Leonardo DiCaprio, Brie Larson make those Oscars official at the Governors Ball
Leonardo DiCaprio at the engraving station at the 88th Academy Awards Governors Ball on Sunday in Hollywood.
At the Governors Ball immediately following the Academy Awards on Sunday, it was all eyes on Leonardo DiCaprio — but not for long.
He, like the other winners, promptly headed over to the engraving station to have his name placed on his Oscar.
“Engraving” is a bit of a misnomer in this case, because the bronze nameplates were all created well in advance of Sunday’s ceremony, and DiCaprio found himself conversing politely with a technician who used a simple screwdriver to affix the nameplate with two black screws.
“Wow, manually?” the actor asked. “Do they do this every year?” He was informed that yes, this happens each year.
“I wouldn’t know,” DiCaprio joked. His Oscar, for best actor in “The Revenant,” was, of course, the first of his career. He’d seen the first of his six nominations way back in 1994, when he got a supporting actor nod for “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.”
Next up was Brie Larson, who’d won best actress for “Room” and was toasting with her beau as she waited for her Oscar to get its nameplate.
Once she had the personalized statuette — they are wiped clean of smudges and fingerprints with a small towel — she stared at it and shook her head. “Oh my God,” she whispered before exiting to a blast of camera flashes.
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Alicia Vikander sipped bubbly while waiting for her nameplate. A few chairs down, three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki took a photo of the supporting actress winner for “The Danish Girl” with his smartphone.
Grammy nominee Andra Day, in a flowing yellow gown, took center stage at the party, literally. The singer performed atop a platform in the middle of the sprawling space, launching into a rendition of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” as partygoers swayed to the beat.
As is traditional, however, the Governors Ball is not the night’s final destination for many and therefore winds down relatively early, at least for the big names in the crowd.
DiCaprio, clutching his statue and flanked by security and an impressive entourage, left the pink-filled space shortly after 10:30 p.m. as other revelers snacked on mini pizza slices and deviled eggs. And it’s no surprise he needed the help: A swarm of well-wishers and celeb-gazers wanted their peek at the man of the hour.
Director George Miller was another leaving the ball around that time. An entourage followed him as well, but it wasn’t as big as the number of wins his film “Mad Max: Fury Road” had nabbed earlier in the evening.
“It really thrilled me,” said the smiling, bespectacled director. “If you told me a year ago that we’d be nominated, I wouldn’t have believed it. And if you told me a week ago we’d win, I still wouldn’t have believed it.”
So he wasn’t expecting so many wins? Not even just a little bit?
“Not at all, not at all,” Miller said, shaking his head. “Most of all I’m so happy my wife, Margaret [Sixel], won. So it’s a great night.”
Still, just before 11 p.m., Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs was still taking in the party scene.
“I think it was a fabulous night,” she said, after taking a photo with Day. “I thought Chris [Rock] did an amazing job. He really did. Our producers too.”
Asked how the awards show might look differently come next year with recent implementations in the aftermath of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, Isaacs was coy about playing fortune teller.
“I have no idea what it will look like next year,” she said.
By that time this year, however, with the stars for the most part having moved on to the night’s other events — including a party for “Spotlight” and the Vanity Fair shindig — the guests were down to mere mortals, an enthusiastic few braved the dance floor, bouncing to Madonna’s 1980s party song “Holiday.”
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From the Oscars to the Emmys.
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