Once he reached the microphone, "Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins didn't get to give the Best Picture Oscar acceptance speech he wanted to with all the chaos surrounding the mistaken announcement of "La La Land" as the winner.
The next day, Jenkins told The Hollywood Reporter he hadn’t planned to say much because Best Picture is a “producer’s award,” but that he did have a short speech prepared that detailed a story he has told repeatedly.
"Tarell [Alvin McCraney] and I are Chiron," Jenkins began, referencing the movie’s young black protagonist who grows up in a poor Miami neighborhood and is gay, THR said.
"When you watch Moonlight," he continues, "you don’t assume a boy who grew up how and where we did would grow up and make a piece of art that wins an Academy Award. I’ve said that a lot, and what I’ve had to admit is that I placed those limitations on myself, I denied myself that dream. Not you, not anyone else — me. And so, to anyone watching this who sees themselves in us, let this be a symbol, a reflection that leads you to love yourself. Because doing so may be the difference between dreaming at all and, somehow through the Academy’s grace, realizing dreams you never allowed yourself to have.”
Jenkins' actual speech was much different, but he says he plans to remember the moment fondly. "I know one thing," he said, Entertainment Weekly reported. "I'm never going to forget Jordan Horowitz. I just won't."
Twitter responses seemed to indicate users wished Jenkins would have gotten to give the Oscar acceptance speech he prepared.
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