The 96th Academy Awards were held on March 10, 2024, and the ceremony was mostly a success despite a tumultuous political year. However, it’s nearly impossible for the Academy to run a show without some level of controversy, and this year, some of that controversy is falling on Robert Downey Jr. and Emma Stone, who won the Best Supporting Actor and Best Actress prizes, due to some actions that many viewers found disrespectful.
Why Are People Angry At Robert Downey Jr. And Emma Stone’s Oscar Wins?
This controversy isn’t about who won, as both performers mostly delivered knockout performances and deserved their awards. (My heart still goes to you, Lily Gladstone.) Some viewers, however, are upset at how the pair handled winning their awards. Harkening back to the Taylor Swift x Celine Dion Grammy incident (it wasn’t much), Robert Downey Jr. and Emma Stone are being criticized for not acknowledging last year’s winners, Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh.
In a GIF posted to Twitter, Robert Downey Jr. is shown accepting his Oscar from Ke Huy Quan without acknowledging the past winner, hardly even glancing at the former Best Supporting Actor. Downey did exchange pleasantries with co-presenters Tim Robbins and Sam Rockwell, and while Quan and Downey did exchange a selfie backstage, social media was quick to notice the odd interaction on stage.
Emma Stone’s Oscar win elicited a similar reaction after Stone briskly and briefly acknowledged Michelle Yeoh before walking over to embrace co-presenters Jennifer Lawrence and Sally Field. Those online also noticed how Stone seemingly only accepted the award after Lawrence personally handed the statuette to her.
Many online perceived these as microaggressions towards the former winners in a ceremony where people of color are historically underrepresented. Yeoh remains only the second person of color to win Best Actress, while Quan is only the second actor of Asian descent to win Best Supporting Actor in the ceremony’s 96-year history.
