Legendary actress Faye Dunaway said Tuesday she’s still “not recovered” from the humiliating Oscars snafu that momentarily denied “Moonlight” its rightful top prize.
In her first interview since the Academy calamity, Dunaway blamed herself for naming “La La Land” as the year’s best picture.
“It’s a moment I still have not recovered from,” she told NBC’s “Today” show.
The problem on Feb. 26 started backstage when an accountant handed Dunaway’s co-presenter, “Bonnie and Clyde” colleague Warren Beatty, the wrong award envelope. So when Beatty opened it — showing that Emma Stone of “La La Land” had won for best actress — he froze.
“What happened that night was Warren opened the envelope, took the card out and didn’t speak,” said Dunaway, 76.
The perplexed actress assumed Beatty was just milking the moment.
“He’s charming, you know?” Dunaway said. “He makes you wait.”
That’s when Dunaway, who had seen “La La Land” on the best-actress card, broke the silence and blurted out that the Tinseltown musical had won.
“La La Land’s” cast took the stage and began acceptance speeches before the debacle was untangled and “Moonlight” was declared winner.
“I was very guilty,” Dunaway said. “I thought, I could have done something, surely. Why didn’t I see Emma Stone’s name on the top of the card?”
Dunaway – doing press to hype “The Case for Christ” – said she and Beatty should have done a better job thinking on their feet.
“But something about that moment,” she said, “ just combined to make us both not able to perform what normally one would perform. Normally, we would say, ‘This is the wrong card.’ But it didn’t happen that way.”