Everything Everywhere All at Once just tipped the balance sheet heading into the Oscars on March 12. The mind-bending sci-fi hit cleaned up at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) Sunday night, with four of the major wins, making it a record for the awards show.
The multiverse dramedy secured another Best Female Actor win for Michelle Yeoh, who paid tribute to close competition “titans,” Cate Blanchett (Tar) and Viola Davis (The Woman King). Yeoh was the favorite—and deservedly so—and gave a heartfelt, emotional speech, also cursing hilariously when she was overcome.
“This is not just for me, this is for every girl who looks like me,” she said, according to The Guardian. “Thank you for giving me a seat at the table.”
Continuing their awesome friendship award show moments, Yeoh and her Everything co-star, Jamie Lee Curtis, were ecstatic about each other’s wins.
Proud ‘nepo baby’ Curtis
Curtis also got her own award, for Best Supporting Female Actor, for her turn as the amusingly droll IRS agent-nemesis to Yeoh’s dry cleaning lady in Everything. She embraced the controversial “nepo baby” label being thrown about, but also shrugged it off, choosing to celebrate her big win as a 64-year-old woman.
“I know you look at me and you think ‘nepo baby’, and that’s why she’s there and I totally get it. But the truth of the matter is that I’m 64 years old and this is totally amazing,” said Curtis during her acceptance speech.
Wins for 60+ women in an ageist Hollywood have been quite a trend this awards season, one that we just can’t get enough of.
She also continued to own the nepo baby title during the “why I became an actor” segment. In fact, the “actor starts” anecdotes were a real highlight of the program and another example of the kind of positivity that the SAG Awards tapped into that made it a more joyful affair than say this year’s dismal Golden Globes.
Everything Everywhere All at Once party continues
Joining in the accolades was also Ke Huy Quan, who won Best Supporting Actor, and celebrated his historic win by shouting out to all his Asian peers. His beautiful enthusiasm has been a glorious journey all year long, and if you haven’t followed his highlights on Instagram, you really need to!
Both he and Michelle Yeoh made history as the first Asian actors to win the Best Actor statues. Quan said that the few opportunities for Asians in the industry contributed to him taking a long break from acting, but he noted that the “landscape looked so different now than before,” and celebrated the numerous Asian actors who were nominated this year.
The historic fourth award went to the entire ensemble of Everything Everywhere All at Once, where they handed the thespian statue to the film patriarch, 94-year-old James Hong, who got his SAG card 69 years ago! His speech is worth watching in its entirety and was the best moment of the night for me.
Other highlights
He’s been the favorite all season long (for his incredible performance in The Whale), so no surprise that Brendan Fraser beat out stiff competition from Austin Butler (Elvis), continuing the comeback journey everyone is cheering for. His emotional speech was another endearing highlight.
Jennifer Coolidge won for Female Actor in a Drama Series, The White Lotus. Another 60+ actor (hurray!), she teared up thinking of her father and the time he snuck her out of school in the first grade so they could enjoy a Charlie Chaplin film festival (how cool is that?).
Another favorite moment was courtesy of two dark comedy actors, Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) and Aubrey Plaza (White Lotus, but really, she’s like in everything!). Comedic gold. Also, someone needs to put these two in a project stat!
As if Sally Field’s Lifetime Achievement Award wouldn’t be enough, this also gave us the feels for her Spiderman reunion with Andrew Garfield. These two just seem attached at the hip and also need another project together.
This also gave Austin Butler the opportunity to play gentlemen as he helped the 87-year-old legendary actor to the stage.
Not once, but twice.
And we also got an awesome Parks and Recreation reunion with Amy Poehler and Adam Scott (who was nominated for the excellent Severance).
Fellow co-star Plaza also joined in on the fun.
You can find the full list of winners here. And the lowdown on the fashion in The New York Times, including Zendaya’s amazing pink, rose dress and Austin Butler’s very cool burgundy tux.
The Academy Awards take place on March 12. You can bet that Everything Everywhere All at Once will be a big frontrunner.
