"Showed a real lack of class": Video of Robert Downey Jr. ignoring Ke Huy Quan while accepting his Oscar sparks backlash 

Robert Downey Jr. won the Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer at the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theater in Ovation Hollywood, Los Angeles. The award was announced by defending champion Ke Huy Quan who won in the same category last year for the film Everything Everywhere All At Once.

While fans are celebrating Robert Downey Jr.’s first win at the Oscars ever, he is also earning backlash for seemingly ignoring Ke Huy Quan while accepting his award.

In this regard, X user @Michael95070847 commented under @Roxyafs post which showed Robert Downey Jr.’s winning moment.

The former pointed out that the Oppenheimer star failing to acknowledge Ke Huy Quan “showed a real lack of class.”

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“Isn’t sitting right with me at the moment”: Robert Downey Jr. triggers criticism for overlooking Ke Huy Quan at the Oscars

On Sunday night, Sam Rockwell, Tim Robbins, Christopher Waltz, Mahershala Ali, and Ke Huy Quan took to the stage at the Oscars ceremony to recognize this year’s nominees for Actor in a Supporting Role category. They are all winners from previous years.

Sam Rockwell was the one who recognized Downey Jr. saying, “There are actors and then there are actors who don’t drop the character until the DVD commentary,” adding he was talking about the Iron Man star.

Robert was seen shaking and holding his head down, smiling, and giving a flying kiss as his wife Susan Levin and the other members of the audience cheered for him.

“He could be Iron Man. He could be every man. He always goes above and beyond. Thirty years ago, as Chaplin, he learned how to play the violin left-handed. Who does this, seriously? It’s obnoxious. And now in Oppenheimer, he steals scenes from Albert Einstein and the atomic bomb,” Sam Rockwell added.

He further continued by saying how he along with everybody else “love” Robert and “couldn’t be happier for this third Oscar nom [ination]” for the “amazing portrayal as Lewis Strauss.”

After the rest of the nominees were honored, Robert Downey Jr.’s name was announced as the winner. As he took the stage, the audience gave him a standing ovation, as Ke Huy Quan presented him with the award.

However, the 2024 champion appeared to ignore the presenter and last year’s winner while receiving his Oscar. He did not shake hands nor hugged him, even as the latter attempted twice.

In the wake of this, the first-time Oscar winner is gaining backlash online. Here are some of the comments from X.

For the uninitiated, Robert Downey Jr. played the role of seedy government official Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s 2023 blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer based on the life of Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy).

In his speech, he thanked his “terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order” before acknowledging his “veterinarian” wife of nearly two decades, Susan Levin.

He also added how he needed the role in Oppenheimer more than it needed him while thanking his director and finally his publicist and entertainment lawyer, for standing by him throughout his career.

Earlier, Robert Downey Jr. was nominated at the Oscars for his role in Ben Stiller’s war satire Tropic Thunder in 2008 in the same category. In 1993, he also earned the Best Actor nomination for Chaplin.