Tarell Alvin McCraney couldn’t wait to eat at the Oscars last year.
The 37-year-old screenwriter and actor wrote the script for ‘Moonlight’ which won the coveted Best Picture at the prestigious awards last year – despite initial confusion that ‘La La Land’ won instead after Hollywood legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway wrongly announced the winner.
Speaking to The Times newspaper, McCraney said: "I mean, I was happy for them. I really was. I was honestly looking forward to eating. The whole thing starts at four o’clock and ends at, like 2am. Well, I was in a white suit. I was starving And, like, I had papers to read."
However, when the fiasco was corrected and McCraney took to the stage to pick up the golden silhouette, he was in such a state of confusion and a daze that he couldn’t let go of an official.
He said: "I am sure someone is going to file a harassment complaint.
"I don’t know his name, but I would not let go. He was like ‘I gotta take you to the next place.’ And I was, like, ‘I’m so sorry, but I can’t let you go right now."
After the initial confusion, McCraney wanted to get out of the ceremony just in case the award was taken from him.
He said: "I also had this instinct of, ‘Well, we better get out of here before they take it back.’ They’re really big, and I had a bag that was pretty small."
‘Moonlight’ – which is based McCraney’s own childhood – follows three defining chapters in the life of Chiron, a young black gay man growing up in Miami.
Chiron struggles to understand what it means to be gay through the continuous bullying and violence.
Tarell Alvin McCraney was excited to eat at the Oscars last year
