Here’s Mo’Nique’s acceptance speech from last night for Best Supporting Actress. Peep Sam Jackson’s side eye after Mo'Nique finishes around the 2:30 mark.
More Oscar news after the break...
So you might be wondering what happened when you saw producer Elinor Burkett Kanyed the microphone during the acceptance speech from director-producer Roger Ross Williams who won the award for his film, “Music by Prudence,”. Here’s a snippet of the post award interview with both parties:
Producer Elinor Burkett
People are already saying you “pulled a Kanye.” What happened?
BURKETT: What happened was the director and I had a bad difference over the direction of the film that resulted in a lawsuit that has settled amicably out of court. But there have been all these events around the Oscars, and I wasn’t invited to any of them. And he’s not speaking to me. So we weren’t even able to discuss ahead of the time who would be the one person allowed to speak if we won. And then, as I’m sure you saw, when we won, he raced up there to accept the award. And his mother took her cane and blocked me. So I couldn’t get up there very fast.
Can you explain the reason behind the conflict?
BURKETT: The movie was supposed to be about the entire band, Liyana. And the [band members] were very clear they did not want to participate if it ended up being just about one person. The director and HBO decided to focus solely on Prudence . . .
Director Roger Williams
How did that happen?
WILLIAMS: Only one person is allowed to accept the award. I was the director, and she was removed from the project nearly a year ago, but she was able to still qualify as a producer on the project, and be an official nominee. But she was very angry — she actually removed herself from the project – because she wanted more creative control.
But couldn’t you decide ahead of time who would speak?
WILLIAMS: That was handled by the publicist for the academy. I don’t know what they told her. The academy is very clear that only one person can speak. I own the film. She has no claim whatsoever. She has nothing to do with the movie. She just ambushed me. I was sort of in shock.
You seemed to run up there pretty fast. Didn’t you see her coming up the aisle? What did you think was going to happen when she got there?
WILLIAMS: I just expected her to stand there. I had a speech prepared.
Read the full interview