The Golden Globes this year kicked off with a direct acknowledgement by host Jerrod Carmichael about the controversies surrounding the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Another quickly forming theme though is performers that would not be silenced by the show’s attempts to “play them off” if their acceptance speeches were running long. The Banshees of Inisherin star Colin Farrell started the trend by ignoring the music during his speech, but Everything Everywhere All At Once star Michelle Yeoh took it to the next level by threatening the person who decided to play the music. Yeoh had been awarded her Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy award. Watch for yourself below.
“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 Holylwood Forieng press for giving me this honoir. It’s been an amazing journey, an incredible fight, to be here today, but I htink ti’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, ‘Teah, the flight here was about 13 hours long so I learned on the way.”
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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.”
Yeoh then continued her speech, the piano still playing albeit slightly lighter than it was when the “play off’ began. The actress thanked Daniels, the writer-director team that were the pair behind Everything Everywhere All At Once, noting: “(They) had the courage to write about a very ornery, immigrant, Asian woman, mother, daughter… I was given the spirit of playing this woman who resonated so deeply with me and with so many people, because at the end of the day, in whatever universe she was at, she was just fighting, fighting for love for her family.
She went on to thank her co-stars Ke Huy Quan, who just won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film earlier that night, Stephanie Hsu and her “hot dog lover,” Jamie Lee Curtis. Yeoh concluded, “This is also for all the shoulders that I stand on, all who came before me, who looks like me, and all who are going on this journey with me forward so thank you for believing in us. Thank you.”
(Photo by Rich Polk/NBC via Getty Images)
