Oscars 2024: What You Didn’t See on TV

Sure, many of the best moments of the Oscars 2024 made it on screen — Da‘Vine Joy Randolph’s emotional speech, Nicolas Cage’s tribute to Paul Giamatti, Scott Evans giving a peck on the cheek to fellow Ken Ryan Gosling. But at an event this star-studded, with so much at stake, there‘s always way more going on than any cameras can capture. But from the arrivals on the red carpet to the most intimate moments of the Vanity Fair Oscar party, we were on the cast. Reporting from the Oscars ceremony, David Canfield, Natalie Jarvey, Joy Press, and Kara Warner were our eyes and ears in the lobby, the auditorium, and backstage, while Nate Freeman captured the moment inside the Vanity Fair Oscar party. Ahead, a look back at the major moments you didn‘t see on TV. 

Everybody Felt the Kenergy

It’s possible that Ryan Gosling in a bedazzled pink suit will be the defining image of the 2024 Oscars, so let’s start there. Natalie spotted the black cowboy-hatted Kens in the lobby before the performance, and then watched the lobby bar get noticeably quiet once the performance began. In the auditorium it was wall-to-wall enthusiasm, with the lyrics to the song put up on giant screens so everyone, not just Greta Gerwig and Emma Stone, could sing along. Some even treated it like being at a concert, recording it on their phones – as if it was not being filmed for broadcast.

The Kens line up. 

By Natalie Jarvey

When the performance was over, the Kens were all back in the lobby, even more enthusiastic than before. They gathered in a circle to celebrate, jumping up and down and chanting “Ken! Ken! Ken!”

Thanks to Francesca Scorsese, we know that Martin Scorsese also approved. 

A Poor Things Sweep at the Bar

As in so many years past, the lobby bar was the place to do some serious people-watching, and Joy caught a particularly dramatic moment. Emma Stone was catching up with Kirsten Dunst in the lobby when Poor Things began its winning streak, taking home the awards for makeup and hair, production design, and costume design in quick succession. Stone shouted “oh my god!” and streaked across the lobby to watch it unfold on a monitor, with a happy but stricken expression on her face. For one victory she jumped up and down and screamed in excitement, then turned around to apologize to those behind her.

There was yet another source of excitement throughout all of that: Stone and Florence Pugh were watching together and were just as thrilled by John Cena’s streaker bit as the rest of us.

John Cena’s Quick Change

Cena really did have nothing but a small modesty garment on for his presentation of the best costume design nominees, but thanks to a remarkable quick-change he was outfitted in a curtain by the time he announced the name of winner Holly Waddington. 

Christopher Nolan’s Bicep Curls

There was a steady trickle of winners in the press room backstage all night, but few were as loaded down with hardware as Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan, who joked that now that he has two Oscars he can do bicep curls — and then proceeded to do them. At 8 pounds apiece, that’s a decent-sized weight to lift after a long night!

Emma Stone Gets Sewn Up

Speaking of “I’m Just Ken” — Stone blamed her busted dress on that performance when she took the stage to accept her best actress Oscar, and stuck by it when she arrived in the press room backstage. By then, thank goodness, her dress had been repaired. “When I came back, they sewed me back in, which was wonderful,” she told reporters. “I genuinely do think I did it during ‘I’m Just Ken.’ I just was so amazed by Ryan and what he was doing, and that number just blew my mind and I was right there and I just was going for it and things happen.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s Emotional Reflection

The Holdovers star gave the first speech of the night, and quite possibly the most emotional. Backstage she elaborated on what she said in her speech about learning to simply be herself. “When I looked at this show for many years as I was growing up, I didn’t necessarily see myself there yet,” she told the press. “So I was on this journey of trying to figure out how I could mold myself to that, because I thought that’s what success would mean. And what I have begun to find in my journey is, and being myself and doing the work and staying focused and driven and clear, I could do exactly the same thing whilst being myself.

Godzilla Stomps In

In the early hours of the red carpet it was the Godzilla Minus One team, eventually the winners for best visual effects, at the center of attention, decked out in Godzilla-inspired gear from head to literal toes.