Stone won the Oscar for Best Actress in Poor Things

Another awkward moment from the 2024 Oscars has been spotted.

On Sunday 10 March, the 96th annual Academy Awards took place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, where past winners introduced the nominees in each of the acting categories.

Former Best Actress winners Michelle Yeoh, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlize Theron, Jessica Lange, and Sally Field took to the stage to present the nominees for the Best Actress accolade this year — which was ultimately won by Emma Stone for her performance in Poor Things.

Field was the one to introduce Stone as the two were co-stars in The Amazing Spider-Man. “Curious as a puppy, and hungry as a bear, Emma Stone’s brilliant Bella is unhinged, uninhibited, and completely original,” Field said in her speech.

“With the fearlessness of a toddler, she awkwardly steps into the world, awakening her body and the sensations of being alive without boundaries,” she continued. “It is an unforgettable and endearing character, created by an actor who is always surprising, who refuses to be categorised, and, like Bella, is completely original.”

But when Stone stepped onto the stage to receive the award, all the former winners were standing in a line with Yeoh holding the Oscar itself because she was the winner last year. Yeoh then began gesturing for Lawrence to hand Stone the statue, at which point Field began tugging at Lawrence’s arm and dress, with many people thinking Fields wanted to be the one to hand the award to the Poor Things actress.

While Field ultimately let go of Lawrence’s dress and then embraced Stone, it wasn’t long before a clip of the moment began circulating across social media, with TikTok users labelling it “bizarre” and “extremely awkward”.

Other people assumed that each former winner was supposed to individually pass the award down the line before Stone was supposed to receive it, with Field being last.

“I honestly think she felt like she was supposed to hand the trophy to Emma,” one person commented under Michael Levitt’s TikTok. “I think they were supposed to pass it along but Emma was already holding onto it and seemed confused so JLaw just gave it to her to smooth over the moment,” someone else wrote.

Another theory was that Yeoh was supposed to be the person handing over the award the whole time and Field was pulling Lawrence back to keep the original plan intact.

Other commenters were focused on the tugging that Fields was doing.

“She even grabbed her dress! Sally no! I liked the concept of the former winners speaking but awarding the actual statues was extremely awkward,” one commenter wrote.

“You’re on live TV. Once you see it’s not going the way you thought it should, you need to let it go. She looks ridiculous grabbing at Jennifer Lawrence like that,” wrote another.

Yeoh took to Instagram after the awards were over to attempt to explain what had happened. “Congratulations Emma!! I confused you, but I wanted to share that glorious moment of handing over Oscar to you together with your best friend Jennifer!!

“She reminded me of my Bae Jamie Lee Curtis – always there for each other!!”