TAGGED AS: Awards, Awards Tour, golden globes
“Wow, now that was unexpected.” Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King summed up the entire 76th Annual Golden Globes Awards program Sunday night in its final moments as his film took the Motion Picture – Drama award.
It was a night of big surprises on both the film and TV front, as the Hollywood Foreign Press handed out its 2019 honors. The night’s big, emotional wins came from leading drama actress Glenn Close for film The Wife (an upset, considering many expected Lady Gaga to take the award for her role in A Star Is Born), top drama actor Rami Malek for his starring role as rock icon Freddie Mercury in the night’s top film, and, on TV, Richard Madden for his actor in a drama series win for Bodyguard, reaction to The Kominsky Method‘s various upsets, and The Americans snagging the Best Television Series – Drama award for its final season. (See the full list of winners here.)
Read on to learn about those big wins and more of the best moments of the night.
Film’s Biggest Moments | TV’s Biggest Moments
After a well-received opening monologue built around the idea of the two nicest people in Hollywood trying their hardest to be mean – and failing – Oh took a moment to acknowledge the history she was making by hosting as an Asian-American. Oh told the audience, “I said yes to the fear of being on this stage tonight because I wanted to be here and look out onto this audience and witness this moment of change. I’m not fooling myself. Next year could be different and probably will. But right now, this moment is real. Because I see you. I see you. All of these faces of change. And now, so will everyone else.”
(Photo by Paul Drinkwater/NBC)
Once Rami Malek got his Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, the Bohemian Rhapsody star clutched onto it like the statue was going to make a break for it (see his speech here). At just 62% on the Tomatometer, Bohemian Rhapsody was not the movie the RT office was expecting to win Best Drama. And yet, in a massive upset that leaves A Star Is Born’s Oscar prospects positively shaken, the movie took at the top prize on Sunday night, and, though somewhat less of a surprise, Malek took best actor. Will it be enough to get the film an Oscar nod? We’ll be able to tell later this month.
Regina King’s win for Best Supporting Actress in a Movie for If Beale Street Could Talk was no big surprise – she’s favored to take out the Oscar, too – but her speech was one of the most powerful of the evening. After a touching tribute to director Barry Jenkins for making a film that her son said “was the first time he saw himself on screen,” King made a pledge that every project she produces in the next two years will involve 50 percent women. As many in the crowd stood up to applaud, King challenged those in positions of power, and not just in the entertainment industry, to do the same.
In one of the biggest surprises of the night, Green Book took Best Screenplay over Vice, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Favourite, and Roma, all of which were favored over the Peter Farrelly film. Especially Roma, which would go on to win Best Foreign Language Film. Farrelly co-wrote Green Book with Brian Hayes Currie and Nick Vallelonga. And then, in an arguably equally big surprise, the movie won the Best Film – Musical or Comedy Award, beating out The Favourite, which had been, well, the favorite.
In one of the night’s most entertaining speeches, Christian Bale accepted his Best Actor – Drama award for Vice and thanked his children “Burrito” and “Banana” (he also thanked Satan, for the inspiration). Burrito and Banana? His kids? The Internet was confused, but excited. Bummer that it turns out they’re not the actual names of his kids, but nicknames.
I really want Christian Bale’s kids to be named Banana and Burrito, but sometimes life’s not fair. #GoldenGlobes
— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) January 7, 2019
We’ll just leave this here without comment (make sure you have some time in your hands).
Olivia Colman won Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her performance as Queen Anne in The Favourite – and she won the hearts of anyone watching with her endearing acceptance speech. Colman, who will play Queen Elizabeth II in the next season of Netflix’s The Crown, thanked “my bitches” – her film co-stars Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone – as well as Melissa McCarthy, for the sandwiches. She couldn’t find the words to express what the film meant to her, but she did share her excitement over flying in a private jet.
In the biggest upset of the night, Glenn Close took the award for Best Actress in a Drama for her role in The Wife, beating out favorite Lady Gaga who was expected to win for A Star Is Born. The two actresses shared an embrace as Close made her way to the stage; when Close got to the microphone, she said all the nominees “should be up here together, that’s all I can say.” In an emotional speech, Close – whose character stands in the shadows of her famous-writer husband – paid tribute to her mother, who she said had sublimated herself to her father for most of her life.
Steve Carell – not Jack Nicholson, despite a nice fake-out intro from Oh and Samberg – presented Carol Burnett with the first annual Carol Burnett Award, which the HFPA will give annually to someone who “has made outstanding contributions to television on or off the screen.” “Does this mean I get to accept it every year?” Burnett asked, in reference to the award’s name. Burnett spent the bulk of her time on stage paying tribute to the cast and crew of The Carol Burnett Show – a mega weekly production she said “couldn’t be done today” – and dedicated the award to those who want to follow in her footsteps. She ended, appropriately for fans, by saying “I’m so glad we had this time together.”
The HFPA is known for its occasionally quirky upsets, but there were quite a few surprising winners in the TV categories at the 2019 ceremony. It’s not that any of the winners were unworthy — have you heard that there’s a lot of amazing television to watch nowadays? — but they certainly skewed a bit differently than most award prognosticators would’ve picked: Michael Douglas for The Kominsky Method, which was released on Netflix just a month ago (beating out heavy-hitters Bill Hader for Barry, Donald Glover for Atlanta, Jim Carrey for Kidding, and Sacha Baron Cohen for Who Is America?); Richard Madden for addictive BBC–Netflix drama Bodyguard (over Homecoming standout Stephan James and Pose emcee Billy Porter); The Kominsky Method over a solid comedy crop; and perhaps the most shocking of all, the perennially Emmy- and Globes-snubbed The Americans winning for Best Drama (over Bodyguard, Killing Eve, Pose, and Amazon streaming sensation Homecoming).
Sandra Oh’s night of firsts continued with her second-ever Golden Globe win. The actress, who took home a supporting Globe for Grey’s Anatomy in 2006, was the first-ever Asian winner in the lead TV drama actress category for her role as an MI6 operative tracking a female assassin through Europe in BBC America’s Killing Eve. Oh’s eyes welled up with tears as she thanked her parents, who were watching their daughter nail her gig as the first-ever Asian host of the Golden Globes ceremony.
You — and half of Twitter — might not have known what The Kominsky Method actually is (watch the trailer to find out), but the HFPA certainly liked it. The Netflix comedy, about a once-A-list actor and his agent helping each other through life, Another fact you might not have known: It’s from The Big Bang Theory creator Chuck Lorre. The mega-producer, who wrote on Roseanne and has created mega-hits including Two and a Half Men, Mom, Mike & Molly, and Young Sheldon, had never seen one of the sitcoms he created take home an Emmy or a Golden Globe — until this year. His speech was filled with genuine emotion, clearly thankful his massive body of work had finally been recognized in such a major way.
