And just like that, the 2023 BAFTAs have been and gone.
We saw some surprise winners — like Barry Keoghan for Best Supporting Actor — and some standout performances — namely Ariana DeBose’s shoutout-filled musical medley. However, an awards show rarely comes without a helping of chaos to complete the night.
The evening’s most awkward moment came about when Carey Mulligan’s name was accidentally read out as the winner for Best Supporting Actress instead of the actual winner, Kerry Condon.
Mulligan was nominated for her performance in She Said, although it was Condon who ultimately took home the gong for The Banshees of Inisherin.
Last year’s Best Supporting Actor winner Troy Kotsur made a guest appearance to present the award, introducing the list of nominees with the assistance of a sign language interpreter.
After the names had been read, the interpreter mistakenly announced Mulligan as the winner, prompting the crowd to burst into excited cheers.
A matter of moments later, the interpreter followed up, saying abruptly: “Kerry Condon…Kerry Condon.”
It remains unclear whether the mistake was that of Kotsur or his interpreter, although the interpreter was quick to acknowledge the fumble, telling the audience: “This is a bad moment.”
Being that the BBC One broadcast was delayed by 30 minutes, the momentary mixup didn’t actually make it to air. Although, the awkwardness as Condon took to the stage didn’t go undetected by viewers.
After Condon’s speech had concluded, the night’s host, Richard E Grant, was also quick to make light of the misunderstanding, subsequently joking: “A defibrillator needed for Carey Mulligan.”
Addressing the confusion, Condon later told the Mirror: “They called out Carey Mulligan and I was like: ‘Oh my god what the fuck?'”
“But I don’t care, I just won it. I’m so shocked, I can’t believe I won,” she added. “I’ll be looking at this for the rest of my life.”
Fortunately, it seems the mixup was rectified before Carey managed to leave her seat — although, it wouldn’t be the first time that a major awards ceremony has seen two nominees have to unexpectedly switch places on stage.
In what will surely go down in history as one of the most cringeworthy awards show incidents of all time, La La Land was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner at the Oscars back in 2017.
It was only after the entire cast and crew of La La Land had ascended the stage and proceeded to get nearly two minutes into their acceptance speeches that it was debunked that the actual winner for Best Picture was Moonlight.
The mistake came about after copresenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were accidentally sent onto the stage with the envelope containing the name of the winner for Best Actress, which had been awarded to Emma Stone earlier in the ceremony.
“He was confused because the card, which he showed to me by the way, said ‘Emma Stone, La La Land’ on it,” the night’s host, Jimmy Kimmel, later said. “So this was confusing obviously, we thought he was being coy and cute to make everybody suffer but in reality he was perplexed by why her name was on it.”