Joaquin Phoenix Becomes the Joke at The Golden Globes
This year, the Golden Globes arrived with a cocktail of heartfelt speeches and of course, all those slightly bizarre moments that had everyone in the audience, including us from home, awkwardly side-eyeing each other. But anyway, here’s a rundown of some of the best speeches of the night:
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaiquin took home the Golden Globe award for the Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama. This is his second award but what stood out to us was his passionate acceptance speech. He delivered a heavily bleeped out speech filled with cliche thank yous to the crew of joker and ended his speech by extending an action plan to help the ongoing australian wildfire. The actor also made strong statements condemning actors who took private jets to the event to flex their wealth without considering the environmental toll it takes.
Joaquin also passionately advocated Veganism through his speech. His speech remained one of the more explicit, politically rich and yet humble ones of the evening. He praised and humbly confessed how intimidated he was by his talented peers! Maybe he rambled a tad much but hey, we all still loved him as the Joker, right?
Michelle Williams
Michelle Williams took home the Golden Globe for the Best Performance of an actress in a Motion Picture. During her speech she unraveled her devotion to a woman’s right to choose and how it had affected her life.
“I’m grateful for the acknowledgement of the choices I’ve made, and I’m also grateful to have lived at a moment in our society where choice exists because as women and as girls, things can happen to our bodies that are not our choice,” she said.
The recent years has seen the latest feminist revoluntion where women have started to take ownership of their bodies and space. Michelle bravely spoke about the controversial topic of reproductive freedom and also cited the recent Alabama anti-abortion law that has terrorized women all over the country. The audience lauded in approval as they watched her discuss one of the biggest issues faced by the nation.
She asked women from 18 to 118 to go vote in their own self interest as men have been doing for years!! The future is truly female!
Tom Hanks
It’s no secret that we love Tom Hanks, and his acceptance speech made everyone tear up including himself.
The 63-year-old actor received the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award during the 77th annual event, and his speech had the room laughing and crying in equal measures. He received a well deserved standing ovation as he received the award.
In his heartfelt acceptance speech, he thanked his family, and all the great directors, actors and actresses he worked with throughout his career. He mentioned that getting to set on time was one of the greatest things an actor could do.In the end, blaming his emotional speech on having a cold, Hanks closed his speech by referencing an old Hollywood term of checking the “gate” for a good movie take. “I have checked the gate,” Hanks said. “The gate is good. Thank you.”
We’re not crying . you are.
Kate McKinion
This Saturday Night Live star called up Ellen Degeneres in a heartfelt intro laced with humor. She thanked Ellen for being a role model on TV at the time when she had come out on her sitcom “Ellen” in the 90’s which was an unforgiving time to be queer. Mikion said that she’d felt so validated by the presence of a lesbian on mainstream Television and that it paved the way for Kate to be accepted on the Satrday Night Live show, years later. She even thanked Ellen for the efforts and bravery in changing mindsets at a time when homophobia was at its peak.
Awkwafina
The 2020 Golden Globe winner for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, went to Awkwafina, making her the only other person of colour who won an award at the ceremony. During her acceptance speech at the 77th annual awards ceremony, Awkwafina thanked Wang, among a number of people, calling her an “incredible director”. She also humorously added, “ Dad I finally have a job”. Awkwafina dedicated her award to her father, her grandmother and her late mother. She ended her speech in the most iconic way possible by admitting that she could always sell her trophy in case she was ever broke!
