When Melissa Leo accepted her Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her work in The Fighter, she looked flustered and shocked. But no one expected to her drop the f-bomb.
“When I watched Kate two years ago,” she said, referring to Kate Winslet winning Best Actress in 2009, “it looked so f**king easy.”
She immediately gasped and put her hand to her mouth as the audience laughed, as shown in numerous YouTube videos. She continued the rest of her speech, swearing-free.
Some telecasts caught the curse word and censored it, but in many other telecasts viewers could hear the f-bomb clearly.
Leo later apologized for the f-word, saying, “I apologize to anyone that was offended. It was probably a very inappropriate place to use that word in particular.”
As Variety reports, “The Academy confirmed that it was the first time anyone used the word during the telecast; The only other time the Oscarcast had to hit the bleep button was at the start of Three 6 Mafia’s performance of ‘It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp’ in 2005.”
The Oscar was Leo’s first win. She was nominated for a golden statue in 2009 for her role in Frozen River.
Leo will next appear in Kevin Smith’s self-distributed horror film, Red State.
