Featured Image Credit: UPI / Alamy. ABC.
Topics: Oscars, Academy Awards, Celebrity
Rachel Lang
Malala Yousafzai's dad, Ziauddin Yousafzai, has revealed he watched on with pride as his daughter expertly batted away her awkward Oscars exchange with host Jimmy Kimmel.
The female activist was at the Oscars as an executive producer for film Stranger at the Gate, which was nominated in the Best Documentary Short Film category.
Months after the so-called spit-gate between Harry Styles and Chris Pine rocked the Venice International Film Festival, Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel asked none other than the Nobel Prize winner about it.
The Pakistani activist attended the awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre on March 12, but it's safe to say she didn't expect to be quizzed about such a specific, and frankly a little old, pop culture moment.
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"As the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history, I was wondering, do you think Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine?" Kimmel asked her about her stance on the infamous spit incident.
She simply replied: "I only talk about peace."
To which Kimmel added: "You know what, that's why you're Malala and nobody else is. That's a great answer, Malala. The winner is Malala-land, everybody."
Yousafzai, who watched the ceremony from their family home in Pakistan, told the Daily Mail that the answer was 'very Malala'.
"It was very clever, gritty and she outwitted Kimmel," he said.
"She’s learnt all of that from her mother, who is also very quick witted and has a dry sense of humor. Like mother, like daughter.
"A lot of people are focusing on the question, but I think they should concentrate on the answer, which is a lot cleverer."
He then went on to defend Kimmel and the flak he has been copping in the wake of the Oscars.
"I think people are being a bit over sensitive but that’s because they are very protective of Malala," he said.
He then addressed those calling Kimmel out for his 'offensive' question: "I don’t feel as if Kimmel was trying to offend her in any way. It was just a joke which might have got lost a bit."
Kimmel and Malala's exchange wasn't the only moment of this year's Academy Awards who left viewers cringing.
During the event's champagne carpet, Hugh Grant was slammed for his 'rude' interview with model Ashley Graham, who tried her best to get some answers from the actor. The Notting Hill star, more recently seen in a cameo in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay), seemed a little curt when answering Graham's queries, and fans didn't let this one slide.