Winning an Oscar is among one of the highest honors in Hollywood and a goal many stars aspire to achieve. At last year’s ceremony, we witnessed history when Ariana DeBose won for best actress in a supporting role for “West Side Story,” making her the first Afro-Latina to win an acting Oscar. Will Smith also officially became an Oscar winner when he took home the trophy for best actor in a leading role for his performance in “King Richard.”
This year, Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh, Colin Farrell, and Angela Bassett are among the many actors who scored nominations for their work. Rihanna – who is set to perform at the March 12 ceremony following her headline-making Super Bowl performance – also received her very first nomination for her song “Lift Me Up” from the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” soundtrack. Meanwhile, fan-favorite movies include “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
But have you ever wondered where stars store their Oscars once the award season is over? Well, that answer varies depending on who you ask. From the mantle to the bathroom, keep reading to find out where celebrities keep their coveted golden statues ahead of Sunday’s 95th Academy Awards.
Related: How to Watch the 2023 Oscars – and the Red Carpet
Julia Roberts
Roberts took home the Oscar for best actress at the 2001 ceremony for her role as the titular Eric Brockovich in the 2000 film. During a December 2019 appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Roberts revealed that she keeps her trophy in “the parlor.”
The actor explained, “It’s in a room that has a piano in it that my daughter plays, that we call the piano room, and I thought that might sound pretentious, so I said ‘parlor.'”
Halle Berry
Berry’s Oscar win for “Monster’s Ball” in 2002 made her the first-ever Black woman to win best actress. In a 2011 interview with The Sun (via The Independent), Berry revealed that she keeps her Oscar next to the Razzie trophy she won for “Catwoman.”
“The Oscar is in my bedroom in Los Angeles because I do not like people to touch it or look at it. The Razzie sits right below the Oscar,” the actor said. “It reminds me if I ever needed reminding, about the absurdity of this career . . . It keeps my working life in perspective.”
Anna Paquin
At just 11 years old, Paquin took home her first and only Oscar for best supporting actress in “The Piano” in 1994. Five years after her win, Paquin told InStyle that she keeps her trophy “next to my boots at the back of my closet.”
Gwyneth Paltrow
Paltrow won the 1999 Academy Award for best actress for her performance in “Shakespeare in Love.” Speaking to Contact Music in January 2005, Paltrow said that she keeps her award “tucked away at the back of the bookshelf in my bedroom because it weirds me out.” She added: “For weeks after I won, I kept it in storage . . . I won’t even put it on the mantlepiece, the thing freaks me out.”
Melissa Etheridge
Etheridge – who took home the 2007 Oscar for best original song for “I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconveniant Truth” – keeps her trophy in her office “alongside many things, including my two Grammys, my wife’s Golden Globe, my 1st place softball trophy, my best supporting actress award from high school, and my harmonica from Tiffany’s that Bruce Springsteen gave me for my birthday,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “It is a very special space.”
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Zeta-Jones, who won best supporting actress for “Chicago” in 2003, told EW that she keeps her Academy Award “on the mantelpiece in my office at home.”
She explained, “My office is more than my general workspace, it’s my sanctuary. Large cozy couch, my portraiture collection of women ranging from 17th century to Art Deco. It’s right off my library, stacked with my favorite books and my bound scripts of everything I have ever worked on, and all my photo books. Oscar is here, because he likes the peace and quiet. He stands high up on the mantle, so as to be able to look down on me and humble me. Pretty much like everything else in this room, he reminds me of how grateful I am to be part of an artistic and creative community.”
Reese Witherspoon
In 2006, Witherspoon won the best actress Oscar for her role in “Walk the Line.” She later told People that she initially considered turning the trophy into a door knocker or statement necklace, but instead decided to “just keep it in my living room.”
Kate Winslet
Winslet stores the Oscar she won in 2009 for best actress for her performance in “The Reader” in her bathroom. “The whole point is for everybody to pick it up and go, ‘I’d like to thank my son and my dad’ – and you can always tell when someone has, because they’re in there a little bit longer after they flushed,” Winslet told The Wall Street Journal in September 2015. “They’ll come out looking slightly pink-cheeked. It’s hysterical.”
Emma Thompson
Similar to Winslet, Thompson also keeps the two Oscars she’s won (best actress for “Howard’s End” in 1993 and best adapted screenplay for “Sense and Sensibility” in 1996) in her bathroom. “They look far too outré anywhere else. They’re great big, gold, shiny things. They’re up there tarnishing quietly along with everything else I own, including my body,” Thompson told Time in January 2006. “It does give people the opportunity to pick them up and play with them in privacy rather than having to say, ‘Can I hold that?’ You’d have to come to my house. There’s no posh space. Every space is kind of a family space. I’m surprised my daughter hasn’t used them for nefarious purposes actually. They’re heavy.”
Adrien Brody
Brody, who was crowned best actor for “The Pianist” at the 2003 ceremony, told EW his “Oscar stands next to Buddha and Lucy on the mantle.”
Jamie Foxx
Foxx was named best actor for his performance in “Ray” at the 2005 show. Speaking to Jerry Seinfeld in Netflix’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” in 2019 (via news.com.au), Foxx shared that his manager actually has his Oscar. “When I win the Oscar, I don’t take the Oscar home,” he said. “I give it to my manager.”
“I said, because if I take that, I’ll buy into the Oscar sh*t and I won’t be funny anymore. For whatever reason, when I was holding that Oscar I automatically started to speak in an English accent,” Foxx joked.
Tom Hanks
Hanks is a two-time Oscar winner (he has two best actor trophies for his roles in 1993’s “Philadelphia” and 1994’s “Forrest Gump”). According to People, he keeps his awards “on the family trophy shelf, next to the soccer trophies.”
Octavia Spencer
Spencer was crowned best supporting actress for “The Help” in 2012. In an interview with Variety, the actor revealed that she keeps her Oscar in a built-in shelf next to her fireplace. “There’s some books around it,” she told the outlet.
Jennifer Lawrence
In 2013, Lawrence won the best actress Oscar for her performance in “Silver Linings Playbook.” However, the trophy currently resides with her parents. “My parents took it back to Kentucky, ’cause I felt odd having it, like, on display in my house,” Lawrence told Access Hollywood in 2013 (via Today). “If anybody’s coming over to my house, I didn’t want them to remember that. Just kind of puts a weird energy out.”
John Legend
The EGOT winner, who has an Oscar for his song “Glory” in 2014’s “Selma,” keeps his award on a trophy shelf, which Chrissy Teigen has shared glimpses of on Instagram.
Goldie Hawn
Hawn became an Oscar winner in 1970 when she won the best supporting actress award for her performance in “Cactus Flower.” Speaking to InStyle in 2005 (via People), Hawn shared that she keeps her trophy “in the room where I study and practice meditation.”
“Sometimes it’s on the mantel, sometimes I put it away,” Hawn said. “Trophy rooms are the opposite of me. Awards are history – that’s my philosophy.”
Lupita Nyong'o
Nyong’o – who took home the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance in “12 Years a Slave” in 2014 – previously told Variety that she keeps her golden statue “just on a shelf on its own.”
Jodie Foster
Foster has two best actress Oscars: one for her performance in 1989’s “The Accused” and a second for 1992’s “The Silence of the Lambs.” In an interview with ABC News, Foster revealed that she initially kept her Oscars in her bathroom “because they looked good with the faucets.” However, she later had to move them to a trophy case in her den because they started “getting corroded on the bottom.”
Emma Stone
After winning best actress for “La La Land” in 2017, Stone told Seth Meyers that she gave her Oscar to her mom. “It felt a little strange,” Stone said of storing the trophy in her home.
Viola Davis
The EGOT winner – who won best supporting actress for her performance in “Fences” at the 2017 Academy Awards – once told Michael Strahan (via People) that she keeps her Oscar in her office. “That’s [all] Julius,” Davis said, referring to her husband. “If it were up to me, I’d keep it in my garage to keep me humble.”
Yuh-Jung Youn
Youn was named best supporting actress at the 2021 ceremony for her role in “Minari.” Speaking to EW, the actor revealed that her trophy “sits in my dining room with the sculpture of this beautiful synchronized swimmer to keep him company.” She added, “I don’t usually display my awards, but since he moved into my house in Seoul, he gets more visitors than I do! My friends all want to see him, hold him, and take photos with him. They say it’s good luck for them to touch him! So I have to wipe him and sanitize him often. He even gets invited to parties!”
H.E.R.
In 2021, H.E.R. officially became an Oscar winner when she took home the award for best original song for “Fight For You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah.” She later told People that her trophy proudly sits on her dining table “kind of like a centerpiece.” She continued, “People are like, ‘Is that – is that the Oscar?’ I don’t have a full build-out yet. I’m working on that. But I do have a little shelf situation in my living room with the Grammys and the Soul Trains and all those awards.”
Geena Davis
Davis – who won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for “The Accidental Tourist” in 1989 and was the recipient of the 2020 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award – previously told EW that her Oscar sits on her “fireplace mantle” with the rest of her awards.