Robert Downey Jr. Slammed For ‘Ignoring’ Ke Huy Quan

Robert Downey Jr. may have had a big night at the Oscars, but his perceived behavior towards a fellow actor has left a sour taste in peoples' mouths. While attending the 96th Academy Awards Sunday night (March 10), RDJ took home the award for Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer. He was met on the stage by the recipients of the awards over the last five years: Sam Rockwell, Tim Robbins, Christoph Waltz, Mahershala Ali, and last year’s winner, Ke Huy Quan.

As part of the Oscars tradition, the last person who won the award presents the award to the new winner. However, the Everything Everywhere All at Once star and Downey Jr. didn’t quite have the sweet moment fans had been hoping for. After Ke Huy called his name, RDJ took to the stage and retrieved the Oscar and hardly glanced at the former winner, who looked thrilled to be presenting him with the statue.

Instead, Robert went straight to shake Tim Robbins' hand and fist-bump Sam Rockwell while Ke Huy attempted to tap his arm to snare his attention. Taking the mic stand, RDJ said, "Thanks, Sam, thanks, fellas, you only flubbed one line." Sharing their disgust with the way he ignored Quan, one person wrote on X (formerly Twitter): "How arrogant. He completely ignored Ke." Another person commented, "The way he completely ignored Ke was just... wow. No respect for him." A third pointed out, "Why did he ignore Ke TWICE ??" One person even stated, "And he successfully showed his class by showing such arrogant, racist behaviors. What a sad guy."

Wrote another, "Okay I’m so glad I’m not the only one who noticed this. I get this is RDJs 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 user added, "And also… idk it just makes me sad for Ke Huy because what this clip doesn’t show is how badly he wants to celebrate with RDJ for his win even when they walk backstage and he’s just ignored." Meanwhile, another person wrote: "the more i see it the angrier i get because ke huy quan called his name with such pure excitement and appreciation and then he does this."

As we reported in our red carpet coverage, Quan expressed how excited he was to attend the Oscars again. The Kung Fu Panda 4 voice actor had an extensive list of stars he wanted to snag a selfie with -- one of them being Robert Downey Jr. As captured in photos from later in the night, RDJ does seem to have cozied up with Quan in the group photos at the awards ceremony. With an arm around his shoulder and other photos of the two shaking hands shortly after the award was presented, it seems there were no hard feelings backstage.

Also captured later in the night, Quan seemed to succeed in getting his selfie with Robert. Though he wasn't directly next to him, the feat was accomplished. He hasn't posted any photos from Oscar night yet on his Instagram at the time of our publication.

The biggest night of awards season is finally here at the 2024 Oscars. Actors big and small stepped out at the 96th Academy Awards, wearing their most show-stopping ensembles of the year. The ceremony airs live from the Dolby Theater on ABC, abc.com, or the ABC app. on Sunday, March 10, starting at a new earlier time at 7 pm ET, scheduled to end at 10:30 pm ET. Jimmy Kimmel returns as host for the fourth time. Zendaya, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicolas Cage, and Al Pacino are among the first group of presenters for the awards ceremony. Also presenting are last year’s winners: Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Oscar winners Mahershala Ali, Jessica Lange, Matthew McConaughey, Lupita Nyong’o, and Sam Rockwell are also set to take the stage.

Fantastic films are nominated for this year’s Oscars, with Oppenheimer, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things, The Holdovers, The Color Purple, Maestro, American Fiction, and Past Lives taking a lot of nominations in the major categories. This year, 321 feature films were eligible for the Oscars, and 265 of those qualified for the Best Picture category. Oppenheimer leads the 2024 Oscar nominations with 13 nods, with Poor Things trailing behind with 11 nods and Killers of the Flower Moon with 10.

The list of confirmed performers includes Jon Batiste performing "It Never Went Away" from American Symphony, Becky G performing "The Fire Inside" from Flamin' Hot, Billie Eilish, and Finneas O'Connell performing "What Was I Made For?" from Barbie, and Scott George and the Osage Singers performing "Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)" from Killers of the Flower Moon. As we previously reported, added to the list of performers includes Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson performing "I'm Just Ken" from Barbie.

Take a look below at how these 6 ravishing actors donned dapper looks at the 2024 Oscars: