'Everything Everywhere' Oscar Winners' Acceptance Speeches All Proved Just How Important Moms Are
If you ever doubted the influence moms have on their children’s lives, let the 95th annual Academy Awards be a testament to just how invaluable mothers can be.
The cast and crew of Everything Everywhere All at Once were the big winners of the Sunday night ceremony, raking in seven awards including best actor and actress in a supporting role, best actress in a leading role, best film editing, best original screenplay, best directing, and the big kahuna: best picture. It may come as no surprise that those involved with a movie that revolves around a mother and daughter who save the world, each thanked their own moms for what they’ve done to get them to that stage.
Ke Huy Quan started the emotional, mom-thanking streak when he gave his acceptance speech for best supporting actor.
“My mom is 84 years old, and she’s at home watching,” he said with tears in his eyes. “Mom, I just won an Oscar.”
“Thank you to my mom for the sacrifices she made to get me here,” he continued.
Jamie Lee Curtis quickly followed in Quan’s footsteps, winning best supporting actress. She listed all the people who helped her get that golden statue, saying that though it may look like she was standing up there by herself, she was not. Along with her colleagues and living relatives, Curtis got choked up acknowledging her late parents, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis.
“My mother and father were both nominated for Oscars in different categories,” she said looking up and choking up, “I just won an Oscar.”
We know we are sounding like a broken record, but is a record about motherhood appreciation really broken? In their speeches, directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert took it a step further by thanking all moms.
“We want to dedicate this to the mommies, all the mommies in the world, to our moms,” Scheinert said. “Specifically my mom and dad, Ken and Becky, thank you 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.”
And yes, that statement did recieve a well-deserved round of applause.
Kwan stood up to the mic next and said that we are all “products of our context” and “descendants of something and someone.”
“And I want to acknowledge my context — my immigrant parents,” he said. My father, who fell in love with movies because he needed to escape the world and passed that love of movies on to 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.”
Michelle Yeoh, who played the central mother in the movie, kept with the acceptance speech tradition while also breaking history. She is the first Asian woman to win best actress, and she said her 84-year-old mother was able to see her major accomplishment while watching from her home in Malaysia.
“I have to dedicate this to my mom, to all the moms in the world, because they are really the superheroes,” she said. “Without them, none of us would be here tonight.”
Before you go, check out how these celebrity parents spent their first date night after welcoming a baby.