That’s a wrap for the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards.
Hosted by Shazam! star Zachary Levi, the show was everything we expected and then some. We still can’t get over how much went down in only a few hours!
From RBG, Avengers: End Game, and Game of Thrones winning big to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson receiving with the “Generation” Award and Jada Pinkett Smith being honored with the “Trailblazer” Award, the night was anything less than inspiring.
To top it off, music sensation Lizzo performed mega-hit, “Juice,” and singer, songwriter and producer Bazzi did his hit song “Paradise.” Stars like Sandra Bullock, Gal Gadot, Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss, Brie Larson, Noah Centineo, and Tiffany Haddish were also in attendance, either presenting golden popcorns to each winner or receiving them onstage.
While we wish we could include them all, Celeb Secrets rounded up ten of the best moments from tonight’s MTV Movie & TV Awards. Did your favorite make our cut? Keep scrolling to find out and sound off by leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post and by sending us a tweet at @celebsecrets.
First of all, host Zachary Levi’s opening monologue was actually hilarious. The MTV Movie & TV Awards are known for their controversial antics which the hosts typically play way into. Instead, Zachary made a bunch of G-rated, yet genuinely funny jokes about Sandra Bullock’s character in Bird Box, strayed away from anything too political, and called Ray J America’s other sweetheart (Miss Bullock being the first, of course). Good ol’ ZL did immediately follow that up by saying Ray J, who was seated in the audience, usually stays behind the camera, referencing the musician’s infamous, ahem, tape with Kim Kardashian, but that’s about as dramatic as things got.
The Rock put on a whole production to accept the Generation Award. After a video package played highlighting Dwayne Johnson’s most beloved roles, the actor entered the stage preceded by dozens of muscular dudes who danced and stomped around to Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” The Rock shot the crowd one of his signature eyebrow raises before showing off his softer side and calling on the crowd to be kind and inclusive. “It’s nice to be important,” he said, “but it’s more important to be nice.”
Lizzo hit us with THE MOST energetic performance of the night, and, quite possibly the year. The new soul queen on the block sang her overnight hit, “Juice,” with a gang of backup dancers who, after ditching gospel robes for swaggy street clothes, got down like there was no tomorrow for three whole minutes. And the crowd inside LA’s Barker Hangar theater was feeling Lizzo just as much as we were — Ross Lynch and Brie Larson were just a few of the attendees caught singing and dancing along.
Speaking of Brie, the Oscar winner added another award to her collection before the night was through: Best Fight for her brawl with Gemma Chan’s Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel! Brie accepted the award with her two trainers and stunt doubles for the film, Joanna Bennett and Renae Moneymaker whom Brie praised. “I could not have made this film without them,” she said during her acceptance speech. “They are really the baseline for who [Captain Marvel] is.” The actress then gave each woman a chance to speak, during which they revealed they grew up together and dreamed of one day portraying strong female characters like Captain Marvel.
Jada Pinkett Smith took home the iconic Trailblazer Award, but not before funny gal Tiffany Haddish introduced her and joked that Jada never says “no,” which is why she always asks her pal for money. As a tribute compilation video rolled, other friends like Alicia Keys and Queen Latifah and husband Will spoke kind words about the actress, singer, and talk show host. Jada eventually made her way on stage with son Jaden in tow to accept the honor. “I don’t know if I deserve this quite yet,” she admitted before praising previous winners of the award, “but I’m really glad MTV thinks so.”
After Kiernan Shipka aka the new Sabrina Spellman revealed to the world that Ross Lynch is, in fact, a better kisser than Gavin Leatherwood, the trio announced that To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before stars Lana Condor and Noah Centineo were this year’s winners in the Best Kiss category. When the two took the stage, Noah attributed the win to Lana’s lips, while Lana thanked Noah for being such a great partner in the film. She also encouraged viewers to “Kiss who you wanna kiss, love who you wanna love, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” Aww.
It technically didn’t happen during the show, but during a commercial break, viewers were treated to a sneak peek of The Hills: New Beginnings’ opening credits, and it was a moment. Set to a remixed version of Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” (the original Hills theme song), Audrina Patridge, Spencer Pratt, Heidi Montag, and more original cast members smoldered into the camera dressed in swanky cocktail dresses and suits — a far cry from the show’s original sunny, smiley opening credits. Actress Mischa Barton, who was not part of the original show’s cast, made her debut appearance as a series regular.
Bazzi took the stage for a mesmerizing performance of his song, “Paradise.” The 21 year old began by lying down on a bed before standing up to sing into a microphone, while simultaneously creating his own voice effects on a laptop (2019, amirite?). After a minute or so, Bazzi broke away from the mic-stand-laptop setup to move around the stage and interact more with the audience. The performance wasn’t as big of a production as other acts throughout the night, but it was definitely one of the most memorable.
Noah Centineo made his second appearance of the night onstage to accept the award for Best Breakthrough Performance for his role in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Hollywood’s newest heartthrob revealed in his acceptance speech that he and Bazzi (whom he knows as Andrew) go way back, and used to dream of moments like the ones they had that evening. Noah also admitted that acting doesn’t actually make him all that happy — giving back is what brings him the most joy. It’s also worth noting that as he walked toward the stage to accept the award, Jonas Brothers’ “Sucker” played, because we’re all suckers for Noah, obviously.
The final award of the night, Best Movie, unsurprisingly went to Avengers: Endgame. The film’s co-director, Anthony Russo accepted the award and half-jokingly declared he was old enough to remember when MTV started. Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey, Jr. also popped in via video message to thank the fans, Marvel Studios, and Disney for making the Avengers franchise as big as it has become. RDJ said he was “absolutely blown away” by the win, while Mr. Russo shouted out the late Stan Lee for his contributions to the Marvel universe.
