Conan O’Brien Will Be Thinking of His Late Parents as He Hosts Oscars ‘and Trying to Get Them to Laugh’ (Exclusive)

As host of this year’s Oscars, Conan O’Brien will be playing to a full house at L.A.’s Dolby Theatre and to the millions of people watching from around the globe on Sunday, March 2. But he’ll also be thinking of those he credits with getting him there: his late parents.

“I think they were very proud of the work I did, and they would’ve enjoyed this night,” says O’Brien, 61, of his father Dr. Thomas O’Brien and mother Ruth Reardon O’Brien, who died in December at age 95 and 92, respectively, within days of each other.

“I have a really great photograph of my parents laughing in the audience at an event that I did years ago, [and] I realized early on the original reason anybody gets into comedy is just trying to make our parents laugh,” he says. 

“I used to think to myself sometimes, ‘Huh, why would I continue doing comedy if my parents aren’t here anymore?'”

But O’Brien has come to realize his dear mom and dad, who had been married for 66 years, are very much present. “I’ll still be thinking about them on Oscar night and trying to get them to laugh,” he says. “That is kind of a comfort.”

It’s also a heavy responsibility, he allows, while finding the comedy in it all. “It’s also more pressure in case in the hereafter they didn’t like it, and they let me know,” he riffs. “When your parents go to all that effort to travel through space time and the mists of mystery to tell you that they didn’t love it, that’s a crushing blow, so I’ve really got to nail it.”

O’Brien acknowledges that the last few months weigh heavy on his mind and heart. In addition to losing his parents, he watched as the recent Los Angeles fires upended the lives of so many in the entertainment industry and beyond. “I work with people who lost their homes. I have a lot of friends who lost their homes,” he says. “It’s been a strange period. And to me there is a hidden blessing to all of this, or a gift in all of this, whether it’s my parents or the fires, which is perspective.”

The big-picture insight, he says, “has been really helpful to me looking at this evening, and wanting to celebrate people, and not just celebrate the famous people that are in the room, but all the people behind the scenes.”

“It’s a celebration of an entire industry and people from every walk of life who give their blood, sweat and tears for show business,” O’Brien says. 

“[There] are thousands and thousands of people who are having a tough time right now, whether because of the fires, or because of the strikes, or because of just a changing business and fear about the future.”

So, O’Brien says he will look to shine a spotlight far beyond just Hollywood’s glam A-listers on Oscar night: “This is a night to try to lift a lot of these people up across the board.”

The 97th Oscars will air live on ABC and stream on Hulu on Sunday, March 2, at 7 p.m. ET.