With winners Brad, Matthew, Cate backstage at the Oscars

ANGELINA Jolie and Brad Pitt brace for a kiss; Lupita Nyong’o cheers behind the power couple. Getty Images/AFP

LOS ANGELES—Backstage at the Oscars Sunday night, the winners were calm, collected and articulate. They had delivered their emotional thank you’s on stage. Steve McQueen, the filmmaker behind Best Picture winner “12 Years a Slave,” physically expressed his elation by jumping for joy on-cam. Most of the victors had swept the awards season prizes, so the Academy telecast was the culmination of a journey marked by several treks to the stage, a journey that began with the Golden Globe Awards.

Brad Pitt, a first-time winner as coproducer of “12 Years,” was asked how he and his “lovely date” (Angelina Jolie) would celebrate. “Steve (McQueen) is my date,” Brad joked. “No. My better, otherworldly half is here. We’re all going to go out together (to the Governors Ball and then to Ago restaurant in West Hollywood) and just enjoy the time. It’s been a long run, and this is a very exciting moment for us. It’s a real joy, something to ruminate on and really understand what it all means.

“When the film was completed, I had this extraordinary feeling, knowing that this is a film that has legs, that it will be around and speaking to people for many years, and that’s the biggest [source of] pride. So we’re all going to be together and just love each other up.”

MATTHEW McConaughey jokes around with wife Camila Alves backstage after his win. Getty Images/AFP

On “12 Years” making history as the first film directed by a black man, and with a predominantly black cast, to win the Best Picture Award (Best Adapted Screenplay winner John Ridley also became the second black person to win in the writing category), Brad remarked, “I love this… heroic story of a man in this inhumane situation trying to get back to his family… But, listen, at the end of the day, we just hope that this film remains a gentle reminder that we’re all equal. We want dignity and opportunity for ourselves and our families, and that another’s freedom is every bit as important as our own.”

Steve, reminded about his speech at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards (where he recalled passing by Ealing Studios in London on his way to school every day) and how kids who want to be filmmakers would be inspired by his story, said, “I would say, yeah, go ahead. Make it a reality. It’s just one of those things; dreams do come true in that way. It’s not a fantasy. It can actually be a reality. So just go and do it.

“I remember walking past the studios, and Alec Guinness’ and Peter Sellers’ movies and so forth. So it… obviously rubbed off. So, yeah, anyone’s who’s going past on a bus, think about it. It can happen.”

Long wait

Best Actor winner Matthew McConaughey pointed out that it took two decades to bring “Dallas Buyers Club” to the screen. (Matthew’s buddy, Woody Harrelson, Brad and Ryan Gosling were among the actors attached to the Ron Woodroof role during the film’s many stages, until Matthew signed on.)

ALFONSO Cuaron takes a snapshot of partner Sheherazade Goldsmith’s uh, back.AP

“No one wanted to make the film for 20 years,” Matthew related. “It got turned down 137 times. And then it came across my desk. I jumped on with the team that was trying to get it made and we somehow got it made and got it across the line. That was a minor miracle in itself so it felt great. Then I saw the first cut that Jean-Marc (Vallee, director) sent me to look at. I was like, oh, I think we may have gotten it on camera. I think we have a good film here.”

Elated

He was elated that a film that almost didn’t get made due to financing hurdles scooped three Oscars. “Jared (Leto) won, the makeup and hair (Adruitha Lee and Robin Matthews) won with a $250 budget. They were stealing charcoal and stuff to do our makeup. That’s extra rewarding for me because I was a part of that team that was trying to push the thing over the hill that nobody wanted to make.”

“I’m standing here now,” said Matthew, dapper in an off-white tux jacket and black pants. “I got a prize for excellence for the work I do in something that’s not my job, not my hobby and it’s not my fad. It’s my career. That feels wonderful. In 1992, when I was one week into my first job, ‘Dazed and Confused,’ my father moved on. Now [I see that] he got to be alive for me doing the one thing that was not my fad, hobby or job. We didn’t know it then but it turned out to be my career. That’s why he (his father) came to my mind tonight. It feels wonderful.”

CATE Blanchett phoned her children immediately and hoped to go dancing later that night. She won Best Actress in a Leading Role. Getty Images/AFP

Incidentally, his trademark “All right, all right, all right” came from “Dazed and Confused.”

On winning an Oscar in his first nomination, Matthew said, “I’m not going to say surreal. I did not expect it. But it’s a bit of the end of a journey with this film. My wife (Camila Alves) and I were talking about it this morning when we woke up, not knowing what would happen tonight, saying, hey, whatever happens…

“Four years ago, I decided to go to work doing four films a year. That was easy. She followed me everywhere, with the kids. It was harder for her than it was for me.”

Unbearable

Cate Blanchett admitted the pressure she felt as the Best Actress race frontrunner. “Yes, [that was] an intense, unbearable pressure which I’m so glad is over,” said Cate, one of the few contemporary actresses who evoke good old Hollywood glamour and star presence. “And having been primarily in theater for the last six years, I can say this objectively: Every year I watch this (Oscars show) remotely, and every year there are 5, 6, 10, 12, 20 performances by women that I am gobsmacked and inspired by. And it gets whittled down to five… to be in conversation with those women by proxy because we are all crammed together into one category—that’s the privilege. And the rest is just chocolate.”

Asked how her day went before coming to the red carpet madness on Hollywood Boulevard, and how she picked her gown, the “Blue Jasmine” star cracked, “I looked at all of the dresses and I thought, which one is the heaviest? And I put this one on.” Then she said, “No, I’ve had a long and very creative relationship with Mr. (Giorgio) Armani and I had the great fortune of being a princess this morning. Having three things to choose from, I chose this one. My morning began with being pummeled (massaged) like Kobe beef. And it just got better and better.”

Going dancing

On how she immediately celebrated her win and her plans for the rest of the evening, the glamorous mom said, “Well, I called the children. My youngest has stopped vomiting so that’s good. I say I called… that’s a bit predictable. Probably getting into my pajamas, but I’m hopefully going dancing. But remember, it’s easy to dance in your pajamas.”

Alfonso Cuaron, balancing his Best Director and Best Film Editor trophies (for “Gravity”) on each hand, was asked how that felt. “Balanced, heavy,” he quipped. “No, it’s fantastic. Look, what is fantastic about this evening is that this has been a very long process. As I said in my speech, it has been a very transformative process for a lot of folks involved in the film. This just marks a closure and I’m so grateful for ‘Gravity’ and these (five other Oscar awards) and the fact that other members of the artistic team that made this film were celebrated. It’s a joy.”

The Mexico City native was quick to reply to the question on how difficult it was to find that balance to direct his actors while overseeing the technical side at the same time. “The amazing thing actually is not so much the visual effects aspect, but… Sandra  (Bullock),” he said. “That under the conditions that she was performing in, the actor/director relationship was as if we were just doing a scene at the dinner table.

Fantastic

“There was no obstacle around all the physicality, the strain, the complicated amount of cues that required—and the amazing amount of make-believe that was required. It’s like Sandra had to absorb absolutely everything. Her power of abstraction was fantastic. [It’s] not because I did a good job; it’s because Sandra is amazing.”

Alfonso talked about how special “Gravity” was because he made it with his son, Jonas Cuaron, who co-wrote the script. “This is something that Jonas began. He really injected a new energy into my life, in my work. I’m so happy that now he’s celebrating the way that filmmakers like to celebrate—shooting his film (‘Desierto’) in Baja (California).”

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