As seen in many Academy Awards ceremonies in the past, each film nominated for Best Picture is featured in a trailer during the show. However, when the montage for Stone’s Poor Thingswas played on the screen, Oscars’ host Jimmy Kimmel made a quip that may have been in poor taste.
“Those were all the parts of Poor Things that we’re allowed to show on TV,” Kimmel poked after the trailer had finished, apparently referencing the uninhibited sex that Stone’s character Bella Baxter enjoys throughout the movie, which was nominated for Best Picture.
When Kimmel made the joke, Stone, 35, was seen turning and uttering something to her husband Dave McCary, while rolling her eyes. Many eagle-eyed watchers thought the actress said, “Oh my god”, reports People.
According to the New York Post, some fans thought the actress said, “What a pr**k,” after Kimmel implied the film was only about sex.
Stone’s representatives did not immediately respond to People’s request for comment.
The actress reflected on her character’s journey at the beginning of the year, telling BBC Radio 4′s Front Row in January”: “[The sex] is obviously a huge part of her experience and her growth, as it is, I think, for most people in life.”
“So for the camera to sort of shy away from that, or to say like, ‘Okay, well, we’ll just cut all of this out because our society functions in a particular way’... it felt like a lack of being honest about who Bella is.”
Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos shed light on why he didn’t “shy away” from the movie’s sexual content during the New York Film Festival in September.
“It was a very important part of her journey. We felt that we shouldn’t shy away from it,” he said. “It would feel very disingenuous to tell this story about this character who is so free and so open and then be prude about the sexual aspect of it.”
Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo in a scene from Poor Things. Photo / AP
During the Easy A actress’ acceptance speech, she thanked her husband McCary while also paying tribute to her soon-to-be-3-year-old daughter Louise Jean with a line from a Taylor Swift song.
It’s not the first time she’s won the Best Actress Academy Award, as Stone won in the category for her role in La La Land alongside Ryan Gosling.
