Cristin Milioti dropped the Emmy she had just won after taking a fall while arriving at an afterparty in Los Angeles on Sunday night.
Video circulating online shows the 40-year-old actress, who had been smiling moments earlier, walking toward the venue in a black leather jacket when she suddenly went down and the gold statuette slipped from her grasp. A man immediately rushed to help Milioti to her feet and retrieved the trophy from the pavement.
Onlookers heard Milioti exclaim, “Oh my god,” as she looked at the Emmy on the ground. She then laughed off the incident, accepted the award back, and walked into the party, telling the crowd, “Thanks, bye!”
Milioti won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her portrayal of Sofia Falcone in HBO’s The Penguin, a spinoff of The Batman franchise. The Television Academy honored her over nominees that included Cate Blanchett (Disclaimer), Rashida Jones (Black Mirror), Michelle Williams (Dying for Sex) and Meghann Fahy (Sirens).
At the ceremony in Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater, Milioti delivered an emotional acceptance speech in which she said she had written her remarks on the back of notes she took in therapy. “It’s very hard to make sense of being alive right now in this world, so I’m deeply grateful for the bright spots,” she told the audience. She thanked her family, colleagues including co-star Colin Farrell, and The Penguin creator Lauren LeFranc, saying of LeFranc, “whose brain I wanna freebase.” She closed by shouting, “I love you and I love acting so much! Woo!”
Backstage, Milioti told Entertainment Tonight that her "spirit left her body" when her name was called and that she felt like she had been “shot out of a TV shirt canon.” She added that she planned to celebrate with the series’ cast and crew at the afterparty.
Representatives for Milioti and the Television Academy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. There were no reports of injuries following the fall. Milioti’s performance in The Penguin received widespread critical praise during the awards season and marked her first Primetime Emmy win.