The Hollywood Reporter was lurking around backstage - first the Ringers:

"All I'm feeling right now is absolute disbelief," Jackson said. "You hope that you will win something, but the sweep is unreal. It speaks to the fact that people enjoyed the movies that we made on all levels, and that's the idea — you want people to enjoy it."

Jackson admitted that making the three films back to back almost killed him, but the joy of seeing his last film in the series sweep the Oscars could make him think about Round 2.

"Right now, it feels like I could do it all over again," he said. "It was absolutely worth it. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but since I was a little kid, I wanted to be a filmmaker, and what better film to work on?"

Jackson added that he is grateful the Academy saw past the fantasy stigma of the trilogy. "So much has been said about fantasy films," he said. "And I understand why, but every single movie that has been made is a fantasy film. Because ours had goblins and trolls and wizards and orcs made it hard to look past that, but I appreciate that the Academy and the voters have seen through all that."

Meanwhile, Lennox praised Jackson and his crew for including her in the mammoth project. "I feel like a very tiny party of a huge project," she said. "But I thoroughly enjoyed working with this team of people."

Best actress winner Charlize Theron thanked her presenter, Adrien Brody, for making his kissing jokes before announcing the winner because she was incredibly nervous.

"That relieved a lot of pressure," said Theron, who was still overwhelmed by her win. Of that winning feeling, she said: "It's kind of like a wedding — not that I've been married. It's this strange sensation, and your body goes on automatic."

She also said she tried not to initially look at her mother for fear of bursting into tears. "I avoided looking at her until I had to. . . . It's embarrassing to cry in front of however many people are out there," she said.

One reporter persistently tried to ask her about the ins and outs of same-sex kissing, but after initially indulging his questions, she laughed him off. "I can't believe I'm talking about tongue action holding an Oscar." And while Theron will travel to her native South Africa to help promote "Monster," she said this evening was a fitting cap to the movie. "This is a kind of farewell," she said. "It's a good farewell."

No one was more surprised by the standing ovation for best actor winner Sean Penn than the actor himself. "I was there to debunk the notion that it was a popularity contest, but they took that joke away from me in the room," he said. Gracious as he was in congratulating the actors who were nominated alongside him — as well as some who weren't — he saved his most effusive thanks for his wife, Robin Wright Penn. "Some of us are just lucky to have such a singular, genuine heart in our lives, someone who consistently challenges us," Penn said. "And those challenges are the same things that apply in our work."

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