Ryan Gosling Explains His Giggly Reaction to the Oscars' Infamous Best Picture F*ck-Up

Ryan Gosling explains why he just had to let out some laughs during this year's infamous Oscars mess.

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For a very brief moment during last month's Oscars ceremony, the world thought the Academy had gone the predictable route by giving the Best Picture honors to La La Land. I drunkenly left a viewing party as soon as I heard the words "La La Land," only to be sobered up on the Lyft ride home by a million tweets about what is quite possibly the biggest fuck-up in Oscars history: Moonlight, the better film, had actually won. Though tweetable reactions abounded, few were quite as meme-inspiring as Ryan Gosling's apparent giggling:

This week, Gosling gaveEntertainment Tonight the scoop on the origins of that giggle. "What really was happening as I was watching, it was surreal anyway, I was watching people start to have this panicked reaction in the crowd and guys were coming on with headsets and I felt like someone had been hurt," Gosling said Wednesday. "I thought there was some kind of medical situation, and I had this worst case scenario playing out in my head."

When Gosling realized that a "medical situation" was not the case, he couldn't help but laugh. "And then I just heard, 'Oh Moonlight won,' and I was so relieved that I started laughing," Gosling explained. "But truthfully, I was also so thrilled that Moonlight won, I know the director…I've worked with them before. It's such a groundbreaking film, made for a million dollars, and incredible achievement and I'm so happy for them that they were being recognized."

In an interview with Complex conducted a week after the Oscars ceremony, Moonlight star Trevante Rhodes reflected on the big moment. "As soon as La La Land was announced, we were happy for them because we met a group of people we had the opportunity to learn from and grow with throughout the entire awards cycle," Rhodes told Julian Kimble. "And then, as I'm sitting next to André Holland, I see this person who doesn't belong on stage walking onto the stage and you could see remorse on his face."

When Moonlight was clarified as the real winner, Rhodes said it took a few minutes for the reality to sink in. "You have a moment where you ask yourself, 'Is this real? Am I being punk'd?'" he said. "It was just the weirdest cycle of emotions."

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