Even though Kevin O’Connell is an acclaimed sound mixer with a Hollywood resume that includes such aurally bombastic films as The Empire Strikes Back, Rambo, Top Gun, Twister, the Spider-Man franchise and the entire Michael Bay ouvre, there’s one sound that he’s yet to hear in his 29-year career:
“…And the Oscar goes to Kevin O’Connell.”
Not for lack of trying. O’Connell has been nominated for an Academy Award an astounding 19 times over the years, including a current nod for Best Achievement in Sound Mixing for director Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. He has more nominations than any other sound mixer in motion picture history, but the special distinction that O’Connell’s come away with so far is the dubious honor of being Oscar’s biggest “non-winner” ever.
Nevertheless, O’Connell remained optimistic when he sounded off to Hollywood.com
Hollywood.com: Nineteen nominations is an incredible feat. Any advice for first time nominees?
Kevin O’Connell: Don’t give up. I’ve never given up and I keep a good attitude about it and it’s an honor every year to be nominated that I am nominated, and I never take it for granted.
HW: Is it true that you’ve saved all of your potential acceptance speeches?
KO: Absolutely true. I have them all. They’re all in a drawer at home. It’s funny, because sometimes they’re written on the back of a business card. Sometimes they’re on the back of a napkin. Sometimes they’re on the back of the program. I do have them all. I collect memorabilia so that’s why. I do have all eighteen of [my nominee luncheon nametags]. They’re with the speeches at home in my drawer along with all the nominations that are on the wall. I don’t have anymore room left on my wall, but I have plenty of room left on my mantle.
HW: Have you written one for this year yet?
KO: If I do get an opportunity to give an acceptance speech this year it would be about one person and that’s my mother, who is the person who gave me the opportunity to get into this business twenty nine years ago.
HW: How have your speeches changed from year to year? How do you write 19 different versions of an acceptance speech?
KO: Obviously, every year the characters change and there’s only one character that hasn’t changed and that’s at the bottom of my speech every year. Well, this year that person has gone to the top of my list, and there probably won’t be too many other people outside of my wife Heather and my sons Casey and Cooper.
HW: Do you have any advice for someone putting together a speech for the first time?
KO: I would say if someone is writing a speech for the first time make it fun, make it exciting and don’t pull out a piece of paper. That’s what I think everyone would like to see.
HW: How do you “campaign” for an Oscar as a sound mixer?
KO: It’s really hard as a sound mixer to do campaigning. You really can’t, so you’re struggling along with your movie, and if you’re movie is up for Best Picture and all the actors are nominated then you’re getting a lot of horsepower behind your campaign. But if you’re not then you just have to kind of hope that people will recognize it on its own merits.
HW: Once Susan Lucci finally won that daytime Emmy we stopped talking about her, but we talk about you every year. Do you really want to win?
KO: Yes. I would like to win. I don’t know many soap opera stars, but I do know who Susan Lucci is and that’s a good thing.
HW: Do you have any idea how you will feel when you get handed an Oscar?
KO: Golly, if that ever happens, first of all they probably wouldn’t hand it to me, because my head will have exploded. I don’t know how I would feel, but believe me, you guys will be the first to know.
HW: Is there anything that’s a good luck charm that you’re going to be carrying with you?
KO: I haven’t found that item yet. I’ll tell you what I found out today. I thought if this is the year everything is going to be sold on eBay as “the lucky shoe,” “the lucky tie.”
HW: What are some of those things in the past that you brought?
KO: Underwear. New tuxedos. New ties. New shirts. People gave me good luck tokens as coins and stuff, and every year I feel good about them, but they just don’t seem to do the trick.
HW: How did you get into sound mixing?
KO: Twenty nine years ago I was an L.A. County firefighter and I came home from being on a fire for three days and my mother who worked in the sound department of 20th Century Fox said to me, “You look terrible. You look awful. You’re burnt and scarred.” I had lost 17 pounds. She said, “Please come get a job in the sound department.” So I reluctantly tried it and a week later I said to my mother, “I love this job. I love sound. It’s so interesting and I love it so much. How can I ever thank you?” She thought about it for a second and said, “I’ll tell you how you can thank me. You work very hard and then someday you go win yourself an Oscar and you stand up on that stage and you can thank me in front of the whole world.” That’s what she said to me 29 years ago and she was sort of half joking, but I’ve been doing my darnedest to make that happen.
HW: Are things getting any better for the audience as far as movie sound? It used to be that you would do a brilliant sound mix and then they’d put it on in some little multiplex where there was one four inch speaker.
KO: Actually, it is because what happened is that we went from analog sound to digital sound and because we have digital sound now there are a whole lot less margins for error. Even like most of you probably know, everyone is talking about having to have their home theater. Well, the home theater does one thing and that’s for sound, but not so much for picture. It’s all about sound. So that’s sort of important.
HW: What else is in that drawer besides the speeches and nametags?
KO: Just the napkins from the bar.
