Jimmy Kimmel used his Oscars monologue to present credit score to certainly one of this awards season’s breakout stars: Messi, the canine from Anatomy of a Fall.
During his opening to Sunday’s present, Kimmel joked in regards to the much less thrilling roles performed by nominee Robert Downey Jr., who’s up for Best Supporting Actor for his position in Oppenheimer. “He played the villain — and correct me if I’m wrong — a movie where Tim Allen turns into a dog,” mentioned Kimmel, 56, referencing 2006’s The Shaggy Dog.
“If they decide to remake that film, I have just the guy to play Tim Allen’s part,” the late-night host mentioned. Then the digital camera panned to Messi, sitting within the viewers.
“Messi, who even though he’s a dog, may have given the performance of the year in Anatomy of a Fall,” Kimmel praised.
He continued, “Messi has an overdose scene, if you’ve seen it you’ve known it. It’s incredible.” He joked, “Honestly I haven’t seen a French actor eat his own vomit like that since Gérard Depardieu.”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Anatomy of a Fall is nominated for 5 Oscars, together with Best Picture — although sadly none of these are for Messi’s efficiency. However, the well-known pup did win the Palm Dog Award on the Cannes Film Festival final May.
Kevin Winter/Getty
The movie, directed by Justine Triet, stars Sandra Hüller as well-known German novelist Sandra Voyter, who’s accused of murdering her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis). Their son blind Daniel (Milo Machado Graner) makes use of Snoop as his information canine.
Despite his lack of nomination, Messi, whose character within the movie was named Snoop, has been the toast of awards season. He attended the February Oscars luncheon, the place he met celebs and Oscar nominees together with Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper.
Jimmy Kimmel / Instagram
On Sunday, Kimmel and Messi additionally acquired some face time hours earlier than the present started — debunking rumors the canine wouldn’t attend. The host shared a video on Instagram of a observe run of his jokes alongside Messi.
Though the canine seemingly wasn’t impressed with most of themm Kimmel tried one other one: “If you suppose the present feels overly drawn out to you, think about how Messi feels proper now. In canine years, this present is 5 and a half months lengthy!” Messi barked his approval.
As for Messi’s efficiency, his coach Laura Martin Contini informed IndieWire in February that he needed to be extremely educated to carry out within the movie. “Even the simplest things take a lot of work,” she defined.
Never miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to remain up-to-date on the most effective of what PEOPLE has to supply, from superstar information to forcing human curiosity tales.
The 96th Academy Awards are presently airing dwell from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California.
