Oscar Interrupter Says She was Offended
According to the latest news, a documentary producer who interrupted a director’s Oscar acceptance speech on Sunday night says she was the one who was “big-footed” on stage.
The producer, Elinor Burkett, appeared in HLN’s “The Joy Behar Show”, said Roger Ross Williams’ charge that she ambushed him is wrong.
Burkett said, “‘Ambushed’ makes it sound like I was just some woman who stormed up on the stage.”
Williams and Burkett who worked together on a documentary, “Music by Prudence” won the Academy Award for best short documentary. The documentary is about a Zimbabwean woman who overcomes a severe disability and family rejection in one of the world’s poorest countries.
After receiving the award, Williams was 10 seconds into his acceptance speech when Burkett, edged him from the microphone.
The 63 years old, Burkett clarified that, “He (William) tried to make sure I couldn’t get there before him. He just didn’t seem to think I would be so rude to interrupt him.”
Burkett also told Behar that not she but Williams edged her by running to the stage while she was slowed by Williams’ elderly mother.
She said, “I couldn’t get out. I think you get up and wait for me to get up, and we go up together graciously. He starts talking when I’m halfway up.”
The video of the event clearly showed that Williams jogging from the rear of the Kodak Theater to the stage to take the gold Oscar statue and the microphone.
Williams started his speech as, “Oh, my God, this is amazing. Two years ago, when I got on an airplane and went to Zimbabwe, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I’d end up here. This is so exciting.”
But by that point, Burkett had reached him and took the microphone from him and said, “Just like a man, never lets a woman talk. Isn’t that just the classic thing?”
She explained to Behar that “either I could let him blather on for 45 seconds, or I could interrupt so I could get to talk.”
Burkett said that she wanted the acceptance speech to be about Prudence and the musicians in the documentary, “not that “I am so happy,”.
Williams quietly watched as Burkett spoke, until the Oscar director cued exit music a minute into the speech.
Lastly Williams said, pointing to the audience, “Prudence is here tonight. This is for Prudence.”
After the event when Williams, appeared on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on Monday night, he said that the incident was “a little shocking.”
He added, “I was there to talk about Prudence. We were there to honor Prudence and her incredible message and her incredible story.”
King allowed Williams 80 seconds of airtime to complete his acceptance speech.
Williams said he and Burkett are no longer friends.
“There’s always, in the creative process, you get in disputes,” he said.
This kind of incidents in Oscar is compared to the incident occurred at the American Music Awards when rapper Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift while receiving award for Best Female Video and declared that he thinks that Beyonce should have won the award.
But Burkett said it was not the same, since “Kanye didn’t get the Oscar. She mocked and said, “We should have been able to flip a coin on who would speak.”
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