All ears: here’s why Bill Nighy’s Oscars date was a small stained bunny

Was the star of Living making a covert protest on behalf of pygmy rabbits with his Sylvanian squeeze? Or referencing the Taiwanese gay community’s new icon? And what was that spattered over its forehead?

Awards season is good at magnifying the public personas of participants. This goes for winners (Ke Huy Quan of Everything Everywhere All at Once becoming a dangerously energetic puppy) and attendees (Hugh Grant as the spectacularly grumpy opposite of Ke Huy Quan), but arguably nobody pulled off this trick with more panache than Bill Nighy at the Oscars.

Nominated for best actor for his still and unshowy role in Living – a performance that was always going to be overshadowed by the grotesqueries of Elvis and The Whale – Nighy nevertheless managed to hone his persona in order to carve out a small but notable moment of virility on the red carpet. This is because, upon posing for the cameras, Nighy pulled a stained Sylvanian Family rabbit out of his pocket and displayed it to the world.

It was perfect Nighy. It was restrained (those scrolling through a red carpet gallery could have easily missed it). It was tasteful (he was holding a member of the Babblebrook family, a design classic that was included in the original Sylvanian Families launch in the mid 1980s but is now unavailable). And it was slightly sinister (the rabbit was covered in so much unidentified sauce that more than one Twitter user assumed that it had been murdered by gunshot).

Bill Nighy, with a small stuffed rabbit, arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
A rabbit in LA … what are the stains? Photograph: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Best of all, it was unexplained. The red carpet is traditionally where stars make big political statements, like Elizabeth Taylor wearing a red ribbon for Aids awareness in the 1990s or Ryan Gosling wearing a T-shirt with the word “Darfur” on it, so there was a sense that Nighy was simply joining in.

Maybe the rabbit represented something. Maybe he was bringing attention to the petition asking the US Fish and Wildlife Service to save the pygmy rabbit from extinction by adding it to the Endangered Species Act. Maybe it was a sly act of LGBTQI+ solidarity, after stories that Tu’er Shen the Chinese rabbit God has become an icon of the Taiwanese gay community. Maybe, stunned by the recent news that the Sylvanian Families shop in Finsbury Park, north London – Europe’s only independent Sylvanian Families retail outlet – is closing down after 30 years of business, he held up the Babblebrook rabbit as a protest against online commerce.

But that couldn’t have been it. Because Nighy was already drawing attention to a cause on the red carpet. He was wearing a blue ribbon as an act of solidarity with refugees. And you can’t raise awareness with two separate things on a red carpet, can you, because it muddies the message? You can’t say: “I stand with refugees and also small toy mammals made of flocked plastic,” because then nobody would have a clue what you were about. You’d be laughed out of Hollywood.

Finally, however, we have something approaching an answer. In a statement to Metro, when asked about the mysterious Babblebrook interloper, Nighy said that “My granddaughter’s schedule intensified and I was charged with rabbit-sitting responsibilities. I wasn’t prepared to leave her unattended in a hotel room. The stakes are too high. Where I go, she goes…”

Which is lovely – it was nothing more than a dotingly public act of grandparenting. Nighy has two granddaughters, born in 2016 and 2020, so it makes some sense to assume that the rabbit belongs to the younger one. But questions remain. What sauce is the rabbit covered in? It looks like ketchup, but it could be gochujang or some sort of berry syrup. Was the sauce a recent addition? Who was responsible for that, Nighy or his granddaughter?

More than anything, which member of the Babblebrook family was he holding? Nighy already winnowed the field by identifying it as female – and it’s unlikely to be Coral (the baby Babblebrook) or Pearl (who wears glasses) – but that still leaves Crystal and Harriet and Jessica and Judy and Breezy. This rabbit is currently the most famous flocked plastic rabbit on Earth, so the world deserves to know.

Contributor

Stuart Heritage

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Oscar nominations 2023: the full list
From The Banshees of Inisherin to Everything Everywhere All at Once, all the nominations for the 95th Academy Awards, which take place on 12 March

Guardian film

24, Jan, 2023 @5:22 PM

Article image
Peter Bradshaw’s Oscar predictions: who will win – and who should?
Will Everything Everywhere All at Once pick up everything, all at once? Is Cate Blanchett a shoo-in? Our critic weighs up who will leave the Dolby theatre with a statuette this weekend

Peter Bradshaw

10, Mar, 2023 @10:00 AM

Article image
Oscars TV ratings improve – to third worst ever
This year’s Academy Awards with Jimmy Kimmel at the helm drew an average TV audience of 18.7m – and a bigger share of younger viewers

Andrew Pulver

14, Mar, 2023 @11:32 AM

Article image
Jimmy Kimmel to host Oscars for third time
The chat show host said ‘I am grateful to the Academy for asking me so quickly after everyone good said no’

Andrew Pulver

07, Nov, 2022 @2:56 PM

Article image
Angela Bassett and Mel Brooks to receive honorary Oscars
Governors awards will honour the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever actor and the multi-award-winning comedy star behind The Producers

Catherine Shoard

27, Jun, 2023 @1:28 PM

Article image
Oscars fashion: bridal colours dominate as red carpet is scrapped
Stars such as Michelle Yeoh and Halle Berry wore white to match a champagne carpet but not every star got the memo on its change of colour

Lauren Cochrane

13, Mar, 2023 @10:21 AM

Article image
What next for Will Smith after Oscars slap? Hollywood divided over the star’s future
Reaction to the Academy Awards incident has veered from acceptance to outrage – and even boredom. With an Oscar-tipped movie in the pipeline for 2023, the star has many options, including baring his soul on a chatshow

Catherine Shoard

01, Apr, 2022 @3:45 PM

Article image
Oscars 2023: Everything Everywhere All at Once leads nominations
Multiverse action epic dominates shortlist, while All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin are each up for nine awards

Catherine Shoard

24, Jan, 2023 @4:17 PM

Article image
Botox, trifle and a bit of Australia: Oscars gift bags and party menu revealed
Even if nominees don’t win they can walk away with a $126,000 grab bag of wellness-focused luxuries, after enjoying tiny fish and chips

Catherine Shoard

08, Mar, 2023 @1:41 PM

Article image
Liza Minnelli was ‘sabotaged’ at Oscars and ‘forced’ to appear in wheelchair
Longtime collaborator Michael Feinstein has alleged that the manner of Minnelli’s appearance presenting best picture last month was largely against her wishes

Catherine Shoard

20, Apr, 2022 @11:15 AM