As the biggest night in film, the Oscars now have a long history of legendary off-script occurrences, for better or for worse. It might be hard to top the unexpected outburst by Will Smith against Chris Rock, following the comedian’s tasteless joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith, but the snapshots below could come close.
Other horrible Oscars moments like Seth MacFarlane’s opening musical number “We Saw Your Boobs,” John Travolta’s complete butchering of Idina Menzel’s name, or the Snow White x Rob Lowe opener that got the Academy sued by Disney in 1989, weren’t shocking enough to make the cut, but still deserve honorable mentions.
Angelina Jolie and her brother
“I’m so in love with my brother right now,” is what Angelina Jolie decided to go with for her very first Oscar win for her performance in Girl, Interrupted. A harmless comment had the siblings not gone on to kiss on the mouth at the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party.
Of course, baseless rumors started flowing about the proximity between Jolie and her brother James Haven, which both of them quickly shut down. Maybe not enough to top Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage, but it would surely still get people talking if it happened today.
Adrien Brody kisses Halle Berry
This little nugget was hailed as one of the most iconic Oscar moments for years after it happened but we all know Adrien Brody kissing Halle Berry without consent on stage for all to see would never, ever, fly today. A year later, while receiving her Best Actress award, Charlize Theron kept the tradition going by kissing Brody, her presenter, on the mouth.
In 2017, Berry addressed the situation, saying that, at that moment, all she could think of was “what the f*ck is happening?.” Although her audience at Watch What Happens: Live laughed it off, Berry didn’t seem too fond of the memory.
Roman Polanski wins best director
The Academy seems to pride itself on being a respectful event, but Smith squaring up with Rock is far from being the most disrespectful or classless moment in the Awards’ history. It doesn’t get more disgusting than a room full of stars giving a confessed child molester a standing ovation, but that’s exactly what happened when Roman Polanski won the statuette for Best Director for his film The Pianist.
At the time, and to this day, Polanski was a fugitive from the law, evading sentencing for rape and five other felonies committed in 1977. After all the strides Hollywood has made to stop predatory men from plaguing the industry in recent years, this win might seem insane, but it did happen. The Academy finally expelled Polanski in 2018, over four decades since he fled the country.
The Streaker
Ah, the ’70s. A time of great cinema, and greater nakedness. And what is more ’70s than a man running across the Oscars stage in nothing but his birthday suit, throwing up peace signs? This brilliant example of Flower Power took place during the 1974 Academy Awards, while host David Niven was trying to introduce Elizabeth Taylor.
Now famously known as “The Streaker,” the man was later identified as Robert Opel, a photographer, art gallery owner, and activist based out of San Francisco. The way Opel managed to break through security so easily, and the quick wit of host Niven’s reaction and commentary on the scene led many to believe the whole thing was staged. At the time, streaking was a trend, in the same vein as planking, the Harlem Shake, or today’s TikTok dances. Very rowdy for the Academy.
The Moonlight/La La Land blunder
The only major modern Oscars scandal that could possibly measure up to the Smith/Rock fiasco of 2022 was the 2017 Best Picture mix-up between the year’s two darlings: La La Land, and Moonlight. Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope — the one for Best Actress, with Emma Stone and La La Land written on it in big letters — consequently leading Beatty to do a double-take before handing Dunaway the card.
The actress read out “La La Land,” and only after the entire cast and crew in attendance had made their way to the stage did producer Jordan Horowitz correct the mistake. The whole room of stars had their jaws on the floor, and Taraji P. Henson didn’t hesitate to whip out her phone. Everyone was ultimately very gracious about it all, but the Oscars hadn’t been that entertaining in a minute.
Sacheen Littlefeather and Marlon Brando
Almost everyone knows about the time Marlon Brando declined his Best Actor Oscar for his now iconic performance in The Godfather, sending alleged Native American activist and President of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee, Sacheen Littlefeather in his place.
Littlefeather refused the statuette from Roger Moore and delivered a speech bringing awareness to the treatment and depiction of Native American people in Hollywood cinema, and to the events of the Wounded Knee occupation which was taking place at the time. She was met with heckling and booing, with John Wayne reportedly having to be restrained from attacking the activist. Regardless of the doubts that have since surfaced about Littlefeather’s ancestry, her bravery at that moment, and the validity of the cause both she and Brando stood up for, can’t be questioned.
Michael Moore speaks out against the invasion of Iraq
Political speeches are now the norm at the Oscars, from critiques of the on-screen representation of minorities with #OscarsSoWhite, to global warming, and the #MeToo movement, but that wasn’t always the case. Much like Littlefeather 30 full decades before him, famous documentarian Michael Moore was met with instant backlash from loud members of the audience who rejected his condemnation of former U.S. president George W. Bush’s election and invasion of Iraq.
Moore was not intimidated however, going on to state that the Iraq war was based on “fictitious reasons,” and that “anytime you’ve got the Pope and The Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up.” The camera then panned to different members of the audience, raging from an uncomfortable Adrien Brody to an apparently smiley Harrison Ford. The 2003 Oscars might just be the most eventful in history, garnering three entries on this list.
