Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony was blessedly free of controversy — but there was at least one seriously cringeworthy moment on the champagne carpet outside. Now, Ashley Graham has broken her silence on that excruciating interview with Hugh Grant, during which the Notting Hill star appeared to actually roll his eyes at her questions.
Here’s what went down
The 34-year-old, who was reporting from the champagne carpet, opened the chat innocuously. Calling Grant a “veteran” of the Oscars, she asked: “What’s your favorite thing about coming here?”
Apparently at a loss, Grant searched for words, then came up with: “It’s fascinating, the whole of humanity is here… It’s vanity fair.”
His reference to the William Makepeace Thackeray novel about selfish social climbers during the Napoleonic Wars clearly went right over Graham’s head.
“Oh yes, it’s all about Vanity Fair,” Graham replied enthusiastically, understandably thinking Grant was referring to the famous after-party. “That’s where we let loose and have fun.”
Grant wasn’t impressed.
Obviously unaware as to how she’d offended him, Graham pressed on. She asked what he was most excited to see, prompting a hesitant Grant with “you must have seen some of the movies?”
He replied, “no one in particular.” So Graham moved on again.
“What are you wearing tonight?” she asked. “Just my suit… I can’t remember my tailor,” he said.
“Well, shout-out to the tailor,” she replied gamely, before throwing Grant yet another shot at redemption by bringing up Glass Onion, which was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Grant made a brief cameo as Benoit Blanc’s (Daniel Craig’s character) boyfriend.
“Well, I’m barely in it,” he replied. “I’m in it for about three seconds.”
Graham tried to jostle more of a response out of him, saying must’ve “still had fun” filming it. “Almost!” he told her.
At last, Graham called time on the interview and the pair parted ways, both clearly relieved the ordeal was over.
Ashley breaks her silence
The horrifyingly awkward exchange between Graham and Grant went immediately viral, so by the time Graham arrived at LAX on Monday to fly out of town, it was all anyone was asking her about.
“Was there any offense taken to that Hugh Grant thing that everyone keeps chatting about?” one reporter from TMZ asked her.
“You know what, my mama told me to kill people with kindness, so there you go” she told him.
“You know you did a great job, I do this too, I ask questions,” the reporter said, to which Graham followed up again — “yeah, you kill people with kindness!”
Graham did not respond when the reporter asked whether she had any message for Hugh, but said she’d had “so much fun,” and “my feet hurt.”
