2021 Academy Awards: The Most Viral Moments of a Truly Chaotic Night

Award Shows By TooFab Staff |
ABC

As with everything else over the last year, the Oscars looked a little different in 2021.

The 2020 Academy Awards were one of the last events to go down before the world entered lockdown for the coronavirus. After being pushed back all the way to April, the 2021 Oscars -- just like every other award show we've had amid the pandemic -- were a little different this year.

Instead of their usual home at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, the event was held at a train station -- Union Station in Los Angeles, to be exact. The Best Song nominees were all performed during the pre-show and, switching things up even more, Best Picture was presented before Best Actress and Best Actor.

Keep reading to see all the moments that had people talking on Twitter -- from Daniel Kaluuya's sex talk to Glenn Close, of all people, doing Da Butt!

Regina King Opens the Show

The show kicked off with Regina King strutting her stuff into Union Station as the "opening credits" began. The camera followed her all the way into the main stage area, as all the night's presenters names flashed on the screen. She then had the honor of starting the show.

"It has been quite a year and we're still smack dab in the middle of it. If things had gone different this week in Minneapolis, I might have traded in my heels for marching boots," she began, referring to the guilty verdict in the case of Derek Chauvin. "I know that a lot of you people at home want to reach for your remote when you feel like Hollywood is preaching to you. But as a mother of a Black son, I know the fear that so many live with and no amount of fame or fortune changes that. But, tonight, we are here to celebrate."

She then explained how they're able to do the awards without masks, reminding viewers that movie sets are allowed to do it and that's how they're handling the Oscars. She said they'd all been vaccinated, tested, re-tested and would be following all protocols. "When we're rolling, masks off," she said, "When we're not rolling, masks on."

Daniel Kaluuya's Big Win

Daniel Kaluuya won his first Oscar, for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for his work in "Judas and the Black Messiah." After thanking his coworkers, he took a moment to pay tribute to the real Fred Hampton, who he played in the film.

"Bro, man, what a man. What a man. How blessed we are that we lived in a lifetime where he existed," said Kaluuya. "Thank you for your light. He showed me how to love myself. With that love, it overflowed to the Black community into other communities. Thank you so much for showing me myself. And, yeah man, there's so much work to do guys. And that's on everyone in this room. This ain't no single man job. I look at every single one of you, we got work to do."

"Tonight," he added, "we're going up! It's incredible. My mom, my dad, they had sex, I'm here! I'm so happy to be alive."

His mom and sister were in the audience ... and had one of the best moments of the night.

Chloe Zhao Makes History

Going into the awards, the "Nomadland" director was the first woman of color to ever be nominated in the Director category. During the show itself, she became the first woman of color to win. In Oscar history, she's only the second woman ever to win, behind Kathryn Bigelow for "The Hurt Locker."

During her speech, Zhao said her win was for "for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold out for the goodness in themselves and each other, no matter how hard it is to do that."

After her win, "Eternals" also started trending, as viewers shared their excitement for the Oscar-winner's next film -- which just happens to be a Marvel project starring Angelina Jolie. Yes, please!

"Nomadland" also went on to win Best Picture at the end of the show.

The West Side Story Trailer Drops

One moment that went viral actually went down during the commercial break, when 20th Century Studios dropped the first trailer for Stephen Spielberg's film adaptation of "West Side Story."

The movie stars Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler as star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria, respectively, in an adaptation of the Broadway musical. Rita Moreno, who played Maria in the 1961 version, also stars and serves as an EP.

A Supernatural Appearance

One very random name that started trending on Twitter during the telecast was Mischa Collins of "Supernatural." The show's fans often take over the top Twitter trends -- so it was only a matter of time until his name shot up the list on Sunday night when he made a brief, blink and you miss it appearance during the show.

He was on hand to support his friend Darius Marder, who co-wrote and directed "Sound of Metal." The movie was up for six awards during the ceremony.

The confusion, however, took over the timeline.

Yuh-Jung Youn Steals the Show

"Minari" star Yuh-Jung Youn also made history when she picked up the Best Supporting Actress award for her work in "Minari." With her win, she becomes the first Korean performer to win any award at the Oscars.

She was given her award by Brad Pitt, who looked handsome as ever and even brought out the actress' flirtatious side. "Mr. Brad Pitt, finally, nice to meet you," she said, "Where were you while we were filming? Very honored to meet you."

She then told everyone in the audience they were "all forgiven" for saying her name wrong, before needing a moment to pull herself together. She thanked the Academy, her "Minari" family and then celebrated the other nominees in her category.

"How can I win over Glenn Close? I've been watching her so many performances," she said. "5 nominees ... we play different roles, we cannot compete with each other. I'm luckier than you and also maybe American hospitality for the Korean actor, I'm not sure."

She ended her speech by thanking her boys for making her "go out and work." She concluded, "This is the result, because mommy worked so hard."

Harrison Ford, Comic Relief?

As the show entered its third hour, Harrison Ford showed up as some welcome comic relief while presenting the award for Best Editor. To introduce the category, he pulled out some editorial notes from a screening of one his classic films.

"Opening, too choppy. Why is this voiceover track so terrible? He sounds drugged. Were they all on drugs?" he read. "Why do we need the third cut to the eggs? This movie gets worse every screening. That movie was called 'Blade Runner.'"

His appearance made everyone laugh ... and wonder if he even wanted to be there.

Tyler Perry Says Refuse Hate

Tyler Perry got everyone in the audience on their feet when he went to pick up the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from Viola Davis -- and kept the energy going with a passionate speech in which he called on everyone to "refuse hate."

"Don't hate anybody. I refuse to hate someone because they are Mexican, they are Black or white or LGBTQ. I refuse to hate someone because they are a police officer, I refuse to hate someone because they are Asian. I would hope that we would refuse hate," he told the crowd.

He then went on to dedicate the award "to anyone who wants to stand in the middle, no matter what's around the wall, stand in the middle, that's where healing happens, that's where conversation happens, that's where change happens. It happens in the middle. So anyone who wants to meet me in the middle to refuse hate, refuse blanket judgement and help lift someone's feet off the ground, this one's for you too."

While the speech got a lot of praise, some also took issue with his cop mention.

Glenn Close Does Da Butt

With three categories to go, the Oscars decided to have Lil Rel Howery play a game with everyone in the audience where they'd have to guess whether a classic song was nominated or not. The bit went on far too long and seemed like something to just waste time because they were -- for once -- running short.

It was pretty excruciating, until Howery got to Glenn Close and played "Da Butt." While he doubted she knew the song, she proved she not only knew the song, she knew it was from "School Daze," by E.U. and was not nominated. She then proceeded to do Da Butt.

She may not have won an Oscar tonight, but she certainly won the night and the respect of Twitter.

Anthony Hopkins, Not Chadwick Boseman, Wins Best Actor

When it seemed like the show was going to end with Best Actor, it felt like the Academy Awards were building to a closing moment honoring the late Chadwick Boseman -- who has been winning this category in a number of other awards before the Oscars.

While the organizers may have thought Boseman's win was in the bag and rearranged the show to pay tribute to him, that's not what happened. Instead, Anthony Hopkins won the final award of the night for his work in "The Father." Making it feel all the more jarring: he wasn't even there to accept his award.

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Hopkins was actually asleep in Wales when he won and reacted to the news once he woke up. He also honored Boseman in his speech, posted to Instagram.

Saying he "did not expect to get this award," he said he was grateful before adding, "I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman who was taken from us far too early, and again, thank you all very much. I really did not expect this, so I feel very privileged and honored."

It was a very abrupt ending to what was a very chaotic evening ... and many were left wondering what had just happened.

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