Although the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards didn’t go as initially planned after pivoting from a live ceremony to a pretaped one, the show was still full of memorable moments. From Drew Barrymore making appearances in hit TV shows and movies to Tom Cruise accepting an award from a fighter pilot jet, here are some of the night’s most memorable moments.
Drew Barrymore Appears in Segments Throughout Show, Despite Dropping Out as Host
Drew Barrymore opened the 2023 awards show in a pretaped segment as her Never Been Kissed character Josie Gellar, but was inserted into other popular shows and movies. Some of them included Smile, Wednesday, M3GAN, Nope, The White Lotus, Top Gun: Maverick and lastly, Cocaine Bear, where she finally gets her kiss from the aforementioned bear.
The actress-producer was also featured in other prerecorded segments and commercials throughout the ceremony, including a remake of the Barbie trailer, a clip from the Netflix hit series Wednesday, a Pluto TV ad and more. At the end of the show, she also appeared in a video to accept the award for best host.
Barrymore’s pretaped appearances come after she dropped out as host, saying she was doing so in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America strike.
Jennifer Coolidge Defends WGA Strike While Accepting Comedic Genius Honor
Jennifer Coolidge accepted the Comedic Genius Award during the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday. After showing a montage of clips from some of the actress’ most iconic roles, Coolidge took to the screen in a pretaped video to show her appreciation, saying, “Thank you, MTV. Thank you for honoring me with this incredible Comedic Genius Award. Wow. Wow.” Before finishing her acceptance speech, The White Lotus actress had some thoughts on the Writers Guild of America strike: “Almost all great comedy starts with great writers and I just think that, you know, as a proud member of [SAG-AFTRA], I stand here before you tonight, side by side with my sisters and brothers from the WGA that are fighting right now, fighting for the rights of artists everywhere.”
Tom Cruise Accepts Award From Fighter Pilot Jet
Top Gun: Maverick star Tom Cruise won the award for best performance in a movie, but he didn’t accept the award in just any pretaped video. The actor gave his speech from the cockpit of a fighter pilot jet: “Thank you so much for this award. I make these shows for you. I love you. I love entertaining you. You know how much you enjoy it, how much you appreciate it, there’s just no better feeling.”
He also appeared at King Charles III’s Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle earlier Sunday in the same way.
Pedro Pascal, ‘The Last of Us’ Win Big
Pedro Pascal went from holding one Golden Popcorn trophy in his first pretaped acceptance speech to holding three in the last one. The actor accepted the three awards for The Last of Us, including best show, best hero and best duo with Bella Ramsey.
During his speeches, where he was seen in the same yellow shirt each time, he thanked fans, the show creators and production, as well as showed his support for the striking writers and the Writers Guild “that is fighting very hard for fair wages.”
Ghostface Makes Appearance to Accept Two Awards
In a pretaped video, Ghostface from Scream VI made an appearance to accept two awards, for best fight and best movie.
The winning film altercation was specifically the one between Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers and Ghostface. During the antagonist’s first speech, they said, “It’s about time someone truly appreciated my work. Too bad Gale couldn’t be here tonight, but don’t worry, I’ll make sure she gets what she deserves. You know what they say in Hollywood, ‘Movies don’t create psychos, movies make psychos more creative,’ and I’m looking forward to a lot more creativity.”
Ghostface made another appearance later on to accept one of the top awards for best movie. During the speech, they added, “There’s a twist you didn’t see coming — the villain comes out on top.”
