Long Beach's golden boy returns to Oscar

No introduction is necessary: Billy Crystal and Oscar already know each other quite well.

The actor-filmmaker-comedian has hosted the Academy Awards eight times, and he's on deck for his ninth. He'll preside over the movie industry's 84th annual ceremony Sunday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC/7. And given this year's nominees, don't be surprised if he goes silent like an "Artist," shows some iron in the guise of a former prime minister or sports a dragon tattoo.

Crystal agreed to return after originally scheduled host Eddie Murphy exited, following the departure of initially set producer Brett Ratner (replaced by Brian Grazer, who now is producing the event with award-show veteran Don Mischer). In other ways as well, Crystal said he felt the timing was right for him to take the job again.

Have you kept up with this year's nominated movies?

I've seen pretty much everything. There were certain performances I hadn't seen that I went back and looked at to see if a joke might be made, because whoever that person is will now be in the audience. We'd been developing things, but when the nominations came out, that's when we really started grinding for four or five weeks.

You've acknowledged that a lot of expectation comes with your return to host the Oscars. Are you managing that well?

Well, I don't know how well I manage anything! Anxiety can be a very healthy thing, too. In the past, I've always tried to top myself in what we've done on the show, and we're going to try to do that again. People seem happy that I'm coming back, and I'm happy that I'm coming back, so I want to give them the best show I can. With that comes pressure to make it as good as you can.

When people anticipate you'll insert yourself into clips from the past year's movies and do your musical satire "It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar," how do you work with or against that to stay surprising?

What I like to do and what the audience wants me to do can be two different things. In my mind, I'm not going to do certain things they want . . . then you start thinking about it and go, 'Well, maybe I should.' I'm just looking to have a good time and hopefully, the audience will, too.

Your relatively brief appearance at last year's Academy Awards got a huge response. How far did that go toward your decision about this year?

That was a big part of it. That moment took my breath away, and I'm somebody who's not usually at a loss for words. It was very warm and loving, and it got me a little itchy. This will be my ninth time, second only to Bob Hope in the number of times someone has hosted the Oscars, and being welcomed back in that way made me think about doing it again.