Ke Huy Quan at the 95th Oscars® on Sunday, March 12, 2023. Photo by Richard Harbaugh.

An Oscar® Night to Remember

BY JANET SUSAN R. NEPALES

Photography courtesy of Janet Susan R. Nepales, Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA)

There was no slapping incident, no Tom Cruise, and no James Cameron at the 95th Oscars night. But Michelle Yeoh kung fu’d and broke the glass ceiling. Ke Huy Quan got emotional as he recalled his journey on a boat, a year in a refugee camp, and now an Oscar winner.

Daniel Kwan, one of the co-directors of Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All At Once, gave tribute to his immigrant parents for giving him the gift of loving movies.

There were a lot of tears of joy, emotional acceptance speeches, and excited backstage meetings with the press.

That was how it looked at the 95th Academy Awards night last Sunday at the Dolby Theatre when Asian actors dominated, shattered ceilings, broke through doors once closed to them, and everybody unabashedly cried with joy and happiness. You would, too, if you were Asian.

It was a historic evening indeed for Asians. A number of the winners, led by Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and The Daniels (directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) of the absurdist comedy-drama Everything Everywhere All at Once, not only won but made history.

Golden Globe winner Yeoh, who won Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance as Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once, became the first Asian woman and first Malaysian to take home this award. It was her first Oscar nomination.

When asked backstage what it meant for Asian representation within the entertainment industry, Yeoh said, “This is actually a historical moment, and I have to thank The Academy for acknowledging, embracing diversity and true representation. “I think this is something we have been working so hard towards for a very long time, and tonight we freaking broke that glass ceiling. I Kung Fu’d it out and shattered it, and we need this because so many felt unseen, unheard. It’s not just the Asian community. This is for the Asian community and anyone identified as a minority. We deserve to be heard and seen; we deserve equal opportunity so we can have a seat at the table. That’s all we’re asking for. Give us an opportunity, and let us prove we are worth it.”

Asked whether there was a point in her life when she felt she had to step back from acting and what advice she would give to people who are afraid to take up space, the 60-year-old actress said, “You should never be afraid. If this is your passion and this is your love, you have to stand up for yourself for what you believe in and want to do. I think that is what it is.”

“I’m still here today. Finally, after 40 years, I got this. It just goes to show that we will … we will win the battle. And that’s what we’re doing. So don’t give up. Never give up. Because when you give up, then it’s a loss. It’s a total loss, right?”

“So, don’t let anybody put you in a box. Don’t let anybody say, oh, you are past your prime, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, because we are proud. We believe in what we do. We love what we do. So light that fire in your soul and stay on the path. Believe. Dare to dream. Because if you don’t dream, it’s impossible. Nothing is impossible. Look at me; I’m here.”

The former Miss Malaysia dedicated her historic win to her 84-year-old mom. She said, “I have to dedicate this to my mom and all the moms in the world because they are really superheroes. Without them, none of us would be here tonight. She is 84, and I am taking this home to her.”

Asked backstage the best advice she received from her mother, Yeoh replied, “I think mothers are very important to all of us because, without them, none of us would be sitting in this room to start with. The most important thing is my mother has always instilled confidence in me. Taught me about love. Taught me about kindness and compassion. I’m not very, very good at that at times. The recent thing that she asked me to do is don’t wear pants to the Oscars. I think what mothers do is constantly remind you to be better. And they do it with love, and they do it because they really want you to be better, so you have more opportunities, and you will have a better life. And that, for them, is their ultimate goal.”

In her acceptance speech, Yeoh said, “For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching at home, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities. This is proof that dreams do come true. And ladies, don’t let anybody ever tell you that you are past your prime.”

A huge win for inclusion and representation indeed. Yeoh was only the second Asian woman to be nominated in this category. Yeoh is the first openly Asian woman to receive the honor. [Merle Oberon, who earned a nod in 1935, passed herself as white and concealed the truth for the rest of her life.] Yeoh’s fellow nominees were Cate Blanchett, Michelle Williams, Ana de Armas, and Andrea Riseborough.

It took 21 years (since Halle Berry’s milestone triumph) for the second woman of color to win Best Actress and 95 years for the first Asian woman to get the Oscar statuette.

The other one to make history is Golden Globe winner Ke Huy Quan who won Best Actor in a Supporting Role in his first Oscar nomination for portraying Waymond Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once. He is the first Vietnam native to receive the honor and only the second Asian since Haing S. Ngor to triumph in the category for The Killing Fields almost 40 years ago.

The 51-year-old actor, who appeared in The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, also dedicated his award to his 84-year-old mom. “She’s at home watching,” he said in his acceptance speech. “Mom, I just won an Oscar!”

He continued, “My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow ended up here, on Hollywood’s biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it’s happening to me. This is the American dream.”

The tearful Quan added, “I owe everything to the love of my life, my wife, Echo, who month after month, year after year, for 20 years, told me that one day my time would come. Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive.”

Asked backstage how it feels to win an Oscar with his real name instead of Jonathan Ke Quan, the name he used when he starred in The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Quan replied, “My birth name is Ke Huy Quan. And I remember when it got really tough; my manager told me that maybe, you know, it would be easier if you were to have an American-sounding name, and I was so desperate for a job that I would do anything. And it’s insane that I, at one point, would, you know, try a different name, not the name that was given to me. But it only shows you how desperate I was to try to make things different. So when I decided to get back into acting three years ago, the very first thing I wanted to do was to go back to my birth-given name. Tonight to see Ariana (DeBose) open that envelope and say ‘Ke Huy Quan,’ that was a really, really special moment for me.

“And then, immediately, I was so emotional. But the first image that I had in my mind was my mom. My mom, who is the reason why I am in America, who is the reason why I have a better life, I have all these opportunities. As I said in my acceptance speech, she sacrificed so much. She had a great life where we came from, and she gave all that up so that all her children, there’s nine of us, and every single one of them is so grateful to my parents. I hope they are proud of me.”

Ke Huy Quan won against his fellow nominees, Brendan Gleeson, Judd Hirsch, Brian Tyree Henry, and Barry Keoghan.

Yeoh and Quan’s victories marked the first time in the history of the Oscars that two Asian actors (for the same movie) triumphed in a single year. It’s also unprecedented that they won for portraying Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese fluent parts.

Jamie Lee Curtis, who won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as Deirdre Beaubeirdra in Everything Everywhere All at Once, thanked her castmates and moviegoers who have supported her all these years. It was also Curtis’s first Oscar nod. She said in her acceptance speech, “To all of the people who have supported the genre movies that I have made for all of these years, the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people, we just won an Oscar together.”

She also gave a shoutout to her late parents, actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. “My mother and father were both nominated for Oscars in different categories. I just won an Oscar.”

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as The Daniels, won Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay in their first Oscar nominations in all the categories. Scheinert thanked his parents “for not squashing my creativity when I was making really disturbing horror films or really perverted comedy films or dressing in drag as a kid, which is a threat to nobody.”

Both 35 years old, The Daniels were the youngest in the group of director nominees that included Steven Spielberg (76), Todd Field (59), Martin McDonagh (52), and Ruben Ostlund (48).

Kwan, who became the third winner of Asian descent to win a Best Director award after Chloe Zhao and Bong Joon-ho, said, “Scheinert is my confidence. He is the person who told me I was a storyteller before I believed it.” Kwan is also the first of Chinese descent to win (with Scheinert) the Best Original Screenplay.

Kwan said in his acceptance speech for Best Director, “We are all products of our context; we are all descendants of something or someone. I want to acknowledge my context – my immigrant parents – my father, who fell in love with movies because he needed to escape the world and thus passed that love of movies onto me. My mother, who is a creative soul who wanted to be a dancer, actor, and singer but could not afford the luxury of that life path and then gave it to me.”

When he accepted the Oscar for Best Picture, Kwan said, “This is for my dad, who, like so many immigrant parents, died young. And he is so proud of me not because of this (the Oscar statuette) but because we made this movie with what he taught me to do, which is…no one is more important than anyone else. And these weirdos right here (pointing at his beaming cast and fellow creatives) supported me in doing that. Wang Da Zhang, memory eternal.”

Scheinert and Kwan are the third directing duo to win an Oscar. Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise won for West Side Story in 1962, and Joel and Ethan Coen won for No Country for Old Men in 2008.

And then there was the RRR movie’s “Naatu Naatu” song from India which won Best Original Song and became the first song from an Indian film to win an Oscar in this category. The song, which also won a Golden Globe, was composed by M.M. Keeravani and lyricist Chandrabose.

Filipina actress Dolly de Leon, the first Filipina actress to get a Golden Globe nod for her portrayal of Abigail in Triangle of Sadness, attended her first Oscar with some cast members of the film with Oscar-nominated director Ruben Ostlund (Original Screenplay, Directing).

De Leon looked sharp in a black Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafin suit accented by red Chris Habana jewels, red gloves by Vex clothing, and red Manolo Blahnik shoes. Before her trek to the red carpet, we asked De Leon what she looked forward to in her first Oscar journey.

De Leon replied, “Mostly, I’m so happy to be reunited with the cast, crew, producers, and our director Ruben. And to be able to share this very special and rare moment with them is mind-blowing. Nag-shoot lang kami two years ago, and now we’ll be reunited in a place where we are recognized. It’s a dream come true.”

After the Oscar, De Leon told us, “It was a great way of reuniting with the cast and creative team of Triangle of Sadness. I’ve missed them so much and love them so dearly. This night served as our despedida, closing our journey with our film. It was the best way to end the wild ride.” She said she was excited to talk to Sandra Oh, Allison Williams, and Jenny Slate at the Oscars.

Also, turning heads on the red carpet was no less than Nobel Peace Prize-winning Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai looking elegant in a Ralph Lauren hooded silver sequined gown. She attended the awards ceremony for the first time with her husband, Asser Malik. The 25-year-old was a favorite at the Dolby Theatre as award-winning actresses Yeoh and Curtis dropped by her seat to say hello and talk with her.

One of the most memorable parts of the evening was when Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel asked Malala the mundane question, “As the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history, I was wondering, do you think Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine?”

To which the smart Malala simply responded, “I only talk about peace.”

Cocaine Bear and Jenny the Donkey made special appearances. But that was not the only reason why the ratings were high.