The 'La La Land' moviemaker was struggling with a high fever at the awards show and admits the whole night was a bit of a blur.
- Aug 23, 2018
AceShowbiz - The chaos surrounding the ending to the 2017 Oscars was particularly mind-blowing for La La Land director Damien Chazelle, because he was hopped up on steroids.
The moviemaker was struggling with a high fever at the awards show and admits the whole night was a bit of a blur, but he can vividly remember what happened when Warren Beatty mistakenly called out his film as the Best Picture winner and he was hauled up to the stage.
Chazelle, who had already picked up the night's Best Director trophy, tells The Hollywood Reporter, "I'd been bedridden with a 104-degree fever that whole week. I was on a mixture of IV fluid and steroids, so that morning was pretty brutal.
" I was shacked up in a hotel room and slept in as late as I could, then I put on the suit and headed over."
As his film picked up six awards, Damien reveals his fever broke and he was no longer feeling "gravely ill", but he still wasn't in "tip-top shape" as Beatty took the stage with Faye Dunaway to announce the show's final winner.
The actor infamously picked up the wrong card and named La La Land the Best Picture. As Chazelle and his cast and crew took the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, it became clear there had been a mistake and Barry Jenkins' film Mooonlight was actually the winner.
"I was slightly delirious...," he recalls. "I was confused because I couldn't actually hear anything. You're surprised how little you hear onstage, even if you're right behind someone who's speaking at the microphone. I couldn't hear a single thing. I could just see some commotion happening."
