Welp, after a year of controversy, criticism, and an unaired ceremony, the Golden Globe Awards returned on Tuesday with a handful of heartfelt, hilarious, and uncomfortable moments.
Settling into the the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, the likes of Abbott Elementary, Everything Everywhere All At Once, The White Lotus, The Bear, House of the Dragon, and more took home those solid gold orbs. The careers of Ryan Murphy and Eddie Murphy were celebrated, host Jerrod Carmichael’s Scientology joke fell, uh, really flat, and Rihanna got the most shoutouts of the night. Here’s the best bits of the night, in case you missed them.
Jerrod Carmichael made the audience gloriously uncomfortable.
Golden Globes host Jerrod Carmichael truly called out the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with his opening speech at the award ceremony on Wednesday.
“I’ll tell you why I’m here. I’m here because I’m Black,” the comedian began.
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In his monologue, Carmichael addressed some hard truths about the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which runs the Globes and which faced scrutiny last February when the Los Angeles Times revealed that it is 87 members included no Black people. NBC subsequently refused to air the 2022 Globes ceremony.
“I’ll catch everyone in the room up,” Carmichael said in his speech. “This show, the Golden Globe Awards, did not air last year because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which — I won’t say they were a racist organization, but they didn’t have a single Black member until George Floyd died. So do with that information what you will.”
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Michelle Yeoh told the play-off music to shut up. And it did.
If any of the Golden Globes producers thought they could play off Michelle Yeoh, they had another thing coming. The Everything Everywhere All At Once lead won her first Globe for her electrifying performance as Evelyn Wang in the film, and gave a deeply moving speech.
“I’m just gonna stand here and take this all in. 40 years. Not letting go of this,” she said.
“When I first came to Hollywood, it was a dream come true until I got here. Because look at this face,” she said. “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.'”
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“As time went by — I turned 60 last year — and I think all of you women understand this: as the days, years, numbers get bigger, the opportunities get smaller, as well,” she continued. “Then along came the best gift: Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Yeoh then noticed the play-off music starting to build, and offered up an incredible command: “Shut up, please.”
“I can beat you up, OK? And that’s serious.” The volume did not rise, people.
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Jennifer Coolidge won the night several times.
It was a major night for The White Lotus star and Golden Globe winner Jennifer Coolidge, who absolutely nailed it every time she stood behind a microphone. Accepting her award for best supporting actress in a television limited series/motion picture, Coolidge popped her heavy statuette on the floor — “I don’t work out” — and delivered an incredibly chaotic and wonderfully heartfelt speech, including a bleep for the show’s creator. “Mike White, I fucking…oh shit…love you.”
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Earlier, a hilarious bit saw Coolidge presenting the award for best supporting actor in a TV series (Abbott Elementary star Tyler James Williams took home the gold). Coolidge wove a whole tale about being nervous about messing up, then finished by presenting the award with “and the Oscar goes to…” Perfect.
The complete list of winners at the 2023 Golden Globes
“Somebody called Cara Bishop called me and said, ‘Jennifer, we would like you to present at the Golden Globes this year.’ And I said, ‘Oh my God this is such an honour, thank you so much. Yes I would love to.’ And I hung up on her.” Coolidge then explained she later called Bishop back. “I said, ‘Cara I’m so touched that you’d want me to do this, but there’s no way I’m gonna make it from behind the curtain all the way to the podium without breaking my skull… I just can’t do it.’
“Cara, I think she was serious, she said, ‘Jennifer, why don’t you just wear a pair of Crocs?’ I said, are you kidding me? With my Dolce and Gabbana dress? All those crazy Italians will lose their minds!”
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Essentially, Coolidge could have just told tales about her life for hours and I would have settled the hell in.
Quinta Brunson did a victory lap.
Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson did it again, winning best performance by an actress in a television series, musical or comedy. First, she thanked her co-producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacher: “It’s just worth everything to be able to have two people support you. They’re very white men, and they said, ‘OK, Quinta.’ They let me get away with a lot.”
Brunson also thanked the Abbott studios, Disney, 20th Television, and Warner Bros., in the best way possible: by backing herself. “Thank you for believing in this show that’s resonated in the world in a way I never would have imagined. But let’s be real — I did imagine it. That’s why I sold it to you.”
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Angela Bassett won Marvel’s first major solo acting award.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Angela Bassett took home the gold for best actress in a supporting role in any motion picture, and become the first actor to win a major solo acting award for a movie based on a Marvel comic. In her speech, Bassett also paid tribute to her late co-star, Chadwick Boseman.
“We embarked on this journey together with love. We mourned, we loved, we healed, and we were surrounded each and every day by the light and the spirit of Chadwick Boseman. And we have joy in knowing that with this historic Black Panther series. It is a part of his legacy that he helped to lead us to,” she said.
“We showed the world what Black unity, leadership, and love looks like beyond, behind, and in front of the camera.”
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Ke Huy Quan made us all cry.
Everything Everywhere All at Once star Ke Huy Quan took home best supporting actor in a motion picture, and took the opportunity to reflect on his return to the big screen after many decades since his Indiana Jones and The Goonies start — also giving a nod to director Steven Spielberg, who was at the ceremony (and at the other end of the night, won best director for his autobiographical film The Fabelmans).
“When I started my career as a child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I felt so lucky to have been chosen. As I grew older, I started to wonder if that was it, if that was just luck,” he said.
“For so many years, I was afraid I had nothing more to offer; no matter what I did, I would never surpass what I achieved as a kid. Thankfully, more than 30 years later, two guys thought of me. They remembered that kid, and they gave me an opportunity to try again.”
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Everyone was psyched to see Rihanna.
Revered monarch of our time Rihanna was in attendance at the Globes, nominated for best original song for “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. So multiple presenters, including Billy Porter and a glowing Niecy Nash-Betts, took their moment to bestow shoutouts and praise on the artist from the stage.
“Rihanna, you take all the time you want on that album, girl. Don’t let these fools on the internet pressure you into nothing,” said Carmichael.
Credit: Christopher Polk/NBC via Getty Images
Want to see who won the gold? Here’s the list of Golden Globes nominees and winners.
