Last night was a big night for Oppenheimer star Robert Downey Jr. who took home his first ever Academy award for Best Supporting Actor. Although he’s receiving a lot of criticism from fans who claim the actor snubbed Ke Huy Quan.
Downey was up against some stiff competition for the award; Robert De Niro, Sterling K. Brown, Mark Ruffalo, and Ryan Gosling were all in the running. Meanwhile, last year’s winner of the award, Ke Huy Quan, stood up on stage to present the award. When he made the announcement the Iron Man star took a moment to celebrate with his wife and wave to the crowd before making his way on stage and taking the trophy from Quan without even making eye contact with him.
He did, however, shake Tim Robbins hand and fist bump Sam Rockwell before making his acceptance speech; even during his speech, he made time to thank Sam and the “fellas.” Although that only served to make the fact that he ignored the guy giving out the award even more blatant. Watching the whole clip, it’s hard to see it as anything other than a snub.
Naturally, this has upset a large portion of the internet. Ke Huy Quan was the talk of the town last year after his Oscar win for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. His comeback story was one of the most inspirational and wholesome things to ever happen, alongside Brendan Fraser, who also had an amazing comeback last year. On top of that, he just seems like such a nice guy and as such, people feel protective of him, so seeing Downey not even acknowledge him left a bad taste in many people’s mouths.
Fans aired their grievances out online with some calling the star ‘arrogant.’
Of course, in the excitement of the moment it’s possible to become overwhelmed, which might explain it. Although if the internet does give Downey the benefit of the doubt then that means we also owe Taylor Swift an apology. Last month the singer was heavily criticized for her apparent snub of music legend Celine Dion, the whole thing was very similar to what happened between Dowey and Quan last night. Others also pointed out that Emma Stone also seemingly snubbed last year’s best actress winner, Michelle Yeoh, when accepting her award. It seems not snubbing the people handing out the awards is harder than it looks.
Similar to the Taylor Swift situation, Downey took a picture with Quan backstage after his acceptance speech, so it seems likely that the snub (hopefully) wasn’t intentional. After all, how could anyone have a problem with Ke Huy Quan? The man is just too wholesome.