“You got to celebrate life, man! We’re breathing, walking, it’s incredible. It’s incredible. Like, it’s incredible,” he told the audience and the millions watching from home. “My mom met dad, they had sex. It’s amazing.”
As the camera cut to his mother, Damalie Namusoke, in the Oscars audience at the BFI in London, her face showed confusion, fury and then sheer humiliation as she put her head in her hands.
“I’m here. You know what I mean? I’m so happy to be alive,” Kaluuya continued. “So, I’m going to celebrate that tonight… I appreciate every single person in the room, i appreciate everyone watching at home. You know, peace, love, and onwards, we go again!”
Although Kaluuya insisted later, during his press room interview, that his mom was “going to be cool” about his awkward revelation, Twitter users warned there certainly would be some consequences to his actions, including author Meena Harris, who joked that “Daniel’s mama got a sandal waiting in the car.”
“What a man. What a man. How blessed we are that we lived in a lifetime where he existed … Thank you for your light. He was on this earth for 21 years, 21 years and found a way to feed kids breakfast, educate kids, give free medical care against all the odds,” he said, adding that the Black Panther leader showed him “how to love myself.”