Charlize Theron won’t forget her first time going to the Oscars ― in part because of a major wardrobe malfunction and the fellow actor who swooped in to save her. (Watch the video below.)
In an interview with Bazaar posted Wednesday, Theron harked back to wearing a Vera Wang number while at the awards show to rep her nominated movie “The Cider House Rules” in 2000.
As Theron sat down in the theater, the nearly backless dress split open.
“When I stood up for the first standing ovation, I felt this kind of cool breeze coming up my tush,” she said. “And I realized my whole butt was hanging out.”
Theron eventually fled to the bathroom in a panic ― and Best Actress nominee Julianne Moore (“The End of the Affair”) was there and ready to help. Moore, despite her big night, “was on all fours in her gown searching for a safety pin on the floor and she found one,” Theron recalled. Problem solved.
Theron said she saved the dress with the safety pin in it on purpose and sent it to the dry cleaners with a special request about the safety pin: “Don’t touch it! I want it to stay exactly the way Julianne Moore fixed it.”
“I still have the dress with the safety pin in it,” Theron said. “Thank you, Julianne.”
Theron won the Best Actress Academy Award for “Monster” in 2004 and has been nominated twice since. But for real-life drama, she’ll always have her rookie appearance at the Oscars.
