When did you first find out about Sandra Oh? Was it last night when she presented the Golden Globes? Was it last year when she starred in Killing Eve, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s comedy-drama about a self-effacing spy who’s put to work on discovering a female assassin - Jodie Comer’s Villanelle - who she eventually becomes obsessed by? Or did you enjoy her work in Grey’s Anatomy? Or indie film Sideways?
Sandra Oh’s ascent to the very tippy-top of Hollywood has been long and slow but consistently great. All those years of effort and talent and brilliance crystallised, last night, in her Golden Globes appearance.
First of all, she co-presented, along with Andy Samberg, the entire awards ceremony.
And there’s an important reason why. In her opening speech, she said ‘I said ‘yes’ to the fear of being on this stage tonight because I wanted to be here, to look out into this audience and witness this moment of change. And I’m not fooling myself, I’m not fooling myself. Next year could be different it probably will be. But right now this moment is real. Trust me, it is real. Because I see you, and I see you. All of these faces of change, and now, so will everyone else.’
She’d previously spoken of culture as unnecessarily dismissed for its ability to change culture: ‘People can pooh-pooh Hollywood all they want – and there is a lot to pooh-pooh, sure – but we also make culture. How many gazillions of people have seen Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians?’
Later on in the awards ceremony, she sent up Lady Gaga’s much-memed habit of telling an anecdote about there being 100 people in a room.
Aimed just perfectly, the loudest laugh in response to the joke came from Gaga, who shouted out ‘It’s TRUE!’ while Bradley Cooper, who really does believe in her, smiled at her.
Next thing, Sandra got got a Golden Globe herself - as best leading actress in a TV drama series, for her role as Eve Polastri in Killing Eve. This makes her the first Asian woman to get this award since Yoko Shimada in 1981.
Going up to the stage to collect her award, she shouted out ‘Oh my god! Oh Killing Eve! Phoebe Waller-Bridge thank you so much!’ She thanked ‘My incredible cast, I’m so grateful I’m so grateful to my family. My team, who are all incredible people. There are two people here tonight that I’m so grateful that they’re here with me.’
Facing her parents, who were seated in the auditorium (though her dad had just given her a standing ovation) she said ‘I’d like to thank my mother and my father.’
She then said, in Korean, ’Emma, appa! Salanghaeyo,’ which translates to ‘Mum, dad, I love you’, and bowed to them. They bowed right back.
In case you were wondering, it wasn’t Sandra’s first Golden Globe win, as she won one for Grey’s Anatomy in 2006. Cast your eyes on her speech back then, because it just goes to show she’s always been great fun at an awards ceremony.
’I feel like someone set me on fire!’ she began, before trying to list off everyone she wanted to thank before blurting ‘Oh god I don’t remember any of your names.'
That's the sort of Hollywood glam we're after, genuinely!