Backstage At The Oscars

After they've had their big moment on stage the Oscar winners grant interviews backstage. Here, the winners talk about their reactions, their movies, and their bras. Julia Roberts, winner of Best Actress for Erin Brockovich, dared to go over the time limit for acceptance speeches, and told us "Everybody tries to shut me up. It didn't work for my parents and it doesn't work now." Although she had to wait ten years between nominations - " Isn't that an eternity in Hollywood?" she quipped - Roberts was overjoyoed to receive her Oscar. When asked about getting into the role of Erin, she replied "It was all a kind of dream and a mystery, and a wonderful push-up bra." When a journalist alluded to her early desire to become a vet, and whether she was happier now, as an Oscar-winning actress, she deadpanned "Well, if there was a sick dog here, I'd say not. But since there's not, yeah, I am". Russell Crowe, winner of Best Actor for Gladiator, was his usual gruff self, telling journalists to stick to questions he could answer 'yes' or 'no' to. When asked what was going through his mind when his name was announced, he explained "Absolutely nothing. There was nothing going through my mind. There was no connection with the world; I didn't have any legs. I was just sitting there thinking, This is one of those remarkably bad taste gags that your brain plays on you. I was stunned." He took a turn for the bombastic when he added, "There was one little thing I did want to say, for the opportunities at destiny's forge - God bless America, God save the Queen, God defend New Zealand, and thank Christ for Australia." Best Supporting Actress was a shock win for Marcia Gay Harden for her role in Pollock. She was surprised to have won, and joked that "I'd be a liar to say, as an actress living in New York City and waiting tables, that I never dreamt of this. And you know what? I swore that if I ever won an Oscar I'd say thank you to all the waiters and waitresses who covered my shift for me so I could run downtown and audition. But with 45 seconds you just can't give it to the waiters". Benicio Del Toro won Best Supporting Actor for his part in Traffic. He told us how it feels to hold an Oscar - "It feels pretty good. It feels real good, my friend". He was planning to "You know, tour with it and show it to my dad and say 'Hey, I haven't done bad.' You know, my Dad, my family, there's a lot of people in Puerto Rico where I was a kid and people in Pennsylvania where I grew up too, a lot of friends. It's pretty exciting for them, and it's great when you have people to enjoy it with." Steven Soderbergh directed Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich and was nominated as best director twice this year - he actually won for Traffic. Asked if he was expecting to win, he said "I think I looked pretty surprised, didn't I? I didn't see it coming". He didn't think his big win would change him, though, saying "I don't think I could alter my way of working and thinking, even if I tried. But frankly, from the beginning I've said that I don't delineate between studio films and independent films. I delineate between good movies and bad movies, and we all would like to see good movies". Hear hear.