Standing ovation for 'Parasite' and other stories from the Oscars backstage

Los Angeles — As Bong Joon Ho's "Parasite" made history at the Oscars on Monday, the 92nd Academy Awards delivered many remarkable moments not just on stage, but backstage as well.

When the 50-year-old boyish and charming Bong Joon Ho, who won Best Director, walked backstage to meet the press, the whole press room gave him and his cast a standing ovation and a resounding applause.

Everyone can see the joy on his face as the excitement on his voice as he said, “This is f****** crazy!”

Laura Dern, who won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “Marriage Story,” was immediately apologetic.

“Can I just mention that I forgot to thank a lot of people onstage and I would like to thank them now?” she said and started rattling off names she had forgotten to thank in her acceptance speech.

Writer-director Taika Waititi, who won Best Adapted Screenplay for “Jojo Rabbit,” was in a very playful mood that he even broke into a song at one point backstage.

Below are some excerpts of our interviews with some of the winners backstage:

Brad Pitt

You have a lot of humor in your previous speeches this season. But tonight you did have a political reference. What prompted you to go that way?

I was really disappointed with this week. And I think, when gamesmanship, Trump's doing the right thing, it's a sad day and I don't think we should let it slide and I'm very serious about that.

You dedicated this to your kids. What would you say to them if they wanted to become actors? Would you let them do it and what would be the advice that you would give to them?

We can have that conversation, once they're 18 and then I would listen. I want them to follow their bliss, follow their passions, whatever they're most interested in. And then, I think it's about guiding as you can, but that they get to try everything on and find where their passion lies. So, sure. Why not?

You’ve walked up and won every single award. Is it the time of your life?

Well, no, I hope not. I hope I've got other s*** going on, but it has been a really special run. And again, it's a community I love and friends that I've made over 30 years, and that mean a lot to me, truly. And I feel a responsibility to that, more than anything. More than a victory lap. And, so I think, right now, I think it's time to go disappear for a little while now and get back to making things.

Laura Dern

Your mom and dad have been nominated for an Oscar. You are such an incredible acting family. What does it mean to be finally holding that statue tonight?

Well I went backstage and people were telling me my mother was very moved and that just makes me so happy to stand up and sing their praises. They literally got me here and artistically got me here as well. So it means the world.

What did you realize through “Marriage Story” that perhaps we should think about this year as a nation and just internationally as well?

I think if a couple through heartbreak and divisiveness can come together to raise a child, then this country better get our act together. I think there is much to learn from the story so beautifully told by Noah, and on a global level, as I mentioned, we have a planet to save. So I pray we can all come together to focus on something that is not at all about politics. It's all about our home.

What advice would you have for women who are looking to break into the film industry?

Said so beautifully by the filmmakers of How to Escape Word. You have to use your voice in this life. You have to stay true to yourself whoever you are. As my fourth grade teacher advised me, the best advice I got, "Keep your eyes on your own paper." And in a social media heyday to stay true to your own inner voice and not be too focused on the noise, and to feel blessed when we get to do what we love in this life. Thank you.

You play women who take no crap. Who are the women in your life who inspired you in these roles?

Well, I start with my mother, who she and my godmother, Shelley Winters, were massive influences on my life as an actor and activist, and be loud, be proud, stand by incredible sisters. I've been blessed in this year to have extraordinary roles. And they said, "Wow, this year you're playing powerful women versus complicated indigent addicts." Or I've heard some other reference a journalist said, and I said, "Because there are women in positions of power to play now." But five years ago I probably wouldn't have gotten to play a leading divorce lawyer or a CEO of a major tech company because they weren't in those positions. So there are many more exciting roles to play, and the future generations are going to be the ones that lift us up and show us because they know it's their role, not because they're going to ask for permission. They're just going to do what they love and bless them for showing us the way.

Renee Zellweger

Who are you going to call first and how are you going to celebrate tonight?

Well, my phone is in somebody else's bag right now, so I haven't called anybody, but I know that my mom is with my dad and they're hanging out with their friends and they were watching TV and I told her, please just keep your phone on the coffee table so you can see. So she's waiting. So I'm going to.

How has the expressions of success changed you? What has that done for you to know that you set out to do this and you did?

It's not something that I've actually thought about. I wish I could answer you in a couple of days because I would sit with that for a second and I'd really think on it, you know? Off the top of my head if I could look back on this year of experiences, I mean, it's really nice when something that really matters to you resonates with someone else. It's always a huge, wonderful kind of unexpected reaction to, I don't know, for anyone who creates art. You write an article, and somebody calls you and says, "That touched me" or you know? So, it's a really nice thing and it makes me happy for everybody that I worked with because I watched how hard everyone worked and it always goes back to that. It always goes back to the collaboration and what you intended and what you hoped for it. When it becomes meaningful to someone else then it's kind of a confirmation that that's what we meant. And this definitely was not what was not in my mind when we started this experience. But in my mind, when I go back to those couple of years that we shared, celebrating her and telling this story and building toward it, boy, that's the blessing, isn't it?

Taika Waititi

“Jojo Rabbit” was just adapted as an educational tool by the USC Shoah Foundation. What does that mean to you?

There's been a few things before tonight that have made me feel validated in the efforts to make this film, in why I wanted to make the film. And a few things happened. One of them was that Mel Brooks gave it his seal of approval, in front of most of Hollywood, in this AFI lunch. And I'd leaned over to my producer at the time and I said, "This whole award season can go down the drain for all I'm concerned; this is our Oscar." The fact that this guy, one of my heroes has given us this recognition. There's one moment. A few other times with people, after Q and A's. People whose parents had survived or been through various camps during the war; who said, "God, I wish my parents were here to see this because they would have loved this film." It's nerve-racking making a film like this and putting, editing, infusing it with humor. And then when the Shoah Foundation said that they're going to make that part of the educational curriculum. That for me sealed everything. It made me feel like, yes it's worthwhile. There is a point to telling these stories again and again in different ways. This is just one of the different ways we've got to tell these stories.

Bong Joon Ho

How did you become a great storyteller and win in Hollywood?

So I'm just a very strange person. I just did what I've always done with great artists, with producer Kwak and my co-writer Han Jin Won and with all my actors. It was the same process making this film, but we've had these amazing results. It still feels very surreal. I feel like something will hit me and I will wake up from this dream. It's literally f****** crazy.

How were you able to grasp the universality of the story and translate it in a way that everybody could react to?

My previous film “Okja” was a co-production between Korea and the U.S., but “Parasite”, which is a purely Korean film, has garnered more enthusiasm from audiences all over the world, and that's making me think that, perhaps, the deeper I delve into things that are around me, the broader the story can become and the more appeal it can have to an international audience.

Was there ever a moment when you were a young boy watching the Oscars on Korean television that maybe you thought of going into filmmaking?

I've seen Scorsese lose this award multiple times and he didn't know me back then, but I was so frustrated. I remember when he won for “The Departed,” I was so excited. So to be nominated with him has been a huge honor. It's hard to believe.

So what do you think this will do to foreign language films in terms of acceptance in Hollywood?

During the Golden Globes, I mentioned the one-inch barrier of subtitles, but I feel like that was already a little late. People were already overcoming these barriers. There are streaming services, YouTube, social media, and the environment that we currently live in. I think we are all connected. So I think naturally we will come to a day when a foreign language film -- or not, it doesn't really matter -- a foreign language film winning this won't be much of an issue later on, hopefully.

As for the four historic wins for South Korea and also for Asians in general, can you talk about your early influences, Asian directors in particular and who influenced you when you were growing up and made you who you are today?

It's quite many. So first of all, Kim Ki-young, the Korean big master, he is a huge master in the 1960s and '70s who made ‘The Housemaid’, the movie digitally restored by the Martin Scorsese Foundation, you can find out about that movie in the Criterion DVD. I strongly recommend it. And I was also strongly inspired by many Japanese directors, like Imamura Shohei, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, all those masters, and also, yeah, quite many wonderful Asian directors. For example, the Taipei New Wave directors, like Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Edward Yang. They made always so beautiful movies which I admire so much.

Since your win is not just a win for South Korea, but it's a win for international films, especially Asian cinema as well, what is your message for the actors of Asian descent who are based in Hollywood?

Yesterday, at the Indie Spirit Award, “The Farewell’s”, Lulu Wang, won the Best Picture, so I was so happy with her. I really love her works but I don't think it's necessary to separate all the borders and divisions, whether it's Asia, Europe or the U.S. If we pursue the beauty of cinema and focus on the individual charms that each piece has, I think then we will naturally overcome all these barriers. Lulu Wang and I just make movies. It's all the same.

After your four Oscar wins, now everyone’s going to want to work with you now. Do you have anything planned?

I do have a plan. I have to work; it's my job. So I've been working for the past 20 years, and regardless of what happened at Cannes and Oscars, I had been working on two projects before then. I'm continuing to work on them, nothing has changed because of these awards. One is in Korean and one is in English.

As for your translator Sharon Choi who is also a filmmaker, are you going to miss her since she has been with you in this journey or are you collaborating something with her?

You already know she's a filmmaker. Yes, she studied film in the university. So I am curious about her script. She is writing some feature-length script. I am curious about it.

—MGP, GMA News