“I find it an uneasy thing to display any award in your home.”
One of the highest honors in Hollywood is taking home an award like an Oscar or Grammy — and many stars take pride in their major accomplishment. They choose to display their awards front and center, whether that’s on their mantle, in their office or at their recording studio. But some celebs choose to do things a little differently and opt to store their awards in more unusual places. More than a few stars actually keep their awards in their bathroom and one actress even says she has them buried in her backyard!
Read on to find out where these stars keep their awards…
1. Kate Winslet
After her Oscar win in 2008, Kate Winslet decided to keep her prized statue in her bathroom! She explained that she wanted to give her guests the opportunity to pick up the Oscar and even give their own acceptance speech in the mirror.
“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. They’ll come out looking slightly pink-cheeked. It’s hysterical,” she told WSJ. Magazine.
2. Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman has won two Emmys throughout her career and says she planned to keep them in her two daughters’ bedrooms — that is until one of them told her that she didn’t want anything to do with it!
“When I won the Emmy for Big Little Lies … I was like, ‘OK, I can put one on your shelf, Sunday, and one on your shelf, Faith, and they’re yours.’ And Sunday didn’t want it. She said, ‘Oh, I want to earn my own.’ I’m like, ‘You go, girl!'” Nicole explained on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
3. Rosamund Pike
Rosamund Pike hates the idea of having her awards in her home so much that she actually buried them in her garden. The actress explained that it’s probably “deeply psychological” or “deep lying imposter syndrome” but she can’t bring herself to keep them in her home.
“I find it an uneasy thing to display any award in your home. How do people interact with them when they come home? Do they say, ‘Oh wow, look, those are your awards!’ I think it’s awkward, so I bury them in the garden with a little bit showing up, so you can have an enticing glimpse of a hand, or a globe,” Rosamund said on The Ellen Show.
4. Cuba Gooding Jr.
For a long time Cuba Gooding Jr. chose to keep his Oscar in a wine cabinet. While it may have seemed like a strange choice, the cabinet was temperature controlled and prevented the award statue from tarnishing. Now that he keeps the Oscar in his screening room, he says he’s definitely noticed a difference.
“For six years it was in our old house in Coldwater Canyon. We had a wine cabinet, and it sat behind the glass on one of the shelves. People would say, ‘Is that it?’ The cabinet was temperature controlled because of the wine, so the Oscar stayed beaming new,” Cuba told InStyle. “Now that I keep it out in the open in my screening room, it has become tarnished — which is kind of cool. It’s starting to age and get character. Like me.”
5. Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner admits he used to keep his two Oscars in his underwear drawer in order to prevent people from stealing them. While it kept them safe for some time, he eventually decided to move them to a place that made more sense. When he built a screening room in his home, he included a special spot for the awards.
“I used to have my Oscar in my underwear drawer for three or four years until I built the screening room. Now they are in a specially designed shelf unit,” Kevin told InStyle, adding that the room felt fitting because “it feels appropriate that you have to see a movie to see them.”
6. Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow doesn’t like having her awards on display so she keeps them hidden away whenever possible. While she admits that she even once kept her Oscar in storage, Gwyneth eventually moved it to the back of a bookshelf.
“I keep it tucked away at the back of the bookshelf in my bedroom because it weirds me out. For weeks after I won, I kept it in storage … I won’t even put it on the mantelpiece, the thing freaks me out,” Gwyneth shared with The Sydney Morning Herald. “For some reason, I haven’t been able to feel really good about it. I just feel sort of embarrassed and it brings up weird, traumatic feelings. It’s associated with a tough time in my life.”
7. Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin prefers to keep her awards hidden away like Gwyneth Paltrow. After winning an Oscar for her role in The Piano in 1994, Anna revealed that she was keeping the award next to her shoes in the back of her closet.
“I keep it next to my boots at the back of my closet,” Anna once told InStyle. “I don’t display it because friends would think they had to comment and I don’t want that kind of attention.”
8. Catherine Zeta-Jones
In 2002, Catherine Zeta-Jones took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Chicago. Instead of keeping it with her in Los Angeles, Catherine opted to take the award with her to her home in Bermuda — because she believes that not many Oscars have probably been to the tropical island.
“He’s in our home in Bermuda. I figured that not many Oscars have lived there. Of course, everyone who visits wants a photograph with him,” Catherine reportedly told InStyle.
9. Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks keeps his awards, including his two Oscars, right alongside all of his family memorabilia. He says the two trophies sit right next to Mother’s Day gifts and his kids’ sports accolades.
“Where are they now? They are on the family trophy shelf, next to the soccer trophies. I think the World’s Greatest Mom trophy from Mother’s Day is up there as well,” Tom told InStyle.
10. Rachel Brosnahan
Rachel Brosnahan is another celebrity who has chosen to keep her Emmy in her bathroom. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star explained that since she lives in New York, she doesn’t have a lot of space to store things so it ended up above her toilet.
“It’s on my toilet,” Rachel admitted to E! News. “Yeah, I live New York and there’s not a whole lot of shelf space. There were very limited options and very few places to put it.”
11. Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson keeps the majority of awards in her library but according to her Last Christmas co-star Henry Golding, she has a special place for her Oscars. Like many other celebs, she keeps them in the bathroom!
“I was in the library and there’s all her awards…and I was like, ‘Where’s the Oscars? Those are the ones that I want to see!’ Couldn’t find them,” Henry said on Live! with Kelly and Ryan. “I was like, Maybe she’s locked them up? So I go to the bathroom and lo and behold, she keeps her Oscars in the toilet.”
12. Jeremy Allen White
Jeremy Allen White‘s daughters have taken a liking to all of their dad’s awards so everything he wins gets displayed in their bedroom. Jeremy says his two little girls, Ezer, 5, and Dolores, 3, are now in charge of taking care of them.
“They’ve started calling these Daddy’s trophy winner cups and they really like them, so they can hang onto them for me,” Jeremy told People.
13. Richard Dreyfuss
Back when Richard Dreyfuss won his first Oscar in 1978, he admits he was afraid to leave it alone. While his apartment was being renovated, he couldn’t find a safe place to store it so he decided to bring it with him while he was performing in a staging of Julius Caesar. He reportedly wrapped it in brown paper and brought it along with him on the subway trip to Brooklyn. As for where he keeps it now, Richard joked that he keeps it in his fridge.
“I don’t like to brag, but I like everyone to know about it. Sooner or later, I know they are all going to go to the refrigerator,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
14. Alicia Vikander
Alicia Vikander says the Oscar she won in 2016 for her role in The Danish Girl is in the capable hands of her friend’s daughter. A year after her big win, Alicia revealed that she had given the statue to a friend to take care of while she was away working.
“I haven’t seen him since that night! I very recently moved into my new place and, because I’ve been away working so much, I gave him to a friend in L.A.,” she told People. [My friend’s] daughter has been sending me photos to prove she’s taking good care of him. I love my little updates from her!”