Actor tells NBC she was ‘stunned’ after incorrectly announcing La La Land as best picture instead of Moonlight

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Faye Dunaway has opened up about her role in the best picture envelope scandal at the Oscars, two months after the awards ceremony.



Speaking to Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News on Monday, the actor said she was “completely stunned” after she incorrectly announced La La Land instead of Moonlight as the winner of the best picture award, which she was co-presenting with actor Warren Beatty.

“He [Beatty] took the card out and he didn’t say anything. He paused, he looked over me, offstage, he looked around and I finally said, ‘You’re impossible!’” Dunaway said.

“I thought he was joking, I thought he was stalling. Warren’s like that, he kind of holds the power – a dramatic pause!”



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Beatty handed Dunaway the envelope, which contained information about the best actress award won by Emma Stone for La La Land. Dunaway then read the film title aloud. It took more than two minutes for the announcement to be corrected, by which time the La La Land creators had already made their acceptance speeches.

“We were, I won’t say deers in the headlight, but you are completely stunned, you don’t know what has happened,” said Dunaway, who won a best actress Oscar in 1977 for Network.



Asked if she was angry, Dunaway said that instead she felt “very guilty”.

“I thought I could have done something, surely. Why didn’t I see Emma Stone’s name on top of the card?”

Earlier this month, Beatty spoke with Graham Norton about the incident, which he said felt like “chaos”.

Two PwC accountants were later found to be responsible after it emerged that they had mistakenly handed Beatty and Dunaway the incorrect envelope backstage. PwC, formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers, has been administering the Oscars voting process for 83 years and has apologised for the error.