Nicole Kidman has a pretty legit excuse for her weird seal clap at the Oscars

Makes sense, really.
 By 
Johnny Lieu
 on 

Clapping is one of those innate human maneuvers that's hard to mess up, like blinking or scratching.

Yet for weeks, we've scratched our heads at Nicole Kidman's entrancing seal-like clap at the Oscars.

The angle at which Kidman's fingers point and the weird contact she makes between the bottom of her palms has been one of life's enduring mysteries...of the last two weeks.

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Maybe she had sticky fingers from the candy that came down from the ceiling. But all throughout the show?

Finally, we have some (kind of obvious) answers. It turns out she was wearing a massive ring and didn't want to damage it.

"It was very awkward. I was like, gosh, I wanna clap!" Kidman told radio show, Kyle and Jackie O on Thursday.

"I don't want to not be clapping -- which is worse, right? 'Why isn't Nicole clapping?' So therefore I'm clapping, but it was really difficult because I had a huge ring on, that was not my own. But was absolutely gorgeous. And I was terrified of damaging it."

Via Giphy

That's fair, we guess. It would be stressful enough wearing a bazillion bucks worth of jewellery, let alone clapping in it.

Kidman also spoke about that moment in which La La Land was mistakenly awarded Best Picture, which we all know now rightfully belonged to Moonlight.

"That was bizarre I have to say ... I wasn't sure what was going on, no-one in the audience was, and then there was kind of some shuffling and envelopes and I'm thinking 'what is going on,'" she said.

"I thought someone wasn't well, and then I saw people's faces dropping -- it was bizarre."

What an unforgettable night.

Topics Oscars

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Johnny Lieu

Mashable Australia's Web Culture Reporter.Reach out to me on Twitter at @Johnny_Lieu or via email at jlieu [at] mashable.com

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