None of us will ever forget when Faye Dunaway read La La Land as the Best Picture at the 2017 Oscars because it wasn’t. As we know Moonlight won that distinction.
What we didn’t know until now is what happened according to Dunaway’s perspective of it. She told Lester Holt on Nightly News, “He [Warren Beatty] took the card out, and he didn’t say anything. He paused, he looked over at me, offstage, he looked around and I finally said, ‘You’re impossible.’ I thought he was joking. I mean, I thought he was stalling. Warren’s like that. He kind of holds the power and makes people…a dramatic pause. But it’s part of his charm.”
When the NBC newsanchor asked if she was angry about what happened on Hollywood’s biggest night, she responded by saying “No, I was very guilty. I thought, I could have done something, surely. Why didn’t I see Emma Stone’s name on the top of the card?”
If she did, then barely any of us would have remembered that Moonlight won Best Picture and it would have been a lackluster Oscars. Instead it is one we will be talking about for decades to come like the year Jack Palance won for City Slickers and the other one when Marisa Tomei was declared Best Supporting Actress for My Cousin Vinny or how about the time Robin Williams sang Blame Canada from South Park or Rob Lowe singing with Cinderella. It is the memorable moments that make the Oscars not the winners. Sorry winners.
