Barry Jenkins Says He Went to Therapy Over the ‘La La Land’/‘Moonlight’ Best Picture Mix-Up

Nearly a decade later, the most chaotically embarrassing moment in Oscar history still haunts Barry Jenkins.

In a new Vanity Fair interview celebrating "Moonlight" and its 10-year anniversary, Jenkins admits he had to go to therapy to work through the night Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway handed Best Picture to "La La Land" before the Academy realized the wrong envelope had been read.

For those who need a refresher, the "La La Land" team was already onstage and midway through their acceptance speeches when producers rushed out to reveal the mistake. Beatty had been handed the duplicate envelope for Best Actress, which had just gone to Emma Stone. "La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz graciously announced the error himself and handed the trophy over, but the damage was done.

Jenkins calls the infamous moment "traumatic" and admits the PTSD didn't really hit him until he watched the following year's ceremony, which led to therapy.

No, really — Jenkins is scarred by what happened, and he goes on to admit that the moment, dubbed “Envelopegate,” will forever be etched alongside "Moonlight" in the history books. He stops short of giving a more detailed response; he'd rather not dwell on it too much, noting that "it's the thing I get asked about the most." An accounting error has damaged Jenkins' psyche.

Regardless, Jenkins sounds ready for his next film. He's married to Lulu Wang, has a young son, and is gearing up to direct "Be My Baby," the A24 Ronnie Spector biopic starring Zendaya, along with his long-gestating Alvin Ailey film. He told VF he wants to shoot projects back to back rather than disappear for years between them.

Meanwhile, A24 is putting a 4K restoration of "Moonlight" back in theaters on October 2.