LOS ANGELES (AP) — There is a whole other show that happens offscreen at the Oscars that the home audience doesn't see on television. Here’s what The Associated Press saw that the cameras did not capture.
Things got off to a late start, about 6 minutes behind schedule and not everyone made their way to their seats by the start of the show. Among the last seated around 7:06 pm EDT were Martin Scorsese, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. Carey Mulligan missed the moving cutoff though and spent Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue and the supporting actress prize standing off to the side, but she had husband Marcus Mumford there to keep her company.
At the first commercial break people bolted out of their seats to find their friends. Emma Stone immediately found her longtime friend Jennifer Lawrence and the two ran out the clock laughing and gesticulating wildly as their husbands looked on.
Greta Gerwig beelined to Robbie and America Ferrera, all in good spirits after the supporting actress prize went to Da’Vine Joy Randolph. And yes, Mulligan and Mumford finally found their seats.
Emma Stone was out in the lobby bar with a glass of champagne in hand when “Poor Things” won best production design. She yelped out and jumped up and down and attentively watched the speech.
She then turned to Florence Pugh, standing nearby and the two talked animatedly about Pugh’s “sprinkled dress.”
All of a sudden, Pugh laughed and looked up at the monitor to see an almost naked John Cena. “Oooh it’s because he looks like the Oscar!”
A few seconds later “Poor Things” also won for costume design and Stone jumped and screamed again.
“I’m missing all of them,” she cried. “It’s not OK, it’s bad, I’m going home.”
Out in the lobby Gerwig had a fan who wanted to talk to her about something very specific: Ann Roth’s ‘Barbie’ cameo.
“I want you to know how much that meant to me,” said academy board member Eduardo Castro, who’s in the costume designers branch.
Roth, 92, played the woman on the bench in “Barbie,” a bit that Kimmel even mimicked in his opening. She’s a two-time Oscar winner for “The English Patient” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
Castro, whose credits include “Ugly Betty” and “Bride and Prejudice,” said he considers Roth a mentor.
“She’s special,” Gerwig said. “She said ‘Greta I don’t know if I can do it, I can’t do it! Just give me a martini.’”
Castro laughed: “She loves a martini.”
By that point Gerwig’s husband Noah Baumbach had made his way to her and they made their way to the bar. (They did not, however, order martinis.)
About a half hour before Gosling turned the Oscars into a wildly fun concert for a few precious minutes, the Kens were out in the lobby warming up. Clad in cowboy hats, some were stretching, some running in place, and all were finding their Kenergy.
During the performance, the Dolby Theatre took on the feel of a Taylor Swift concert, with everyone in the room standing and breaking into spontaneous, joyous dance. And the biggest fan in the room was Gerwig, who was given her own personal Ken right up in her face.
During the commercial break Mark Ronson found his way to Gerwig, Robbie and a crowd of admirers. The whole room was buzzing long after the performance, Ronson maybe most of all — he went back to his seat proudly donning his pink Ken shirt, which he wore for the rest of the show.
The Oppenhomies stayed up on the stage for a few minutes after the cameras turned off, hugging and celebrating all the wins. Downey held up his trophy doing a bit of a fist pump with it. Some of the last ones on the stage were Emily Blunt and Kimmel, who chatted casually and made their way out.
On the way to the Governors Ball, Cord Jefferson was beaming as he walked through the lobby, jumping and clutching his Oscar. Kate McKinnon had a moment with Marlee Matlin and Steven Spielberg made his way out in a mask.
And though Gerwig and “Barbie” went home mostly empty handed she was in great spirits, still vibrating from “I’m Just Ken,” which she called “legendary.”