Academy Awards: J.K. Simmons shares his thoughts on his 'Whiplash' character and more backstage stories

While attendees like Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Nicole Kidman headed straight for the exit after "Birdman" was crowned best picture at the Oscars, other celebs lingered inside the Dolby Theatre.

Bradley Cooper, Clint Eastwood, and Meryl Streep – who all lost in their respective Academy Award categories – stuck around and posed for selfies with the Oscars they're actually taking home: the Lego renditions they were handed by backup dancers during the performance of "Everything is Awesome" from "The Lego Movie."

"Boyhood" filmmaker Richard Linklater and star Ethan Hawke also dejectedly dawdled in the theater before moving on.

___

"It's so good, it feels like Mexico." –Alejandro González Iñárritu, director of best picture winner "Birdman," after responding in Spanish to a few Spanish-language questions from the press backstage.

___

Graham Moore, who won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for "The Imitation Game," said in his acceptance speech that he tried to commit suicide as a teenager.

"When I was 16, I tried to kill myself because I felt weird and I felt different and I felt like I did not belong," he said. "I would like this moment to be for the kid out there who feels like she's weird and different and feels like she doesn't belong. ... Yes, you do."

"The next time someone takes the stage who's been through a similar ordeal, please pass that same message to the next person," he said to applause.

Earlier in the evening, another reference to suicide was included in an acceptance speech when Dana Perry mentioned that her son had killed himself. Perry made her comments in accepting the Oscar for best documentary for "Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1."

"We should talk about suicide out loud," she said.

___

"I can't believe this is happening!" –A dazed Julianne Moore as she stepped off stage after winning the best actress Oscar.

___

"We obsess over every pixel in an animated film. And we want people to see every pixel." –Kristina Reed, backstage at the Oscars after winning for best animated short film.

___

Singers and songwriters Common and John Legend were backstage in the middle of explaining their roles as storytellers when members of the press with eyes on a television monitor nearby visibly reacted to Julianne Moore's best actress win.

"Who just won?" Common asked, interrupting himself and learning it was Moore.

"Y'all knew she was getting that," he added.

___

John Travolta still can't live down his mangling of Idina Menzel's name from last year's Academy Awards when he called her Adele Dazeem.

At this year's Oscars, host Neil Patrick Harris mentioned Benedict Cumberbatch then said, "It's not only the most awesome name in show business, it's also the sound you get when you ask John Travolta to pronounce Ben Affleck."

Harris added that the next presenter had "been on the receiving end" of Travolta's pronunciations, and Menzel took the stage. She then introduced "my very dear friend Glom Gazinga."

"I deserved that," Travolta said, calling her "my beautiful, my wickedly talented Idina Menzel."

Menzel responded, "It's not like it's going to follow me around for the rest of my life."

"Tell me about it," Travolta countered.

As he was about to read the winner of the best song award, she said, "You want me to do it?"

Menzel did read the winner: "Glory" from "Selma," composed by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn. The song was performed during the show by Common and John Legend.

___

Adrien Brody left Jeff Goldblum behind.

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" duo, both clad in white tuxedos, re-entered the Dolby Theatre together just as Meryl Streep stepped on stage to introduce the show's in memoriam segment.

Brody opted to make a dash to his seat while Goldblum decided to hang by the door until the next break in the action.

Despite an announcer's plea during a commercial break that the crowd "refrain from applause during the in memoriam film sequence," several audiences members clapped for colleagues or friends.

Robin Williams and Mike Nichols got the loudest response.

After an emotional performance by Jennifer Hudson, the chatter inside the theater was noticeably quieter – and Goldblum finally got back to his seat.

___

"Can you give someone else a chance, man?" –Jessica Chastain joking to Emmanuel Lubezki after he won his second consecutive cinematography Oscar.

___

"I think there is much to admire in Fletcher's passion for art, for, in his case, jazz music. I don't find much to admire in his pedagogy." –J.K. Simmons backstage at the Oscars after winning best supporting actor when asked about his character's extreme teaching methods.

___

Meryl Streep cheered, pointed and shouted "Yes! Yes! Yes!" as Patricia Arquette ended her Oscar acceptance speech with a call for wage equality for women.

Arquette, who won best supporting actress for portraying the mother in "Boyhood," had just beaten Streep for the award and had read a long list of thank-yous and thrown in a plug for GiveLove.com, which advocates for ecological sanitation, when she changed themes.

"To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen in this nation: We have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality in the U.S.," she said.

The call to action, which seemed to take the audience by surprise, had many people on their feet and cheering.

"Made my night," Streep told Arquette backstage.

___

Try to play Pawel Pawlikowski off stage, will you? Forget about it.

The director, accepting the Oscar for best foreign film for "Ida," mumbled something about ending his acceptance speech when the music that was his cue to wrap it up started playing.

Then he just kept talking until the orchestra finally gave up and stopped playing.

Among those he thanked, as the audience cheered, were his late wife and parents, his children and his film crew, "who were in the trenches with us."

___

Ethan Hawke, who played the father in "Boyhood," said he was stunned by "the reality of what's happened with this movie."

It was shot over 12 years with the same cast growing older in real time and was nominated for six Oscars, including best film.

"This movie started as a dream 12 years ago," he said on the Oscar red carpet. "What if? What if? It seemed so ludicrous.

"The biggest challenge is figuring out how to make the people have a continuity to them so they're changing but they don't seem like different people," he said of playing the same character over 12 years.

___

Ellen DeGeneres may have taken the selfie of all selfies at last year's Oscar show. But this year's Reese Witherspoon snaps were the hit of the red carpet fan bleachers.

In an off-shoulder black and silvery grey gown, Witherspoon took grinning photos of herself in front of the bleachers as fans whooped with delight.

"Wow, she's so awesome," yelled Andressa Weber, in town from Miami.

___

David Oyelowo says it's not just the Academy Awards that need diversifying.

"Every facet of life, whether institutions or the nation in general, should reflect what society is composed of, not just racially, but in terms of sex, women, young, old," the star of "Selma" said on the Oscar red carpet.

Although "Selma" was nominated for best movie, Oyelowo, who played Martin Luther King Jr in the film, was passed over, something many considered a snub.

___

"I'm just going to play dark, complex characters from now on, even in comedies. They're not going to be funny, they're just going to be dark and complex." –actor Steve Carell, who's known for comedy but was nominated for best actor in "Foxcatcher," a drama.

___

"It was surprisingly easy. Everyone asked would people lose interest and drift away. It kind of went the other way. They care more and more about it." –director Richard Linklater about making his Oscar-nominated film "Boyhood" over 12 years.