A movie buff, the Toronto native attended the event with Sony Pictures Classics co-founder Tom Bernard.
"Tom is a huge hockey fan, loves the game. Just through Tom, and his partner Michael Barker," Carter told NHL.com about the reason he has attended the past two Oscars and film festivals like Sundance and Cannes. "I thought I wouldn't be as awestruck at the enormity of event, and that certainly wasn't the case (this year). I think I was even more amazed this time around."
Carter was certainly inspired by his surroundings, but an infatuation with movies is nothing new.
"I'm a huge movie guy. During the lockout (in 2005), I started a production company (Big Up Entertainment) and made my first feature film. I was kind of hooked from there," Carter said. "Entertainment, either music or movies... you're always surrounded by it. I was fortunate enough to have people in the music and the movie industries who were hockey fanatics, and that worked perfectly for me, because I'm a movie and music fanatic."
Specifically, directing has piqued Carter's interest.
"The director is really the key when it comes to a terrific film," Carter said. "So, when I listen to those guys and listen to them talk about it, that's the secret sauce. And it's no different than those guys listening to me talk about trades or how guys interact with different teams.
"So going to the Oscars and hearing the behind-the-scenes stories about different actors and different directors and seeing them onstage and hearing the stories how the movies are put together, because people don't just say 'I'm going to make a movie about a woman falling in love with a fish,'" Carter said. "It doesn't happen right away. There's so many different factors that have to come into play for it to come to fruition, and then when people see it on screen, that's the magic of movies. And then to know the story behind it, I think it's great.
Carter's presence at the Academy Awards was also well-timed; the former Los Angeles Kings forward saw former Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant win an Oscar for an animated short.
"I was happy for him. Kobe used to train there with us in Venice, and he always loved the hockey player's mentality," Carter said. "That might open some people's eyes for athletes making that transition to the world of filmmaking, and so that he was respected and honored at the highest level, I think it's great."
Would there be any chance Carter would make the leap from sports to movies, or maybe give his directing dream a shot?
"I'd be curious in directing a project," he said. "When I read scripts, I have a vision of how I see them playing out on the screen, and I take it from the talent's perspective, and I know how I'd want to be directed. A lot of times when you're a director, you're just managing and directing people. You're treating people... I've been very fortunate to be around the highest level in Hollywood. As long as I had a solid [director of photography] with me, I think I could get it done."
