The Many Faces of the Shocked Oscar Crowd
Monday, February 27, 2017 at 10:00PM 
Chris here, to help you finally digest the shock ending of the Oscarcast, even if Meryl is still frozen in place. And maybe we can get the jokes out of your system as well.
By now we've all dissected crowd photos and video footage of the stunned response of famous people in the crowd like it was our own little Oscar Zapruder film. But if there's a silver lining moment for Moonlight's moment being a bumpy one (the history books will always honor it, remember) it's all of the delicious face we were served, from a heart-palpitated Trevante Rhodes, to a Snapchatting Taraji P. Henson, to well, Meryl.
Luckily for you readers, The Film Experience has obtained exclusive audio files to tell you exactly how every star responded...
Mel Gibson: What's a Moonlight?
Meryl Streep: Gosling.
Ben Affleck: So Busy, do you like tattoos?
Michelle Williams: Yahhhhhhz!
Matt Damon: [whispered] yahhhhz.
Cheryl Boone Isaacs: [Kill Bill sirens, red flashing lights]
Sting: I'm Sting.
Isabelle Huppert: Quelle surprise? [shrugs]
Shirley MacLaine: Baby brother, what have ye done?
Charlize Theron: Mirruh mirruh on the wöll.
Meryl Streep: [Florence Foster Jenkins note]
Unfortunately our audio cuts out there. However, don't you think this moment inspires some new casting possibilities. For example, in the Where's Waldo fantasmagoria here, Mark Rylance is our Waldo. Charlize is ready to play a character that devilishly whispers "my diamonds". Shirley MacLaine is primed for Oscar #2 and Casey Affleck is giving a great audition for a character battling extreme ennui. Or how about this throwback project:
Lost in shock in the crowd of the Oscar finale is the poster for this 90s revenge thriller starring Naomie Harris & Isabelle Huppert pic.twitter.com/e3ldSFfVot
— Chris Feil (@chrisvfeil) February 27, 2017
... a handsome superhero who goes around stealing hearts, but the twist is that his own heart has been stolen. Maybe I shouldn't joke about this one. Has anyone checked on Trevante Rhodes?? [In seriousness, has their been a more heartwarming or sincere moment all season?]
So here's you shocked assemblage - which could be either the new ensemble for Murder on The Orient Express or the 21st Century lineup for the "Vogue" rap:
— Karli Henriquez (@karlihenriquez) February 27, 2017
Now it's your turn: which befuddled star are you and what's going through your head? Tag yourself in the comments below!
Reader Comments (35)
Very funny. Isn't it a metaphor for the outcome of last November's Presidential election?
I wish Winona Ryder had been on stage through for this
I'm sorry, I just love this moment. It will go down in history as one of the craziest, if not THE craziest moment in Oscar history.
@ Tom Ford
It would be, except...Hillary wasn't called back to the stage, and there's no all's well that ends well.
Okay, but imagine if Isabelle won Best Actress and Faye Dunaway announced Elle won Best Picture?
True Paul, but the shock, reactions and confusion are very familiar. 😀
Slate.com did some astute sleuthing which shows that the last producer to give his acceptance speech had been informed that "La La Land" had in fact lost the Oscar by the time he'd been called to the mic but still expressed his thank you's anyway: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/02/27/oscar_best_picture_mistake_video_annotated_and_reviewed.html
I love Gosling's reaction!
Also worth looking for: Maren Ade, Nicole Kidman, Crystal Fox
@ Troy H
See the comments on this post from earlier today here at TFE for thoughts on that tidbit and more.
@Nov Prez Election : whr is PWC when we really need them!!! 😂
The quick shot of Nicole Kidman, Octavia Spencer and Viggo Mortensen huddling together in excitement over what just happened was great lol.
@jessie What was going on in that shot of Kidman, Spencer, and Mortensen together. I need to know.
lol it was *very* quick but they were definitely talking amongst themselves, so I'm just assuming it was over what happened.
Nicole and Octavia each got their own reaction shot and they looked ecstatic though.
I still can't deal with what went down last night. I need time to process.
That should tell you how I'm dealing with the actual election.
I'm not sure why The Exterminating Angel comes to my mind with those reactions.
I was definitely doing a Ryan Gosling reaction myself
Shocked and indifferent, Huppert all the way
Lord, I'm Gosling. His crack-up is my fave.
Also, is The Rock actually a cartoon?
Naturally, these images only remind me of the crowd reaction shots in Carrie after she gets...you know. Too bad Sissy wasn't there last night.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4265550/Emma-Stone-One-horrible-moments-life.html Emma Stone 'one of the most horrible moments of my life'.
Get a grip Felicia.
Also...
"Cheryl Boone Isaacs: [Kill Bill sirens, red flashing lights]"
hilarious.
Loved Gosling's reaction. At the end of the day, it's just a movie award after all.
I like the idea of adapting this to a murder mystery. Murder at the Oscars would be a humdinger of a setting, but who to direct? Too bad Robert Altman is dead. The whole sequence is like something out of "Nashville". But with a less drastic ending.
I think these stars need a reality check. It's only an awards show after all.
This is precisely why the rest of the US doesn't take anything celebrities say seriously anymore, assuming they ever did. Even if President Trump is a fascist, as I personally believe and fear he is, no one is going to listen to these celebs pontificate on current affairs since hyperbole is apparently their default reaction to every single incident, including a wrongly-announced film award.
The Cheryl Boone Isaacs reaction is priceless.
Marco, I disagree because of the First Amendment, which I believe is still in place (unless a recent Trump Executive Order was released trying to strike it down).
Celebrities are not politicians, but they do have a global platform to voice common concerns that many of us citizens share. In this current climate, it would be completely bizarre (and invalidating to over half of us) if they did not periodically share these common concerns.
Of course we don't want them to go overboard, but if they want to speak their mind so the rest of us are validated in our desire to maintain traditional American values (like free speech, diversity and respect, and a free press), then I fully support them.
I'm sure Cheryl was all, "OMG, will people finally start thinking that Dick Poop wasn't that big a screwup uttered by someone associated with the Oscars?"
But seriously, poor Cheryl Boone Isaacs. She should feel great about these Oscars, in that Moonlight was probably the choice of a lot of the new Academy voters she championed. She was successful in broadening the membership. Instead she is dealing with this PR mess. Ugh.
@Tom Ford, I don't disagree, and note that at no stage did I argue against the rights of these performers to publicly express their political opinions.
I'm just suggesting that movie stars, many of whom don't live in the same world and experience the same difficulties as the most vulnerable people in society (including refugees, the poor and unemployed, and the victims of the most extreme forms of racism, sexism and homophobia), aren't necessarily the most ideal advocates.
My argument isn't to clamp down on free speech. On the contrary, my argument is that we need to expand public platforms to a much wider socioeconomic group of people, and thus enfranchise more people to speak out. Also, please bear in mind that not all actors are progressives, however much the modern stereotype might suggest, and there are doctors, public lawyers, aid workers, social workers, nurses, and teachers, who are arguably even better placed to advocate on behalf of society's most oppressed and marginalised (although I appreciate that this might not be a popular opinion here).
So, by all means I praise anyone should speaks out against President Trump, but I'd much rather hear from his most vulnerable potential targets, or at least those working on the ground level with such people, than those who can afford to escape the worst extremes of his hideous administration, some of whom used to rub shoulders with the occasional actor (Home Alone 2, Celebrity, The Little Rascals, and "Sex & the City" etc) and former Celebrity Apprentice host.
Meryl Streep: [Florence Foster Jenkins note]
😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂
I think Ben Affleck is shooting a look across the room to Damon: "You catch this, bro?"
I love Michelle & Busy separately and as a pair. You know those girls know how to enjoy a governor's ball.
>Sting: I'm Sting.
Epic hilarity.
The first thing to do to prevent this ever happening again is this: write the category NAME visibly on the card, and not just on the envelope. The card on Beatty’s hand read only “Emma Stone – La La Land”. And the one he should have received (shown to camera by the “La La Land” producer) read “Moonlight” and the names of the producers. They should read Best Actress and Best Picture. That would be a bigger warning to whoever is presenting that they got the wrong envolope!