"La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz has been lauded as the voice of reason in the confusion created Sunday night when his film was mistakenly named the Oscars' best-picture winner instead of the actual winner, "Moonlight."
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The 'hero' 'La La Land' producer who gave the best-picture Oscar to 'Moonlight' says the moment was 'terrible'
Producer Jordan Horowitz, who was lauded by Oscars viewers for his reaction to the best-picture mistake, speaks out.
"La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz (L) showing the correct best-picture winner, "Moonlight."
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The morning after, Horowitz remained gracious over the defeat of "La La Land," which entered the night with 14 nominations, and the confusion initially surrounding the Oscars' finale.
"Hey, I won the Oscar for best picture. I got to thank my wife and kids," Horowitz told CNN on Monday, a reference to the fact he had time to make his full acceptance speech Sunday night before it became clear that something was wrong. "And then I got to present the Oscar for best picture! Not many people can say that."
"I don't even know entirely what happened," he added. "But life throws you a curveball sometimes."
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On Sunday, presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty were given the wrong winner's envelope by the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. They announced "La La Land" as the winner because the envelope they were given was a duplicate of the one announcing "La La Land" star Emma Stone's win for best actress. While acceptance speeches were still being made, Beatty and host Jimmy Kimmel informed the "La La Land" team of the mistake. Horowitz was the one to tell the world and set things straight.
"You guys, I'm sorry, no. There's a mistake," Horowitz said. "'Moonlight,' you guys won best picture."
Then when asking the "Moonlight" team to come up to the stage to accept the award, Horowitz said, "This is not a joke."
The producer was called a "hero" and a "gentleman" on social media for the way he reacted to the news of his loss and the win for "Moonlight." A Washington Post article called him "the truth-teller we need right now."
Horowitz gave CNN an idea of what it was like to learn about the error in the moment, after he discovered that the winner's envelope was intended for Stone.
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"People started saying, 'Where's the best-picture card?'" he said. "There was confusion onstage."
Horowitz described the incident as "terrible" and "weird," but he suggested he didn't feel as if "La La Land," the musical starring Stone and Ryan Gosling that many had pegged as the frontrunner for best picture, deserved any credit afterward.
"No, this award belongs entirely to 'Moonlight,'" he said of the film about a gay black man growing up in Miami. "I don't want this to take away from them at all ... It's a beautiful film made by some beautiful people."
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