Teyana Taylor was a breath of fresh air throughout this year’s awards season, and Sunday night’s Oscars were no exception. The actress—who was nominated for her performance as the revolutionary force Perfidia Beverly Hills in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Best Picture winner One Battle After Another—has made waves throughout the entire press circuit, but she kept her energy as high as ever during the Academy Awards, a ceremony that often feels entirely too stuffy.
Her reactions were so eye-catching and infectious—though not all of her interactions that evening were joyous—that the Oscars would have done well to set up a Teyana Cam for those of us who wanted a dedicated feed of the best responses of the night. Still, even without the spotlight, that didn’t stop the Oscar-nominated actress from taking it. From hootin’ and hollerin’ for her industry friends to ambushing her director with love, here are some of Taylor’s best moments from Sunday night’s Oscars.
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Giving It Up for Aunt Gladys
Taylor’s category, Best Supporting Actress, was the first award presented on Sunday night. Though she had won the Golden Globe, it was Weapons’ Amy Madigan who wound up taking home the most precursor awards, which made Madigan the front-runner. When Madigan did indeed win the Oscar, Taylor was the first on her feet in a true sign of camaraderie. Madigan later explained that she was alone for most of the press circuit (Best Supporting Actress is the only category Weapons was nominated for), and the cast members of the other big films had welcomed her throughout the long awards campaign. Taylor’s actions throughout the night drew some negative retorts from fans online, but in a response to one particular naysayer on X, the multihyphenate responded by tweeting: “The world holds so much misery that miserable hearts forget the face of happiness. They grow comfortable being sore losers, so when they see real sportsmanship it unsettles them! like holy water touching a demon.” Hear, hear!
K-Pop Fangirling
Earlier in the broadcast, a Slate colleague of mine had wondered in passing about an object Taylor was holding in her hand. Knowing that Huntr/x—Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami—still had yet to perform their Oscar-winning song “Golden,” from the Oscar-winning animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters, I had hoped that the answer was a K-pop lightstick. Lightsticks are a popular, collectible piece of fan memorabilia for K-pop fans, with each singer or group having their own design. Come to find out that my joking assumption was exactly right. When Huntr/x took the stage to perform “Golden,” the audience was awash with the glow of Hollywood’s leading ladies and gents waving their lightsticks in the air. One of them was Taylor, who clapped with it, funnily slapping the lightstick after the performance. This is expected behavior of a mom whose kids love KPop Demon Hunters—a true fan, if you will.
Seeing Teyana Taylor smack that light stick felt so real. https://t.co/0rxk7I1nkf
— Jessica 🍉 (@yiskaschwizzle) March 16, 2026
Three Cheers for Jordan
When Michael B. Jordan won the Best Actor award for his work portraying the Smokestack twins in Sinners, the room erupted into a much-deserved standing ovation. However, no one seemed to be as thrilled for Jordan as Taylor, who leaped out of her seat and began jumping up and down with joy as Jordan took the stage for his acceptance speech—paying no mind to the fact that she was seated directly next to her One Battle After Another co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, who had just lost the award to Jordan. (Not that DiCaprio seemed anything but happy for Jordan either: He stood up almost as quickly as Taylor did, and the two “competitors” were later photographed sharing a long, emotional embrace.) Before Jordan spoke any words, the cameras caught Taylor clapping with fervor and shouting an emphatic “Yes!” and “Let’s go!,” capturing the elation that many viewers felt even if most of the stars in attendance weren’t showing it.
Crazy in Love
During a moment of downtime, Teyana was filmed dancing in her seat to Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” as it played over the loudspeaker. She was tapping her toes to the beat and snapping with one hand, with her head down, looking at the phone in her lap that she was scrolling on with her other hand. Even when the show was on an ad break and she was scrolling her phone, she somehow kept the energy going.
Teyana Taylor dancing to “Crazy In Love” in her seat tonight at the #Oscars pic.twitter.com/YWxXtgZgKV
— 𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚔 (@arikbeyhive) March 16, 2026
The Headlock Heard Around the World
When One Battle After Another won Best Picture, Taylor gleefully ran up to the stage with Anderson, excitedly putting him in a headlock (so enthusiastically she almost tripped over her dress), while Anderson just smiled and laughed. She went on to hug everyone else onstage and jump up and down with fellow co-star Chase Infiniti while the whole OBAA crew was arriving to the stage. Later, in an interview with Variety, Taylor said that she and Anderson have a running inside joke about her being “such a sports girl,” and so he “already knew the headlock was coming.” No Paul Thomas Andersons were hurt in the making of this viral moment.
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