It was the evening’s best reaction shot, a genuine look of pure shock that danced across Jennifer Lawrence’s face as her name was announced as the Oscar winner for Best Actress. You can almost understand why she’d temporarily lose her balance and trip on the way to the podium as she prepared to make her acceptance speech.
While Lawrence was losing her feet, the crowd gathered for the Academy Awards was busy standing on theirs, giving the 22-year-old phenom a standing ovation for her incredible year that included the launch of a major franchise (The Hunger Games) and an Oscar-winning performance in Silver Linings Playbook.
But did the trip on her way to the stage cut Lawrence’s speech short? The actress gave what seemed like the briefest comments of all Oscar winners, gracefully thanking all of the actors who were “so kind” to her during the lengthy awards campaign. She singled out the women in her category, and blew me away with a beautiful birthday wish to Amour actress Emmanuelle Riva. Beyond classy. But she forgot to thank SLP producer Harvey Weinstein, and I’m not sure I remember hearing her thank David O. Russell (though I know she thanked Bradley Cooper).
I’m willing to bet Lawrence was swept up in the moment. Unlike, say, Daniel Day-Lewis or Anne Hathaway, Lawrence was a bit of a surprise to win in this category. Zero Dark Thirty star Jessica Chastain had a lot of the momentum at the start of the Oscar race, with Lawrence only emerging as a frontrunner in the past week or two. Or maybe she just responded like a 22-year-old who had achieved her dream? Either way, it was a very moving moment in a lengthy, staid Oscar telecast. Congratulations, Jennifer Lawrence!
Photo Credit ©ABC
