In 2002, Julia Roberts won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in Erin Brokovich , the true story of a single woman’s fight against a company responsible for polluting the region’s water.
Julia Roberts will take the stage to receive her trophy and give a 4-minute speech, while the time allotted to winners is normally 45 seconds.
The actress caused a sensation when she called the conductor to tell him, from the beginning: “Sir, you are doing a wonderful job, but you pull the baton too quickly, so I suggest you sit down, because I have things to say and I may never have another chance to be here! »
And a few moments later, in the middle of her speech, she will address the producers of the ceremony showing the stopwatch that indicates the time she spends on stage:
“Turn off that timer, it stresses me out!”
During the 4 minutes she will spend on stage, Julia Roberts will thank many people, including the other actors in the film, the other nominees, the director, her boyfriend, her mother…
But she won’t thank Erin Brokovich, the person behind the project, who she plays in the film, who she hung out with during filming and with whom she probably had a very good relationship.
An embarrassing oversight.
Julia Roberts also realized this shortly after leaving the stage, when answering journalists backstage.
She then apologized categorically: “I made a big mistake. I was so upset that I forgot to thank Erin. Shame on me, shame on me! Very humbly, I thank you a thousand times.”
Julia Roberts’s oblivion will be almost as much of a conversation piece as the length of her acceptance speech.
Erin Brokovich, for her part, will not go against the star and will refute critics who wanted to see this carelessness as a form of ingratitude or narcissism.
“It was her moment, not mine,” she said. “I didn’t see anything wrong with it, it didn’t bother me at all!”