Octavia Spencer ”said some prayers” for the accountant who handed out the wrong envelope at the Oscars which lead to the Best Picture mix-up.
The gaffe at Sunday (26.02.17) night’s award show saw ‘La La Land’ mistakenly read out as the winner of the coveted prize instead of Barry Jenkins’ ‘Moonlight’, after PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant Brian Cullinan wrongly handed out the envelope for Best Actress in a Leading Role – which went to Emma Stone for her performance in the musical movie.
‘Hidden Figures’ actress Octavia was sat in the audience with her co-stars Taraji P. Henson and Janelle Monae – who also had a role in the winning movie – when the mistake occurred, and has said she felt nothing but sympathy for Brian who, along with his colleague Martha Ruiz, will not be allowed to attend next year’s ceremony.
Speaking to Jimmy Fallon on his late night talk show ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ on Thursday (02.03.17), the 46-year-old actress – who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress but lost out to Viola Davis – said: ”It was exhilarating and fun. I mean, it was a lot of firsts that night. Janelle was in ‘Moonlight’ and didn’t realise they had won. I’m like, ‘You gotta get up there, you guys won.’
”It was a ‘Hold up. Wait a minute. What’s going on? Did ‘Hidden Figures’ win?’ I really felt for the ‘La La Land’ people, but they had won all night.
”The guy that gave the envelope, I really said some prayers for him because he is the one that really just, like, that was bad. It was kinda sad.”
Octavia noted that the mix-up was an ”honest mistake”, and praised actor Warren Beatty – who presented the award along with Faye Dunaway – for handling the ”drama” gracefully.
She added: ”I’m glad that Warren Beatty explained all the drama and squashed it.”