From Hugh Grant’s impolite pre-show interview to Angela Bassett’s disgruntled response to losing best supporting actress, many of us tuned in to watch the unpredictable event unfold as the 95th Academy Awards were presented.
The 10 most shocking moments at the Oscars
| Rank | Name of Nominee | Name of Film Nominated | Reason for Shock | Award Category | Oscar Date | Youtube View Count |
| 1 | Will Smith | King Richard | Slapped Chris Rock | Best Actor | 94th – 2022 | 108, 544, 451 |
| 2 | Jennifer Lawrence | Silver Linings Playbook | Falls down going to the stage | Best Actress | 85th – 2013 | 15,327,834 |
| 3 | Marlon Brando | Godfather | Refused to Accept Award in Protest | Best Actor | 45th – 1973 | 14,023,526 |
| 4 | Joaquin Phoenix | Joker | Vegan and Anti-Cancel Culture Beliefs | Best Actor | 92nd – 2020 | 13,362,270 |
| 5 | Robert Benigni | Life is Beautiful | Climbed over Speilberg in excitement | Foreign Language Film | 71st – 1999 | 12,658,800 |
| 6 | Adrien Brody | The Pianist | Kisses Halle Berry | Best Actor | 75th – 2003 | 7,379,517 |
| 7 | Angelina Jolie | Girl, Interrupted | “Over-Affection” Towards Brother | Best Supporting Actress | 72nd – 2000 | 5,607,210 |
| 8 | Fred Berger | Moonlight – La La Land | Award given to wrong film | Best Picture | 89th – 2017 | 2,696,067 |
| 9 | Michael Moore | Bowling for Columbine | Controversial speech about President Bush | Best Documentary | 75th – 2003 | 1,784,489 |
| 10 | Roman Polanski | The Pianist | Receives award after fleeing country | Best Director | 75th – 2003 | 1,429,570 |
The most viewed Oscars moment goes to Will Smith for his astonishing reaction to Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. As Chris was presenting, he mocked Will’s wife which led to him publicly slapping Chris Rock on live television. Initially shouting “Keep my wife’s name out your f****** mouth!” There were almost five times (53%)* more searches for ‘Will Smith slap’ than for ‘Oscars Award Ceremony’ in the three days after and including the day of the event. This resulted in the shocking moment being watched over 108 million times on Youtube and it has since been reported that Will has been given a 10 year ban from attending any academy events or programmes.
Ranking as the second most viewed Oscars speech goes to Jennifer Lawrence. The ‘Silver Linings’ actress was incredibly shocked when her name was called in 2013 for the best actress title, that she stumbled as she ascended the steps to accept her award. After, she started her acceptance speech in her normal frank tone saying “You guys are just standing up ’cause you feel bad that I fell, and that’s really embarrassing, but thank you.” The moment went viral, now reaching an astounding 15 million views (15,327,834) and her name was found to be searched 4.5 times (56%)* more than ‘Oscars Award Ceremony’ after the event and for the following three days.
Revealed as the third most shocking Oscars speech is Marlon Brando from the film ‘Godfather’. He was honoured by the academy but to everyone’s surprise he declined the ceremony which raked in a whopping 14 million views (14,023,526). Instead, he gave up his spot at the podium to Native American human rights advocate Sacheen Littlefeather, who delivered a statement from the actor stating that he was declining the award because of “the abuse of American Indians today by the film business.”
Credit to The Slot Buzz who commissioned the research and provided the above article.
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