The Oscars were pretty unremarkable. As expected, La La Land scooped numerous awards, including Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Production.
But then, something spectacular happened: Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway — through no fault of their own — announced that Damien Chazelle’s film had won Best Picture.
As we all know, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight was the real winner, leading to an awkward exchange of trophies on-stage and speculation over why the mix-up happened.
Appearing on The Graham Norton Show, Beatty called the event ‘chaos’ while defending his part in the incident and Dunaways.
“I thought well, maybe this is a misprint,” he said. “And then, I shouldn’t foul up the show just because someone made a little error.”
Asked whether he handed the letter to Dunaway to move fault to her, Beatty responded: “My instructions were to take the envelope when I walked out. I couldn’t have it before that. And then I go out, and then I say something, and then I open the envelope and then I give it to Faye and she then says what it says.”
In a final comment, Norton joked how the event was “all anyone could talk about,” to which the actor quipped: “No, that’s not true, people talk about themselves.”
Following the Oscars snafu, the accounting firm PwC - who have overseen the awards since 1934 - were found to blame. The Academy announced they will continue working with PwC but will confiscate phones from handlers in attendance due to the incident.
