 |
SCREEN CAPTURE /NBC
Golden Globes co-host Sandra Oh got serious when talking about inclusion in the entertainment industry. |
OMG, watching the 3-hour-plus of the Golden Globes awards show last night was so-o-o worth it. It was a night to remember for Asian Americans.
With Sandra Oh as a co-host, it was difficult not to note the unprecedented and welcome inclusionary tone of the awards show by the Hollywood Foreign Press held at the Beverly Hilton.
When Oh thanks her parents in Korean and bows to them after she won a Golden Globe Award, I lost it.
 |
SCREEN CAPTURE / NBC
Golden Globe winner Darren Criss made sure everyone knew he was a Filipino American. |
Then when Darren Criss wins his Golden Globe and gives a nod towards increasing representation, "I am so enormously proud to be a small part of that as the son of a firecracker Filipino woman from Cebu," I cheered, "Yes!"
Criss' award follows his Emmy win in the same category.
Last night (Dec. 6), Oh won a Golden Globe as the Best Actress in a TV Drama for her role as a Detective Eve Polestri in Killing Eve. As the first actor of Asian descent to win in that category, she made history.
In her touching acceptance speech, she thanked her parents in Korean, which I'm pretty sure an Asian language was ever spoken at a Hollywood awards show.
"There are two people here tonight that I'm so grateful they're here with me. I'd like to thank my mother and my father," said Oh. "Umma and appa, saranghaeyo." Which translates from Korean into English as "mom and dad, love you."
True to her word, Oh didn't mention Donald Trump once, but her simple and sincere tribute to her parents in Korean was a political act, reminding the entertainment industry that while her award helps the industry's current quest for representation, it still has a long way to go.
 |
GIPHY
Sandra Oh's parents reacted to their daughter's Golden Globe win for her acting in Killing Eve. |
Criss wasn't the first actor of Asian descent to win Best Actor in a Limited Series (Riz Ahmed won in 2017), but he was the first to shout out his Filipino heritage to the world. Last year, Criss has been accused of not acknowledging being part Filipino.
When Criss' series won in its category, Criss and the producers were joined by Jon Jon Briones, another Filipino American seasoned actor who played Cunanan's father. Executive producer Brad Simpson paid homage to slain fashion designer Gianni Versace. Simpson said Versace had been an openly gay man “during a time of intense fear and hate,” warned that “those forces of hate are still with us,” and called on the audience to “fight back by representing those not represented and by providing a space for people for new voices to tell stories that haven’t been told.”
Representation was the theme of the night with one of the most diverse set of nominees on any awards show.
Oh set the stage in her opening monologue with co-host Andy Samberg when she acknowledged the nomination of Crazy Rich Asians, she said it was the first time Asians had the lead roles "since the whitewashed Ghost In A Shell and Aloha. Off camera, a woman shouted out "I'm sorry!" It turned out to be Emma Stone, who played the role of an Asian American character in Aloha.
Towards the end of opening monologue, Oh turned serious. She told the audience that she was going to finish the opening bit, which mostly comedic, "on a serious note."
"I said yes to the fear of being on this stage tonight to look out onto this audience and witness this moment of change," Oh said struggling with her emotions. "And I'm not fooling myself. I'm not fooling myself, next year could be different, but right now this moment is real. Trust me, it's real. Because I see you and I see you, all these faces of changes," nodding to the tables seating the casts of Crazy Rich Asians and Black Panther. "And now, so will everyone else."
Three of the five Best Motion Picture Dramas had African American themes: Black Panther, If Beale Steet Could Talk and BlacKKKlansman. In addition, the eventual winner, Bohemian Rhapsody is the story of Indian British rocker Freddie Mercury.
 |
SCREEN CAPTURE / NBC
The table with cast members of Crazy Rich Asians, included, from left, Ken Jeong, Michelle Yeoh, an unidentified guest and Constance Wu. They laughed at an Asian flush joke uttered by emcee Sandra Oh. |
Crazy Rich Asians was nominated in the category of Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical, but it lost out to The Green Book, about a black classical pianist and his white driver traveling through the United States' deep South in the mid-20th century when segregation was the rule of the land.
Netflix's Roma, which follows a maid of a middle-class family in Mexico City, won for Best Foreign Motion Picture and Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron.
Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu, a nominee in the Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical, didn't win in her category which was won by Olivia Coleman, who starred in The Favourite. Wu sat at table in the front row with other cast and crew members of Crazy Rich Asians. The prominent location of the table allowed the TV camera to pan over the table all evening.
In an earlier interview with The Wrap, Wu talked about Oh's Golden Globe award, "For her to be recognized for her role in Killing Eve and to be hosting is just long overdue and I couldn’t think of anybody more deserving. It should have happened a long time ago.”
________________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment