‘Zone of Interest’ Sound Designer Johnnie Burn Forgot His Studio ID for Next Gig — So He Used New Oscar Statue Instead
Winning an Oscar can open many doors. In the case of Johnnie Burn, who won the Academy Award for best sound on Sunday night for his work on Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” alongside Tarn Willers, it was a studio’s door the very next day.
The morning after the ceremony, the British sound designer — who also worked on the sound for Yorgos Lanthimos’ multiple Oscar-winning “Poor Things” — turned up at the Fox Studio Lot in Los Angeles to start mixing his next project, an untitled new feature starring Jenna Ortega, Barry Keoghan and the Weeknd directed by Trey Edward Shults (Burn did the sound on his last film, “Waves”).
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However, Burn had completely forgotten to bring his ID to get through security.
“The Vanity Fair party had left me a little fuzzy headed,” he tells Variety.
Thankfully, Burn did have his freshly minted Oscar statue in his bag, which he pulled out and offered the guard. “I said, ‘Does this cover it?’ And he was like, ‘Woah, yes!'”
As it turns out, Burn’s Oscar saw him receive a far better welcome than a mere ID, and the security guard got on his walkie-talkie, called over a buggy and ensured he was driven over to the mixing building with an escort.
“Looks like there are no downsides to Oscar ownership,” he says.
The best sound Academy Award was one of two for Glazer’s acclaimed Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest,” which also won best international feature. And although Burn’s other project, “Poor Things,” may not have been nominated for best sound, it did sweep up much of the other craft awards on Sunday night, including costume design, makeup and hairstyling and production design.
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