These quotes and quips were the ones that stood out the most at the 2015 Academy Awards.
Idina Menzel and John Travolta
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage my very dear friend, Glom Gazingo,” quipped, to which John Travolta replied (as he creepily touched her face): “I deserved that. But you, you my darling, my beautiful, my wickedly talented, Idina Menzel. Is that right?”
J.K. Simmons
“Call your mom, everybody. I’ve told this to like a billion people or so, call your mom, call your dad. If you’re lucky enough to have a parent or two alive on this planet, call them. Don’t text, don’t email, call them on the phone, tell them you love them and thank them and listen to them for as long as they want to talk to you. Thank you, Mom and Dad.”
Neil Patrick Harris on Dakota Johnson
“She’s also the reason you had to explain to your grandmother what a spanking bench is.”
Neil Patrick Harris on Channing Tatum
“He’s the real deal, pants-down! Hands-down. Did I say pants? I meant pants.”
Ida Director Pawel Pawlikowski
“How did I get here? We made a film – black-and-white – about the need for silence and withdrawal from the world and contemplation, and here we are, at this epicenter of noise and world attention. Fantastic! Life is full of surprises.”
Patricia Arquette
“To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America.”
Anna Kendrick
“Best Animated Short. Animated and short. I think someone’s making fun of us.”
Common (with John Legend)
“Recently John and I got to go to Selma, and perform ‘Glory’ on the same bridge that Dr. King and the people of the Civil Rights movement marched on 50 years ago. This bridge was once a landmark of a divided nation but now it’s the symbol for change. The spirit of this bridge transcends race, religion, sexual orientation and social status.”
Graham Moore
“When I was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself because I felt weird, and I felt different and I felt like I did not belong – and now I’m standing here. And so I would like for this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like she’s weird or she’s different, or she doesn’t fit in anywhere – yes, you do. I promise you do. Stay weird, stay different, and then when it’s your turn, and you are standing on this stage, please pass the same message to the next person who comes along.”
Alejandro González Inárritu
“Tonight I am wearing the real Michael Keaton tighty-whities.”
Eddie Redmayne
“This belongs to all of those people around the world battling ALS. It belongs to one exceptional family: Stephen, Jane, Jonathan and the Hawking children. And I will be its custodian and I will promise you I will look after him.”
Julianne Moore
“I read an article that said that winning an Oscar could lead to living five years longer. If that’s true, I’d really like to thank the Academy because my husband is younger than me.”
Neil Patrick Harris… Again
The host’s very first words set the stage for a fun evening: “Tonight we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest… I mean, brightest.”