Angela Bassett comforts Austin Butler amid Oscars losses: viral video
Neither Angela Bassett nor Austin Butler “did the thing” — but at least they had each other at Oscars 2023.
Bassett, 64, and Butler, 31, both failed to win Oscars at the 95th Academy Awards ceremony Sunday night — and now a touching video of the two holding hands has gone viral.
Bassett was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which she lost to Jamie Lee Curtis, 64, for her performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Meanwhile, Butler was nominated for Best Actor for his role as the king of rock ‘n’ roll in the Baz Luhrmann biopic, “Elvis.”
Butler lost to Brendan Fraser (“The Whale“) in what was widely considered to be a neck-and-neck race, with the two plus Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin“) considered to be front-runners.
In a sweet moment captured on video, Bassett can be seen sitting next to Butler and holding his hand as it came time for the presenters to announce the winner of the Best Actor trophy.
The clip was posted to Twitter by a fan with the caption, “Angela Bassett holding Austin Butler’s hand while he’s nervous…is exactly the kind of woman I imagined she was.”
It garnered more than 321,000 views as of Monday morning.
Fans loved that the heartfelt moment was captured on video.
“Now they both know how it feels to throw yourself into an iconic role, kill it …and then lose the Oscar,” one person wrote.
“It’s especially sweet. I don’t think he’s sitting next to family (idk who the guy is) so it’s nice to have someone next to you giving you that extra kudos in your big moment,” another commented.
“I thought it looked like he was holding hers. :) They looked like they were supporting each other, really,” someone else shared.
“Aww the way she squeezed his hand in encouragement at the end,” a fan tweeted. “He’s been through a lot this past year.”
Bassett and Butler were both snubbed at the 2023 Oscars.
“Elvis” ended up losing in all eight categories it was nominated in, going home with no trophies.
Although Curtis won for best supporting actress at the SAG Awards last week, Bassett snagged the Golden Globe for supporting actress and many thought she would get the Oscar for her performance.
Bassett stirred up some drama on Twitter when she didn’t stand up or visibly clap for Curtis after her loss.
