever good. And somehow, I guess we’re masochistic, I guess we thought we could pull it off. Does this mean we did?”

(The people in the press room nodded in response.)

Now that he’s won, Unkrich said he was ready to finally let loose.

“To be honest, I’m not planning on sleeping tonight,” he admitted. “And tomorrow, sometime early afternoon, we’re gonna hop on a plane back to Pixar and have a huge party back at Pixar.”

And after all the partying?

“I’m going to take a nice vacation, to be honest,” he said, “because this whole Oscar season has been incredibly stressful for me.”

— Amy Kaufman

Susanne Bier, who took the award for foreign-language film for “In a Better World,” held up her Oscar backstage and exclaimed, “I didn’t know it would be this huge!”

Thanks to Bier, a female director scored a trophy this year after all, as well as a Golden Globe last month. The whole experience has been astounding, she said.

So what does she plan to do with her awards?

“I don’t know what I’ll do when I get back to my homeland, but tonight I’ll probably put them next to my cushion in my bed,” she said, blushing. “And then when I get home, I’ll probably put them somewhere where I can watch them all the time. This is amazing! I’m very proud.”

Bier concluded by saying that she was so surprised by her win that she didn’t have time to look at her prepared remarks. “I had my speech ready, and I did not say one sentence from it!”

— Jessica Gelt

Jeff Bridges, looking ever more like a taller version of Kris Kristofferson, shrugged before the show when asked if this year’s Oscar experience was less nerve-racking than last year’s (when he picked up his first Oscar for his work in “Crazy Heart”). The “True Grit” actor smiled behind his bushy beard. “I don’t remember being nervous last year.”

— Geoff Boucher