Steve Martin doesn't want to host the Oscars, not that he's been asked

Every year it seems to get harder and harder to lock down a good host for the major awards shows. Jimmy Kimmel and John Mulaney have reportedly already passed on the gig for the 2025 Academy Awards, so now the producers have to turn to other options. Every year since Only Murders In The Building premiered, the trio of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez have been rumored as potential hosts, but it’s never come to fruition. And it sounds like it never will, either. In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Martin says if he was going to do it, he’d have to start prepping “Yesterday. Oh, and one last thing: They have not asked.”

In the interview, he says he was the least nervous to host the Oscars with Alec Baldwin because he “had someone else out there with me,” which is how he feels about performing comedy with Short. However, he and his co-star and collaborator are decidedly not interested in taking on the Academy Awards. “That represents so much work for us. And we love our summers,” Martin says. “When I hosted before, I started working months ahead of time. And now I have a completely different life. I’m not as free. It’s a lot of work and we’re working.”

Just to drive the point home, Martin shares an Oscars joke he thought was funny but never used: “I’ll come out and say, ‘I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, ‘Steve, how did you get to host the Oscars?’ It was easy. I just called my agent and I said, ‘Get me something thankless.'” He really means thankless: “They don’t pay, either. The Golden Globes pay, so they get Tina Fey and Amy [Poehler]. And Ricky Gervais,” he said. (And, despite paying, nobody really wants that job either.) “The Oscars should pay. When you consider the amount of work, it’s at least several months of mental churning.”