Robert Downey Jr. Slammed For ‘Ignoring’ Ke Huy Quan While Accepting His Oscar

The 96th Academy Awards introduced a new tradition on Sunday where nominees were individually announced by five former winners. While it was a beautiful sentiment, it didn’t go without some awkward moments that had social media (particularly, X/Twitter) riled up.

When Downey Jr. won his category of Best Actor he was met on the stage by five past winners — Sam Rockwell, Tim Robbins, Christoph Waltz, Mahershala Ali, and last year’s winner, Ke Huy Quan.

Quan was thrilled to read Downey Jr.’s name, however according to online users, Downey Jr. did not meet his excitement.

As the first time winner walked up to the stage, he scanned the presenters with his arms out, trying to find who had his Oscar. It even looked like he asked, “Where’s my Oscar?”.

Quan enthusiastically handed him the statue however, he wasn’t met with eye contact from Downey Jr. who went straight to Robbins for a handshake and then a fist bump to Rockwell.

Meanwhile, Quan looked slightly heartbroken as he only tapped Downey Jr.’s arm as a sign of congratulations and was left holding the envelope that he attempted to hand over.

During, Downey Jr.’s speech, he made no mention of the former winners by name other than thanking the “fellas” onstage behind him.

“He literally handed him the award with the biggest smile on his face and Robert blatantly ignored him. You can be the biggest star yet have zero humility and grace,” one social media user said.

“That was disappointing, it spoiled the moment for me,” another said. 

While another said it was also a big moment in Quan’s career too.

“Okay I’m so glad I’m not the only one who noticed this. I get this is RDJ’s moment but it’s Ke Huy’s too. It’s important to an actor to pass on their win to the next and he was the most ignored person of the 5 up there,” the commenter wrote on X.

However, like most things on the internet, the apparent snub was overblown. Which can happen when every moment is placed under the magnifying glass of social media.

Backstage photos dropped that same night, showing Ke Huy and RDJ celebrating together. Multiple photos show the two hugging, taking selfies, and shaking hands with genuine excitement.

However, those BTS photos were largely ignored online with fans comparing the apparent snub to the Taylor Swift/Celine Dion moment at the Grammys earlier this year.

Before Dion announced Swift’s name for Album Of The Year, the “My Heart Will Go On” singer opened up about how she, too, won the award — 27 years ago — and recalled how Diana Ross and Sting presented the award to her.

However, when Swift took her award from Dion, she chose to look back and share her joy with her collaborators instead of going in for a hug or even giving eye contact to Dion.

Of course, that moment was also blown out of proportion with backstage pics from the Grammys showing Taylor and Celine sharing a sweet moment.

Downey Jr. was up against American Fiction’s Sterling K. Brown, Killers of the Flower Moon’s Robert De Niro, Barbie’s Ryan Gosling and Poor Things’ Mark Ruffalo on Sunday.

The Iron Man star was previously nominated for two Academy Awards in the past. He was recognized for her performances in 1992’s Chaplin, and 2008’s Tropic Thunder, respectively.

Downey swept the 2024 awards season. In addition to the Oscar, he also won the Golden Globe, BAFTA Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor.

The 96th Academy Awards — hosted by Jimmy Kimmel — were broadcast live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on March 10 on ABC. To see the complete list of winners, click here.