It was one of the biggest moments in Oscars history and one that will be remembered for years to come.
Millions of confused viewers from around the world let out a collective ‘OH MY GOD’ as the cast and crew of La La Land handed the Oscar for Best Picture over to the Moonlight team, after presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty accidentally announced the wrong winner.
And now, two months on, Dunaway has spoken about what actually happened that night.
WATCH: Exclusive: “You are completely stunned,” Faye Dunaway tells @LesterHoltNBC of stunning Oscars mishap. https://t.co/RW0u4gSHBn pic.twitter.com/6cWup5mnBL
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) April 24, 2017
In an interview on NBC Nightly News, the Bonnie and Clyde actress explained that she had thought Beatty was joking when he paused before showing her the envelope.
“We took the card out, and he didn’t say anything,” she said.
“He paused, he looked over me, off stage… and I finally said, ‘You’re impossible!’”
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Dunaway explains that she just thought Beatty was being dramatic and just biding time.
“I thought he was joking. I thought he was stalling. Warren’s like that, he kind of holds the power… but it’s part of his charm. I read the name of the film on the card.”
And when it was revealed that she had read out the wrong winner, the 72-year-old says she was shocked along with the rest of us.
“You don’t know what has happened,” she said. “I [felt] very guilty — I thought I could have done something, surely, why couldn’t I have seen Emma Stone’s name on the card?”
Although Dunaway and Beatty were the public faces of the stuff up, the two PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants who were in charge of handing them the right envelope were stood down in the days following Hollywood's biggest (and most memorable) night of the year.