Emmys: Director Glenn Weiss Talks Spontaneous Proposal Moment Backstage

While Glenn Weiss picked up his 14th Emmy trophy tonight with the win for Outstanding Directing of a Variety Special, backstage it was all about the jaw-dropping proposal that went down during his acceptance speech.

The moment went viral, quickly becoming the biggest moment of the night on Twitter.

“You can’t really plan this,” said Weiss of his spontaneous moment. “It became a thought and the thought picked up steam as we got here. This was coming. The timing just lined up really nicely and it was a magical moment.”

Weiss gave props to Emmys director Hamish Hamilton, “who took the cue.” Weiss was up against Hamilton in the category, therefore he couldn’t give Hamilton a heads up because of the obvious awkwardness that would bring. “Hamish, right on the spot, was on her at the right point.”

Weiss was joined backstage by his newly donned fiancé Jane Svendsen, who had no suspicion of the impending action.

“I really hoped he was going to dedicate the award to his mother. He did and then some… I’m still processing this.”

The couple met back in 2001 and have been dating for 10 years, after meeting at the Tonys. Weiss was directing that telecast, while Svendsen served as the chief marketing officer for the Tony Awards.

“There was no plan B although I don’t even know if this was plan A,” said Weiss. “This was a thought that grew and grew and just became. If this didn’t happen exactly this way, something else equally big and surprising would have happened.”