What we learned backstage at the Oscars

By Chelsea Bailey

reporting from the Dolby Theatre

Backstage at the Oscars feels a tiny bit esteem being at a celeb auction blended with a crowded bingo hall.

The newly-minted Academy Award winners step as much as the mic and journalists frantically wave numbered placards in the vain hope that they will catch the probability to attach a query to what we all must know: The set apart’s the afterparty going to be?

But jokes apart, on Hollywood’s largest night it used to be the quieter moments that usually stood out most backstage.

Whether it used to be handiest director Daniel Kwan’s touching tribute to his mother, or M.M. Keeravaani and Chandrabose – the duo in the back of Natuu Natuu – dedicating their award to aspiring filmmakers in India, the total expertise underscored a return to a extra healthful Oscars ceremony after the controversy that surrounded closing year’s match.

Online, customers noticed that it regarded many of the night’s largest winners were appropriate theatre formative years from college, all grown up

Right here’s about a of the handiest moments from backstage.

There were so many system of Michelle Yeoh’s speech backstage that I wished to scribble down and set for later. She could well in actuality comprise a 2d occupation as a motivational speaker.

Yeoh made historical past on Sunday night when she grew to become the first Asian lady to catch handiest actress and handiest the 2d lady of coloration to take house the award in the closing 21 years.

“We freaking broke that glass ceiling – I kung-fu’d it out and shattered it!” she said to cheers from the crowded room.

“There’s so many who felt unseen and unheard… or no longer it is no longer at all times appropriate the Asian team. For any one who has been identified as a minority we need to be heard, we need to be viewed, we need to comprise the equal opportunity.”

Somebody who says “never meet your heroes” has never had the pleasure of chatting with Brendan Fraser.

As a member of a generation that grew up in the Nineties, Fraser starred in a lot of of my accepted childhood motion footage and tonight’s catch for handiest actor solidified his comeback.

Fraser purchased a standing ovation when stepped as much as the mic backstage, and he regarded so stunned by his Academy Award he in total whispered his answers into the microphone.

Some contributors of the media watching on wiped away tears as Fraser spoke about how he hopes to stay as much as the handiest actor title.

“Making a film with this gravity reinforced how well-known it is to kind as if or no longer it is the first and closing time you ever will,” Fraser said. “I comprise or no longer it is the film that’s going to change some hearts and minds and that feels accurate, that feels in actuality accurate.”

In the direction of the night, the girls folk of Hollywood regarded united in the back of a single message: It is about damn time!

From A-listers to rookies, every lady who proudly held an Oscar took a 2d to advise on what it supposed to work in an alternate that can at situations be sexist, ageist and even racist.

This year, the girls folk were speaking, and I’m going to let them discuss for themselves:

• “Right here is India’s first ever film to catch – and or no longer it is two girls folk… You are making no longer need a seat at the desk bag your comprise desk and take a seat on it.” – Guneet Monga, handiest documentary short film winner for The Elephant Whisperers
• “Initially, I appropriate must thank the Academy for no longer being mortally offended by the words ‘Women’ and ‘Speaking’ attach so shut together esteem that” – Sarah Polley, winner of handiest tailored screenplay for Women Speaking
• “Once quickly appropriate extra (expletive) girls folk wherever, anytime all at once.” – Jamie Lee Curtis, handiest supporting actress for The total lot All over the state All at Once

Ke Huy Quan almost skipped onto the stage as he purchased a standing ovation from the assembled press corps.

In person, his energy feels esteem standing next to an excitable baby who can no longer comprise they’re about to satisfy Santa Claus – and or no longer it is contagious.

“Initially can you suspect I”m holding one of these?” the handiest supporting actor shouted.

Ke Huy Quan’s comeback used to be the in actuality feel-accurate account of this awards season and more than seemingly or no longer it is a long way due to the he used to be so relatable! But backstage he moreover grew serious when he shared that he lost his well being insurance coverage at some stage in the pandemic due to the he could well not salvage work as an actor.

At situations, he said, he used to be shrinking to “bother” his agents to attach a query to if they had any jobs for him. But all that’s about to change, now that he is taking house an Oscar.

“Hopefully when I name my agent the following day, we will receive a diversified answer!”

Jamie Lee Curtis saved the entire room of journalists laughing for the duration of her submit-Oscar interview.

But she did receive serious for a 2d, when she talked about accepting the Academy Award in honour of her of us, the late actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.

“Let me appropriate be impartial appropriate, I make no longer comprise in a world the set apart there are a bunch of people looking down on us,” Curtis said.

“I comprise we are them in our actions and in our deeds and in our recommendations. I’m a proud made of them and I do know they would be incredibly joyful with me.”

Then, in factual Jamie Lee-vogue, she burst into what she said used to be a Hungarian tune – her grandparents were Hungarian immigrants to the US – forward of answering the next attach a query to in honour of her ancestry.

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