What the Moonlight Acceptance Speech Would Have Sounded Like, Without #EnvelopeGate
And Other Memorable Behind-the-Scenes Moments from the Oscar’s Pressroom

Photo Credit: Aaron Poole / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Up until the Best Picture incident—where La La Land was announced winner instead of Moonlight—the 2017 Oscars were going on (and on) per usual. Host Jimmy Kimmel managed to entertain the typically stoic press corps during his monologue, getting the most laughs with his Meryl Streep bit, as he described her “uninspiring and overrated performances,” and this throwaway line: “Nice dress by the way… is that an Ivanka?” (We’re getting a little tired, though, of the longstanding Matt Damon-Kimmel “feud” that ran through the entire show.)
The rest of the ceremony ran as expected for three hours, with both boring and touching speeches given from the Dolby Theater stage. But in the pressroom—where the winners could relax a little and answer questions at their leisure—we heard and learned a few things that the television audience didn’t see.
Here are a few of the most memorable moments and quotes from backstage that may have been overshadowed by #envelopegate mess.
Viola Davis channels Annalise Keating.
Davis had a great answer for the reporter who asked what her TV character (the brilliant but dangerously unbalanced Annalise Keating from How to Get Away with Murder) would say about her Oscar win. “Oh, she would most definitely say, ‘I deserve this.’ And then she would have some vodka. And in that, we are very similar.”
Davis gets overwhelmed and emotional…
When asked to reflect on her win, Davis was still a little shell-shocked. “I feel good. You know, it’s not my style to just kind of wake up and go, ‘Oh, I’m an Oscar winner. Oh, my gosh, let me go for a run,’” she said. “I’ll have some mac and cheese, and I’ll go back to washing my daughter’s hair tomorrow night.” She tearfully continued: “I grew up in apartments that were condemned and rat-infested, and I just always sort of wanted to be somebody. And I just wanted to be good at something. And so this is sort of like the miracle of God, of dreaming big and just hoping that it sticks and it lands, and it did. Who knew? So I’m overwhelmed. Yeah.”
Emma Stone deftly handles the awkward questions.
Stone may not have been the favorite for Best Actress, but she certainly won over the room when she handled (in)delicate questions with aplomb. We heard a couple of gasps when someone asked her if she felt that she owed Emma Watson a drink or dinner for turning down the role. Stone answered, “Oh, my God, you know what? She’s doing great. She’s the coolest. She’s Belle. I mean I think it’s all good. I think she’s amazing.” When asked what it felt like to be part of a Best Picture winner for 2 minutes and 30 seconds (the reporter had timed it), she said, “Is that the craziest Oscar moment of all time? Cool. We made history tonight. Craziest moment. And again, I don’t even know what to say…This has all just felt like another planet. But again, God I love Moonlight. I’m so excited. So, it’s an incredible outcome, but a very strange happening for Oscar history.”