Monday, March 13, 2023

Body Language Analysis No. 4677: Jamie Lee Curtis Accepts her Oscar


Jamie Lee Curtis won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She played, Deirdre Beaubeirdre (an IRS inspector) in the film, "Everything Everywhere All at Once".

What follows is a Body Language analysis of several nonverbal behaviors Ms. Curtis displays in her acceptance speech.

At the end of her speech (2:17 in the above video), Jamie Lee Curtis says, "And my mother and my father were both nominated for Oscars in different categories — [pausing while tilting her head-neck backward and looking up] I just won an Oscar!"

(Jamie Lee Curtis' mother was Janet Leigh and her father was Tony Curtis)
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Immediately after this sentence, Ms. Curtis, with her left hand, first covers both eyes ...


 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
...then covers her mouth...
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
...then she blows a kiss to the audience.

When a person finds themself in a sudden situation where they learn something dramatic that's factually true (intellectually true) — but they've yet to accept/fully accept the emotional ramifications of this new event (what is 'emotionally true'), they will very often (unconsciously/at the edge-of-consciousness) cover their eyes (both eyes, almost never one eye) with one or both of their hands — or cover their mouth with one or both their hands — or both (as did Ms. Curtis). 

As Jamie Lee Curtis' edge-of-unconsciousness mouth covering progressed into conscious awareness, she then segued into a blown kiss gesture to the audience.

SUMMARY: Colloquially, it's helpful to think of this behavior as a real-time nonverbal manifestation of a person 'trying to wrap their brain around' a suddenly presented high-ramification event/news.

Spontaneous Bilateral Eye covering or mouth covering with one or both hands after sudden awareness of a dramatic/surprise event, is a sincere and common signal of emotional processing.

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