Awkward Oscars Moments That Were Caught On Camera

Awards shows are always entertaining to watch — not simply because they recognize some of the entertainment industry's greatest talents, but because they're aired live, meaning pretty much anything can happen. Sure, they're meticulously planned. Camera operators are trained to cut away from anything too scandalous, and censors are typically on deck, but that doesn't mean these ceremonies are totally foolproof. There's always the potential for things to go wrong — and plenty of things have gone wrong at the Academy Awards.

Over the years, Oscars audiences, both in person and at home, have witnessed practical jokes, embarrassing mix-ups, strange speeches, and countless other eyebrow-raising incidents. Some of these episodes are amusing or endearing to look back on, while others still come across as cringeworthy and, at times, even offensive.

Let's take a trip down memory lane and visit some of the most awkward moments to ever go down at the Oscars.

Most Oscar attendees choose to show up in the finest designer wear they can get their hands on. In 1974, one man decided to don his birthday suit instead. While host David Niven was introducing Elizabeth Taylor, a streaker jogged across the stage behind him, flashing a peace sign at the camera before making his departure. The audience, amused, broke into a bout of whistles and hollers. The applause lasted so long that the orchestra began to play the pop and jazz standard "Fine and Dandy" while Niven waited for people to calm down.

After the chatter abated, Niven was a good sport about the whole thing. "Ladies and gentlemen, that was almost bound to happen," he said. He then cracked a wry joke: "Fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings." The crowd went wild.

It's always a pleasure to see how Oscar winners respond to hearing their names called. Some cry, some laugh, some scream... and then there's Roberto Benigni. At the 71st Academy Awards show in 1999, Sophia Loren announced that the Italian filmmaker had won the Foreign Language Film award for "Life Is Beautiful" (which he wrote, directed, and starred in). And he had quite the reaction. Without missing a beat, he stood up in his chair and began walking across the seats in the audience, waving his arms like a circus acrobat and occasionally holding onto actors' heads for balance. When he reached the stage, he ascended the stairs by hopping like a frog.

Thankfully, nobody in the audience seemed too stuffy about the stunt. Most people laughed and cheered, happy to share in his joy — as they should have been. Let the man crowdsurf if he wants — he just won one of the biggest awards in cinema.

#AndTheOscarForMostHorrific kiss will always be between Angelina Jolie and her brother. pic.twitter.com/fP6MBLKvKk

— Bella (@BellaLaRue1) April 24, 2021

In 2000, Angelina Jolie — still relatively fresh to the industry — won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in James Mangold's "Girl, Interrupted." She attended an afterparty with her older brother James Haven, who was happy to share in the moment with her. At one point during the night, he quickly kissed her on the lips in a display of affection. A photographer snapped the moment; the next day, it was all over the tabloids, with many insinuating that the two siblings had an incestuous relationship.

Both Jolie and Haven have addressed the kiss in interviews, insisting that there was nothing unusual about it. In a June 2000 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jolie emphasized that the love between them was nothing "more than brotherly." She said that the rumors didn't faze her much, as "[her] parents really loved that moment, and that's what will always matter." Seven years later, Haven, still followed by the controversy, told the Daily Mail that the kiss had been taken out of context. "I did not give Angie a French kiss, it was something simple and lovely. She was about to go off to Mexico to finish filming 'Original SIn' with Antonio Banderas. I congratulated her on the Oscar win and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. It was snapped and became a big thing round the world."

Filmmaker Michael Moore is no stranger to controversy. His documentary "Bowling for Columbine" dared to dissect the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, taking the stance that gun control is crucial to improving school safety. When he was called up to accept the Documentary Feature award for the film, he used the opportunity to make another political statement, this time speaking about George W. Bush's presidency.

After thanking the Academy and shouting out his fellow nominees, whom he invited onstage with him, he began his bold remarks. "[The other nominees] are here in solidarity with me because we like nonfiction ... and we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where we have fictitious election results," he declared, referring to the hotly debated 2000 election between Bush and Al Gore. He went on to criticize the Iraq War: "We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. ... We are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush. Shame on you."

Some members of the audience cheered him on; others erupted in a chorus of boos. Toward the end of his speech, the orchestra began to play, shooing him offstage. Despite the tension in the room, Moore kept his head held high as he made his exit.

Jennifer Lawrence stunned viewers with her emotional performance in David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook." When she approached the stage at the 85th Academy Awards show to accept the award for Best Actress, she seized the world's attention once more — by tripping in her Dior gown. She quickly picked herself up and proceeded up the stairs.

In an interview with W Magazine, Lawrence offered some insight into the mishap. "I was sitting there and I remember ... something was running through my head like 'cakewalk, cakewalk, cakewalk, cakewalk,' and I was like, 'Why is cakewalk stuck in my head?'" As she took to the stairs and her dress started to get trapped beneath her feet, she remembered. "Kick, walk" was the actual phrase she needed to tell herself. She explained, "You were supposed to kick the dress out while you walked, and I totally forgot because I was just thinking about cake."

Following the ceremony, CNN's Anderson Cooper insinuated that Lawrence had faked the fall. Years later, Lawrence opened up about her reaction to his remarks on Heather McMahan's "Absolutely Not" podcast. "It was so devastating because it was this horrific humiliation to me," she revealed. Lawrence continued, saying, "And I'll tell you what, I saw him at a Christmas party, and I let him know." Thankfully, all seems to be well between the two these days. "He apologized, and I think we're good friends now," she told McMahan.

In 2014 — in the wake of the frenzy surrounding Disney's "Frozen" — Idina Menzel was asked to sing "Let It Go," her character Elsa's theme song, onstage at the Oscars. John Travolta was tasked with introducing her, but when the time came, he butchered the pronunciation and introduced her as "Adele Dazeem." Although the Broadway star killed her performance, fans were left scratching their heads long after the applause had died down.

During an interview with "Today" in 2021, Menzel looked back on the historic moment, giving viewers some long-awaited insight into her reaction. At first, she was frustrated, "I'm finally here and this guy screwed up my name," she thought. Nevertheless, she cheered herself up with some positive self-talk: "Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Get your s**t together, you know? You gotta get ready to sing this note." Ultimately, in a bizarre twist of fate, she ended up feeling grateful for the mix-up. "It ended up being one of the best things that happened for my career because all the people that had no idea who I was were like... 'Who is this girl?'" she said.

In a 2015 appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," John Travolta good-naturedly shared his side of the story. Apparently, the card he was handed featured a phonetic spelling of Menzel's name. The gesture was intended to help Travolta, but it only served to confuse him when he looked down and saw a series of letters that he was totally unfamiliar with.

In 2016, Sam Smith, who uses they/them pronouns, and Jimmy Napes took home the Oscar for Best Original Song Oscar for "The Writing's on the Wall," featured in the James Bond flick "Spectre." Upon accepting their award, Smith made a surprising claim regarding LGBTQ+ representation at the Academy Awards. "I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellen, and he said that no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar, and if this is the case, even if it isn't the case, I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community all around the world," they said.

Even though Smith had qualified their statement, plenty of people were shocked, as several openly gay men have won Oscars, including Dustin Lance Black, Elton John, Howard Ashman, and Scott Rudin. It turns out that McKellen's quote was taken out of context. Following the awards show, McKellen took to Twitter (now X) to clarify. "I'd said no openly gay actor had received [Oscars] — that doesn't detract from [Sam Smith's] achievement," he wrote. He proceeded to congratulate Smith and the other winners of the night.

Just two years after Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner for the Miss Universe pageant, a similar mix-up happened at the 2017 Oscars. Presenter Warren Beatty seemed hesitant to read out the Academy Award winner for Best Picture, looking down at his cue card confusedly. Co-presenter Faye Dunaway, thinking he was being silly, said, "You're impossible!" before announcing "La La Land" as the winner. The cast and crew made their way to the stage as the narrator began to list out the film's many accolades.  

Producers Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt, and Fred Berger delivered heartfelt speeches — but near the end of Berger's speech, an intense discussion began to take place behind him. Berger turned to Beatty for a moment before facing the crowd again and announcing, "We lost, by the way." Horowitz stepped forward to manage the ensuing confusion. "There's a mistake. 'Moonlight,' you guys won Best Picture. This is not a joke," he said. He then showed a card to the camera, which featured the names of "Moonlight" producers Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner. Horowitz graciously shared his congratulations as the "Moonlight" team arrived onstage for their special moment.

So what happened? The slip-up wasn't Beatty's fault — it turns out that he had mistakenly been handed an envelope naming Emma Stone as the recipient of the Best Actress award for her role in "La La Land." PwC, the accounting firm in charge of verifying the results that year, released an apology after the ceremony.

The In Memoriam segment of the Oscars is always a touching tribute ... unless you're Australian producer Jan Chapman. In 2017, a photo of Chapman — who was and is very much alive — was paired with the name of her deceased collaborator, Janet Patterson, an Oscar-nominated Australian costume designer who died in October 2016.

In a statement to Variety, Chapman shared her disappointment at this mistake. "I was devastated at the use of my image in place of my great friend and long-time collaborator Janet Patterson. I had urged her agency to check any photograph which might be used and understand that they were told that the Academy had it covered," she said. "Janet was a great beauty and four-time Oscar nominee and it is very disappointing that the error was not picked up. I am alive and well and an active producer." The Academy later apologized for the gaffe.

Let's just say 2017 was an awkward year for the Oscars. At one point during the ceremony, the camera cut to Nicole Kidman as she clapped her hands in a bizarre fashion, bumping the palms of her hands against each other while keeping her fingers from touching. That wasn't all — she was later captured pretending to clap altogether, her hands never making contact.

Kidman later offered an explanation during an interview with Australian KIIS FM hosts Kyle and Jackie O — she had been trying to prevent damage to the jewelry she was wearing, most notably a giant diamond ring on loan from Harry Winston. "It was really awkward. I was like, 'Gosh, I want to clap. I don't want to not be clapping' — which would be worse, right?" she said (via CBS News). "So therefore I'm clapping but, it was really difficult because I had a huge ring on that was not my own ... it was absolutely gorgeous and I was terrified of damaging it," she clarified.

After winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Judas and the Black Messiah," Daniel Kaluuya took to the stage to give thanks for the miracle of life. His speech started out in a relatively tame fashion. "You got to celebrate life, man. We're breathing, we're walking, it's incredible. Incredible!" he stated. And then things took a turn for the awkward. "My mom met my dad, they had sex!" Wait, what? To make this moment even better, the camera immediately cut to Kaluuya's sister, who put her head in her hands, and his mother, who looked absolutely bamboozled as she mouthed, "What is he talking about?"

Kaluuya's next few sentences provided some context. "It's amazing! ... I'm here. I'm so happy to be alive," he added. Still, it's safe to say that plenty of people — his family members included — were stunned by his unusual approach.

Dare we say this is the most awkward Oscar moment of all time? In case you somehow missed it, here's a recap. While presenting the Documentary Feature Oscar, Chris Rock cracked a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head (which is due to her having alopecia), suggesting that she should play G.I. Jane in a hypothetical sequel. Moments later, Smith ascended the stage, slapped Rock hard across the face, and returned to his seat. Stunned, Rock said, "Will Smith just slapped the s**t out of me."

From the audience, Smith shouted, "Keep my wife's name out your f**king mouth!" Following the incident, Smith released a statement via Instagram, in which he labeled his own behavior "unacceptable and inexcusable." He also resigned from the Academy. A week later, the Academy banned him from attending future events for the next decade.

Pinkett Smith addressed the slap for the first time about two months later. During an episode of her show, "Red Table Talk," she took a diplomatic approach to the conflict. "My deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out, and reconcile," she said.

In July, Smith apologized once more in a YouTube video titled "It's Been a Minute." "I've reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he's not ready to talk, and when he is, he will reach out," he said. "So I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you."