Oscar on Their Minds : What goes through winners’ minds when they hear their names? Not always what you think.

Did you ever wonder what was going through the heads of Academy Award winners when they heard their names announced? The Times asked 11 of them to recall their emotions at the exact instant they heard, “And the winner is. . . .”

Eva Marie Saint, best supporting actress for 1954’s “On the Waterfront”: It’s kind of a sweet story. I was about to give birth in a couple of days. So my husband [director Jeffrey Hayden] whispered to me, “Honey, if your name is called, promise me you will sit here in your seat and count to 10 before you rush up there.” I hear my name. I feel his hand firmly placed on my left thigh. I couldn’t get up if I wanted to. I’m smiling and I’m [counting] fast. Then I rushed up and said, “I hope I don’t have the baby right here.” With my maternal instinct, I didn’t want to trip going up. So that’s what was on my mind. [Saint gave birth to a son, Darrell, two days after the ceremony.]

Whoopi Goldberg, best supporting actress for 1990’s “Ghost”: Everything was happening in slow motion. I thought, “What did Denzel [Washington] just say?” and then, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”

Marlee Matlin, best actress for 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God”: The first thing I thought was “Did they make a mistake?” Once I’d made my way up to the stage, I turned around and saw that people were standing and applauding, which was really overwhelming. I saw Jane Fonda and read her lips. She said, “That’s great.” I was completely stunned.

Gregory Peck, best actor for 1962’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”: I didn’t think I would win, so I was fairly calm. All the same I fiddled with Harper Lee’s father’s pocket watch and a rabbit’s foot from my little daughter, Cecilia. Just for luck. When Sophia Loren called out my name I was stunned but managed to remember in my speech everyone who had anything to do with “To Kill a Mockingbird”--except for the most important one, the screenwriter, Horton Foote. I have been apologizing to him for the last 33 years.

Louise Fletcher, best actress for 1975’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”: I wondered if I’d ever have saliva in my mouth again.

Ernest Borgnine, best actor for 1955’s “Marty”: I wondered what my father would think.

Red Buttons, best supporting actor for 1957’s “Sayonara”: I thought, “Oh my God, I hope I remembered to brush.”

Steve Tisch, producer of the 1994 best picture winner, “Forrest Gump”: I thought, “This is the ultimate revenge for every jerk that chose me last in junior high school for the baseball team.”

Sissy Spacek, best actress for 1980’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter”: Everything sort of went into slow motion and then I thought, “Oh my God. Now I have to walk up there.”

Robert Zemeckis, best director for 1994’s “Forrest Gump”: I was thrilled and exhilarated--and then I was terrified because I realized I had to stand up in front of an audience of a billion people.

Martin Landau, best supporting actor for 1994’s “Ed Wood”: It was like an out-of-body experience. I never felt as high in my life and as sober at the same exact moment. There is a huge rush of feelings which flood you and an amazing elation. Having grown up listening to the Oscars even before they were telecast, I never imagined I would be sitting in the audience hearing my name called.