Unbelievable. Matt Damon, Michelle Williams, Meryl Streep and more celebs could not hide their feelings when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway erroneously announced La La Land as the Best Picture winner over the true victor, Moonlight, at the 2017 Oscars. Relive the epic gaffe in the video above!
During Beatty and Dunaway’s onstage snafu at the Sunday, February 26, awards show — which occurred because of an envelope mix-up that was out of their control —cameras caught a portion of the star-studded crowd inside Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre reacting to the drama.
As seen in pics, Damon’s eyebrows were raised and his mouth was agape while Williams’ jaw was on the floor. The Manchester by the Sea actress’ BFF and date for the night, Busy Philipps, looked utterly confused, and Ben Affleck, who was seated next to Philipps, 37, peered across his row to take in his pal Damon’s reaction.
Streep, 67, appeared stunned by the turn of events as her eyes widened, intently gazing upward. Moana voice actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson also looked perturbed with his brow furrowed, and Oscar winner Casey Affleck nervously touched his beard as it all went down.
Meanwhile, Salma Hayek made an uncomfortable face that everyone could relate to during the cringeworthy moment when the cast of La La Land had to turn over the award to Moonlight. Of course, social media is having a field day with the group’s shocked expressions — especially Streep’s.
This was my face after the The Super Bowl, and the election, Meryl Streep was all of us last night. pic.twitter.com/K8exSCa1tS
— CJ Vickers (@wx_freak) February 27, 2017
TBH, Meryl Streep’s face last night is mine 95% of the time… pic.twitter.com/N3rQMbSm2a
— AbbySaurusVex (@AbbySaurusVex) February 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/juanbombb/status/836100146186317825
i have been laughing for five minutes at meryl streep’s face when it turned out that moonlight actually won best picture pic.twitter.com/jyCm26pUhE
— Carrie (@carriemariek) February 27, 2017
Meryl Streep’s face when the mix-up was announced needs to be a new Twitter thing pic.twitter.com/wPakaPQ6PA
— Shawn Krest (@ShawnKrest) February 27, 2017
Meryl Streep is a straight up legend! Look at her face when she realised what was happening with #oscarsfail ??? pic.twitter.com/KhzCFIZrdb
— Jessica Chelsey ? (@Jessica_Chelsey) February 27, 2017
My personal favorite reactions: Michelle Williams and @Busyphilipps25. Not only friendship goals but shocked-face goals, also. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/PuVsZwTWIJ
— Robert Rosenberg (@RobMRosenberg) February 27, 2017
@ThaneStephen the rocks face ? pic.twitter.com/FAiYd60MIH
— Cincy Guy (@CincyGuy2009) February 27, 2017
Matt Damon’s face reacting to the madness is almost like an O face pic.twitter.com/98qkcyqOML
— Kung Fu Ryan (@TheChewDefense) February 27, 2017
As viewers saw on Sunday night’s telecast, Beatty, 79, noticeably paused when he opened the envelope to announce which film won Best Picture, ultimately passing it over to fellow presenter and Bonnie and Clyde costar Dunaway, 76, who announced, “La La Land!”
In an interview with the Daily Mail on Sunday, Beatty opened up about the confusion. “People thought I was being dramatic, but I wasn’t,” he told the outlet. “There was something wrong. I showed it to Faye and she said La La Land.”
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the auditing firm that handles the Oscars votes, issued an apology after the mix-up. “We sincerely apologize to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture,” the company said in a statement on Monday, February 27. “The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred. We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.”