Awkward Celebrity Moments Caught On Camera

Celebrities often appear to live charmed lives, inhabiting a completely different world than the rest of us. But every now and then, when we catch a glimpse of them clumsily fumbling through a situation, it can be strangely encouraging to see that even fame and fortune can't make one immune to life's little (and sometimes not so little) indignities. Awkwardness is a human common denominator that connects us all.

Unfortunately for celebrities though, there's often a camera around to capture those less-than-perfect moments, spurring replays, memes, and viral videos. But that's not always a bad thing. Many of these moments have made stars more relatable and endearing, more talked about, and even more popular. Brace yourself for embarrassing falls, uncontrollable bodily functions, mispronunciations, misunderstandings, and cringey moments that made us all feel uncomfortable. Buckle up and let's take a look back at some of our favorite awkward celebrity moments ever caught on camera.

Timothée Chalamet has had his fair share of adorably awkward moments, from spilling his drink at a Knicks game to tripping and apologizing to the floor at the Spirit Awards. Wonderfully human gaffes like these are one of the many reasons his fans adore him. Perhaps one of his most awkward moments caught on camera? The award might have to go to the time when he fell backwards in a chair during a Q&A in 2018. Fortunately, he was okay, and he got a good laugh out of the audience. 

Jimmy Fallon asked about the incident when the "Call Me By Your Name" star appeared on "The Tonight Show." Embarrassed by the mention of it, he said, "It was devastating, man...I'm sitting in the chair for the Q&A, and then a gravitational force comes out of nowhere and knocks me out of the chair and I fall back." (In reality, it looks as though he's leaning back a bit and loses control of the chair, but let us not split hairs.) As if falling in front of an entire audience wasn't enough, the Oscar-nominated star toppled in front of a very special guest. "There was a girl in the audience that night I was super psyched was there and then that happened," he shared. You really never ca be too chair-ful. 

It's the awkward moment that inspired a multitude of memes and a name generator. When John Travolta's one job at the 2014 Oscars was to introduce "Frozen" star Idina Menzel's performance of "Let it Go," he did not simply mispronounce her name. Rather, he said two names that were in an entirely different ballpark: "Please welcome the wickedly talented, one and only, Adele Dazeem."

So, how did Travolta get "Adele Dazeem" from Idina Menzel? Apparently, the cue card was the issue.  He shared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" that the show altered the card at the last minute to show a phonetic pronunciation of Menzel's name and this confused him. At the time, Menzel was disappointed by the gaffe. "First I felt really sorry for myself, like Meryl Streep's out there, this is my big break and he just f***ed up my name," Menzel told James Corden on "Carpool Karaoke." But nowadays, she reflects on it with positivity. "He's written so many nice apologetic emails, sent flowers, he's so kind," she shared. "And I always just say, 'No worries, because it was the best thing that ever happened to me!'"

On Season 8 of "American Idol," Scott MacIntyre was one of the many hopeful singers who tried out for the competition reality series, but one of the few to make it to the final round. During his initial audition, he demonstrated his singing chops so expertly that the judges all agreed that he deserved a golden ticket to advance to the next round. During the post-audition interview, MacIntyre told Ryan Seacrest, "We'll see where it goes. I am pumped." Seacrest then went to give him a high five, but MacIntyre is visually impaired, and therefore was unable to see the gesture. The TV host quickly realized his mistake and tried to mitigate the awkward error. "I'm giving you a high five," Seacrest said as he reached for MacIntyre's hand. The high five happened but the moment was fairly uncomfortable. 

Both MacIntyre and Seacrest had a good sense of humor about the fail though, and MacIntyre even recreated the moment (this time with more success) later in the season. MacIntyre enjoyed a long run on the show, making it to the top 8.

On SiriusXM's OutQ, MacIntyre shared that he appreciated the way the high five was handled. "Ryan did the exact right thing back then ... He missed and then he grabbed my hand and he said, 'Scott, I'm giving you a high five,' and he did it again. A lot of people would just shy away from that moment," he said.

Speaking of awkward award show interactions, another moment that will surely live on in pop culture history happened at the 2022 Academy Awards. Before announcing that year's winner for Best Documentary Feature, presenter Chris Rock made a few jokes. And one of those jokes did not go over well. At point, Rock ad-libbed, "Jada, I love you. 'G.I. Jane 2,' can't wait to see it." The remark was directed at Jada Pinkett Smith, who has alopecia. Initially, Pinkett Smith's husband, Will Smith, seemed to laugh it off, but the laughter did not last. The camera cut back to Rock, and then before anyone could really realize what was going on, Smith walked up to the stage and slapped Rock across the face. 

The room fell silent and everyone seemed unsure what had just happened. "Will Smith just smacked the s*** out of me," Rock told the audience. Smith went back to his seat and shouted, "Keep my wife's name out your f***ing mouth." The tension was palpable and Rock promptly tried to move on. 

Later that evening, Smith received the Oscar for Best Actor. In his acceptance speech, he shared, "Denzel [Washington] said to me a few minutes ago, he said, 'At your highest moment, be careful, that's when the devil comes for you.'" After multiple explanations and apologies, the incident still landed Smith a ten-year ban from the Academy Awards.

Even if you never watched the Victoria Secret's Fashion Show, you probably are well aware the annual event included lingerie-clad models decked out in large angel wings. The angel wings, however, posed an unexpected threat to Ariana Grande. During the performance of her song "Bang Bang," model Elsa Hosk bopped the pop star with one of her pink fluffy wings. Grande hunched over and made a face, and for a split second, the otherwise glamorous event brought the awkward in a big way.  "A Victoria's Secret angel accidentally smacked me in the face with her wings and it was awesome #goals #bangbangintomyface," Grande wrote in a since-deleted tweet (via Paper).

The spectacle, however, brought runway safety to the attention of the event organizers. Model Lais Ribeiro told The Cut, "We had a meeting about it. Ed [Razek] said, 'Don't kill each other on the runway. Give each other space.' And then we all did it right during the second show." A photo taken at the perfect moment when Grande was ducking from the model and looking frightened became a major meme-able moment at the time. Users photoshopped the terrified pop singer into a host of hypothetical situations like ducking from a dinosaur and sitting on Santa's lap.

Well, you can't have a list of awkward celebrity moments without mentioning at least one accidental fart on live television. One of the more notable examples happened while Whoopi Goldberg and her co-hosts interviewed Claire Danes on "The View" in 2011. The "Homeland" star was discussing a rather serious topic about American identity post-9/11 when Goldberg loudly released some built-up gas. "Oh excuse me. I think I just blew a little frog out of there," Goldberg said as the crowd laughed.

While it would be hard for most of us to not cower away in shame, Goldberg immediately turns back to the conversation with a calm nonchalance. And as it turns out, Goldberg may not find farting as embarrassing as some. The actor, whose real first name is Caryn, was apparently inspired by flatulence when she came up with her stage name. As her granddaughter Amara Skye shared episode of "Claim to Fame" (via Entertainment Weekly), "My grandma got her name because she likes to fart a lot...So, whoopee cushions, farts. That's how Caryn Johnson became Whoopi Goldberg."

When Jennifer Lawrence walked up the stairs to receive her first Academy Award in 2013 for her work in "Silver Linings Playbook," she tripped and fell down before she could make it to the stage. When she got to the microphone and the audience was still standing and cheering, she said, "You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and that's really embarrassing but thank you." She struggled through her speech, out of breath and clearly trying to remember what she had planned to say.

On a 2020 episode of the podcast "Absolutely Not," Lawrence told Heather McMahan that she had been overtaken by adrenaline and nerves. "I actually don't remember what that moment felt like when they said my name, and then I fell and it just erased everything from my mind. My full brain went blank," she said. The "Hunger Games" star also said that a few days after she ate it in front of some of Hollywood's biggest stars, CNN's Anderson Cooper wondered if the fall was all for show, which she found hurtful. "It was so devastating because it was this horrific humiliation to me ... I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to give a speech like that again." She did say that Cooper eventually apologized for his remarks and that enough time has passed that she can now look back on the awkward moment with a hint of fondness.