Golden Globes Pianist Breaks Silence on Acceptance Speech Music Controversy

While there were quite a few memorable moments at Tuesday night's Golden Globes, there was one that was somewhat controversial. When Michelle Yeoh won best actress in a motion picture comedy or musical for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once, the music began to way part of the way through her acceptance speech, prompting the start to turn to piano player Chloe Flower and say, "Shut up, please. I can beat you up, okay? It's that serious." The internet had a lot to say about the moment and now, Flower is breaking her silence.

In comments to Variety, Flower explained that she actually wasn't playing the music except for when she was on camera, clarifying that her job was just to play everyone back in from commercial break, but also went on to say that she had a nice moment with Yeoh off camera and that there were no hard feelings at all.

"After she won her award, she walked past the piano and I spoke to her," Flower said. "We embraced. We touched and we held hands. I said, 'I would never disrespect you and play during your speech.' She was so lovely and nice."

Flower also explained that the actual space where the event takes place is fairly small and that the size and layout of the venue is likely why she ended up the "face" of the music.

"I don't think viewers were aware of how small it really is," Flower said. "I think everyone was looking in my direction because I was on a piano, and I became the face of sound."

What were Yeoh's full Golden Globe remarks?

Here is the full text of Yeoh's Golden Globes speech: "I'm just gonna stand here and take this all in," Yeoh said, holding her Golden Globe. "40 years. Not letting go of this. Thank you, Hollywood Foreign press, for giving me this honor. It's been an amazing journey, an incredible fight, to be here today, but I think it's been worth it. I remember when I first came to Hollywood, it was a dream come true until I got here because look at this face. I came here and was told 'You're a minority,' and I said, 'No that's not possible.' Then someone said to me 'You speak English,' I mean forget about them not knowing Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Asia, India. And then I said, 'Yeah, the flight here was about 13 hours long, so I learned on the way."

She continued, "I turned 60 last year, and I think all of you women understand this as the days, the years, and the numbers get bigger, it seems like opportunities start to get smaller as well. I probably was at a time where I thought 'Well, hey come on girl, you had a really, really good run. You worked with some of the best people Steven Spielberg, Jim Cameron, and Danny Boyle. And so, it's good. It's all good. Then along came the best gift, Everything Everywhere All At Once." This is when the piano cut in, prompting the now infamous reply, "Shut up please, I can beat you up, and that's serious."