From “Inherent Vice” director Paul Thomas Anderson’s American Airlines diss to “Boyhood” star Patricia Arquette’s moving accepting speech for supporting actress, there were plenty of highlights from Saturday’s Independent Spirit Awards — but TheWrap knows what went down when the cameras weren’t rolling.
“Birdman” won big with Best Feature and Male Lead for Michael Keaton, Julianne Moore continued her best actress sweep for “Still Alice” and Dan Gilroy was triumphant as a writer and producer for “Nightcrawler.” Read our play-by-play of audience chatter, schmoozing, e-cigarette breaks and more of Hollywood players in their natural habitat.
1:00 p.m.: Sponsors temporarily close all the bars in the outside tents (Heineken, American Airlines) to get people inside the main tent for the show. “We reopen at 1:45 p.m. (15 minutes after the show starts) bartenders console.”
1:15.p.m.: Miles Teller is strolling around backstage with a Heineken bottle in hand. He tells two women (who later admit they haven’t seen “Whiplash”) that he has been playing since he was 15 and that editor told him 99 percent of what you see on screen is him.
1:27 p.m.: By the stage door, Andy Samberg grabs Craig Robinson. Robinson’s” Hot Tub Time Machine 2” opened the night before. He hasn’t sent box office numbers yet but “today is a good day” he tells me.
2:10 p.m.: Former Spirit host Andy Samberg tells me that the SNL40 after party was “such an amazing assemblage of people that I was upset when Prince and Paul McCartney played because I wanted to talk to people.”
2:24 p.m.: During the clip package for best first screenplay, Kristen Wiig and Zach Galifianakis staged a fake fight in the dark over fumbling their lines during the intro. Zach continues the “fight” by saying “Kristen is single” coming out of the clip.
3:12 p.m.: With Jared Leto‘s long thank you list returning to the spirit awards, Dax Shepard can’t wait to hear Leto’s jokes. He turns around in his seat to read off the prompter. As Shepard’s wife Kristen Bell hosts, he has the front row table stage right, sitting with Natasha Lyonne.
3:20 p.m.: Kyle Maclachlan introduces his “work wife” (“Desperate Housewives'” Marcia Cross) to Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke.
3:44 p.m.: Hosts Kristen Bell and Fred Armisen’s segment from the American Airlines tent backstage was not a make-good for Paul Thomas Anderson’s negative comments. They had been rehearsing it earlier in the day.
3:38 p.m.: Marcia Cross throws arms up in the air and howls loudest when Edward Snowden documentary “Citizenfour” picks up a win. She said “I’m on the right side of history now.”
3:51 p.m.: Before Best Director award (that Rick Linklater won and Ethan Hawke accepted), Alejandro Inarritu covertly took a drag of an E cigarette at his seat. After the Linklater win, Ellar Coltrane leaves the tent.
4:03 p.m.: It’s late in the show and Oprah is still in her seat next to Ava DuVernay.
4:15 p.m.: A reporter asks Julianne Moore what she’s most looking forward to when award season is over. “Eating,”she said.
4:25 p.m.: Right after finishing the show, Kristen Bell walks off stage to be with husband Dan Shepard.
For the record: A previous version of this post misidentified Paul Thomas Anderson’s film. TheWrap regrets the error.
Julianne Moore stuns in both a red frock and with her performance in "Still Alice." She claimed the Desert Palm Achievement Award for her turn as a woman suffering early onset Alzheimer's. “Obviously it was a very emotional role, but I brought home the joyful parts, the appreciation of life and of my own family," Said Moore. "This was a story about facing loss, but also about acknowledging those things.”
Jeff Vespa
"Birdman," star Michael Keaton and director Alejandro González Iñárritu, strike a distinguished pose. “Thirty minutes ago, my personal Birdman inside was telling me, ‘You are a piece of shit!’ And I believed him. But five minutes later he said, ‘You are the best!’” said Iñárritu
Jeff Vespa
Keaton presented Iñárritu with director of the year saying, “We work in a business that instills narcissism, self-involvement and ego ... so I can’t tell you how great it feels not to talk about myself tonight.”
Jeff Vespa
Rosamund Pike claimed the Breakthrough Award for her wicked turn in "Gone Girl," though in an acceptance speech admitted, "not a week went by when I didn’t come home from the set thinking, 'I can’t do this.'”
Jeff Vespa
Rosamund Pike once told her agent that she wanted to work with Fincher, only to be told that Fincher would never cast a Bond girl. Never say never. “I got to play every part of being a woman: the sexy and fun-loving side, the nurturing and kind side, even if it was an act, the angry side, the vulnerable side, the truly diabolical side. It was everything, and it was thrilling," she said.
— Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Jeff Vespa
Best supporting actor nominee for "Whiplash, J.K. Simmons said: “I like being the supporting guy. And that was obviously part of the joy of doing 'Whiplash,' because this is just a bigger supporting part than usual. But I have no illusions about being a movie star. I’m just glad to be able to work.”
Jeff Vespa
Golden boy Benedict Cumberbatch is a darling of Hollywood and the Internet, but missed a certain "Imitation Game" costar. "Keira Knightley thought this was taking place in Palm Beach,” he said, “so she couldn’t be here.”
Jeff Vespa
“Alan Turing wasn’t just a lone, troubled genius who was awkward and difficult and different," Benedict Cumberbatch (with Morten Tyldum) said about his "The Imitation Game" character. "He perhaps became like that over time, but I think that was very much from losing his first love, being a homosexual man at a time of intolerance, working in a very secret environment. the script showed us that complex, very empathizable and human man.”
Jeff Vespa
Benedict Cumberbatch, with director Morten Tyldum, said of the "Imitation Game" cryptologist: "Alan Turing was a war hero, he was a gay icon, and he was the father of modern computer science.”
Jeff Vespa
"The Imitation Game's" behind-the-scenes foursome: Editor William Goldenberg, producer Nora Grossman, writer Graham Moore and producer Ido Ostrowsku.
Jeff Vespa
Ido Ostrowsky and Nora Grossman of "The Imitation Game" cracked the code for desert magic, as their cast claimed Best Ensemble.
Jeff Vespa
Math never looked so good: "The Imitaiton Game's" supporting actors Matthew Beard, Alex Lawther and Allen Leech.
Jeff Vespa
Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Robert Duvall accepted the PSFF Icon Award. “When I was growing up, the only thing I knew about drama was cowboys and Indians. I said, ‘I want to be an Indian.’ I was shocked when I found out that you have to be born an Indian," said "The Judge" actor. "So I said, ‘OK, I’ll be a cowboy.’”
Jeff Vespa
"Wild" women Laura Dern and Reese Witherspoon, who said of the actress who played her mother: "She can turn any press junket or film festival into the best party you’ve ever been to."
Jeff Vespa
“We walked, we shared the stories of our lives, and we put the film together for everyone who has ever felt lost in their life," Reese Witherspoon said about working with "Wild" co-star Laura Dern
Jeff Vespa
"Selma" actor David Oyelowo said: “It’s an amazing thing when a role in a film comes along that you know is going to be one of the greatest things you will ever do in your life.”
Jeff Vespa
A PSFF highlight came when Brad Pitt introduced David Oyelowo and taught the whole crowd how to pronounce his name.
Jeff Vespa
Eddie Redmayne's remarkable turn in "The Theory of Everything" captivated the PSFF jury to the point of awarding him the Desert Palm Achievement Award.
Jeff Vespa
Felicity Jones brought a red lip and a bright smile to support her "Theory of Everything" costar Eddie Redmayne.
Jeff Vespa
“Day one, I’ll never forget, we were shooting in Cambridge. It was my first scene playing young Stephen, and Jane came running up and said, ‘No, Ed, his hair would be much messier!’ What an extraordinary thing to have Jane Hawking doing my hair," Eddie Redmayne (with Felicity Jones and James Marsh) recalled of filming "The Theory of Everything."
Jeff Vespa
“There’s something so universal about the human condition of growing up with siblings and parents, with how we maneuver through the world over time -- you can’t not relate to it on some level, which means the response to this film has been fun and heartfelt and kind of beautiful," Richard Linklater said of "Boyhood's" 12 year journey.
Jeff Vespa
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Before the Oscars are handed out, see where the road to gold began for Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore and Alejandro González Iñárritu with photos by Jeff Vespa at the Palm Springs Film Festival
Julianne Moore stuns in both a red frock and with her performance in "Still Alice." She claimed the Desert Palm Achievement Award for her turn as a woman suffering early onset Alzheimer's. “Obviously it was a very emotional role, but I brought home the joyful parts, the appreciation of life and of my own family," Said Moore. "This was a story about facing loss, but also about acknowledging those things.”