Rami Malek & Lucy Boynton's Kiss At The Oscars Was Everything & Here’s Why
Forget the awards — the real crowning moment of this year’s Academy Awards was Rami Malek kissing his girlfriend Lucy Boynton when he was announced as Best Actor winner. This couple has had everyone swooning since they confirmed their relationship back in January, so naturally, the internet collectively lost its cool on Sunday night when this went down. Since this is one of the couple’s first public appearances together, all eyes are on them — and Rami Malek and Lucy Boynton's Oscars 2019 kiss did not disappoint.
To catch you up to speed, Malek and Boynton met in 2017 while filming Bohemian Rhapsody in London, and they’ve been hanging out ever since. It’s assumed that they’ve been dating for quite awhile now, but Malek only recently went public about their real-life romance, calling Boynton “my love” as he accepted his Breakthrough Artist Award at the 30th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Film Awards Gala on Jan. 3. Since then, they’ve totally dialed up the PDA, and fans are here for it.
Malek and Boynton are clearly great together on-screen, but to get some context for what all this might mean about their chemistry IRL, I reached out to body language expert Patti Wood. She had a lot to say about Malek and Boynton’s body language at the Oscars, but most of all, she found the kiss to be seriously revealing. Here’s how it all went down, in case you missed it:
I mean… OMG. For starters, we can see that each of them is an active participant in this kiss. Malek leans in, Boynton pulls his head in toward hers to make it passionate, and then he leans in again for a tender smooch. Wood says this is a great sign of their chemistry. “You have both members of the couple initiating it — he initiates, she makes it passionate, he makes it tender,” she explains.
If you check out the full video, you can see that Boynton helps Malek wipe lipstick off his face before he goes onstage. "That tells me more than any other aspect that they have an intimate relationship,” Wood says. “She's care-taking.” It’s totally unplanned and shows how much attention she is paying to her man.
The couple also kisses three times in total here, which isn’t a coincidence. Wood explains what she refers to as the “theory of three” — when things happen three times in succession, it usually means something.
“The fact that this happens three times feels like completion,” she notes. “It’s a signal that it is real.” Nothing about this moment feels staged because the couple clearly can’t get their hands off each other, and they’re acting like there is no one else in the room.
Another sweet thing to notice is that when Malek’s name is announced, he turns immediately to his lady. “The kiss started when he was still seated, and that tells us that she is the most important,” Wood says. “He went to her first instead of getting up ... when you rise, you're making the focus on you.” Malek wants to share this moment with Boynton before acknowledging anyone else.
When you compare this kiss to the couple’s interactions the rest of the night, it makes the moment even more powerful. Wood notes that Malek has a tendency to look uncomfortable on the red carpet. “The rest of their photos indicate that he has a lot of tightness,” she says. “He's not at ease at all … but once he wins, there is a relief for them.” He’s gaining comfort, and by the time his name is announced, he seems more relaxed. Boynton is by his side the whole way.
If I wasn’t already obsessed when I saw this kiss, now I stan Malek and Boynton more than ever before. Who doesn’t love a couple with such an authentic, magnetic connection? I can’t wait to see them at more events together in the future, and maybe we’ll see Malek relax on the red carpet as he grows accustomed to the spotlight — because after that Best Actor win, it doesn’t look like his star status will die down anytime soon.
