Ke Huy Quan got used to giving acceptance speeches over the course of Everything Everywhere All at Once’s awards season run— and yet, at the Gold Gala in Los Angeles on Saturday night, he still found himself at a loss for words. “You’ve all made me feel so comfortable to share my feelings,” said the newly minted Oscar winner, accepting the evening’s Leading Man Award. “This past year so much has happened, especially the last few months. I’m still processing. I’m still trying to make sense of it.”
As he did often over awards season, Quan shared his feelings with defying expectations in Hollywood. “I guess what makes my story seem different is because I am not who you think of when you imagine a winner. I don’t fit the mold,” he said. “It took me a long time to understand this. I finally realized that winners don’t have to look the same. You can also win too, if you just believe in yourself. Dreams are something for you to keep, so please don’t let anyone take them away.”
The second annual event, held by Gold House to honor trailblazing Asian creators, paid tribute to both past and present. Quan joined the rest of the Everything Everywhere team to accept the Gold Icon award, and the film’s producer Jonathan Wang shared a story from his own upbringing about a Chinese New Year tradition of bowing to his elders. “We are united in our reverence and respect for you all in this room,” he said, looking around the room that featured some of the actors and filmmakers who had cleared the way for more diverse stories like theirs to make it to the screen.
But like many of the winners, Quan also had his eye on the future. “I’m so excited for you because there are now so many of us,” he said in his speech. The second annual gala brought out many of Hollywood’s biggest Asian American stars, including Daniel Dae Kim, Awkwafina, Randall Park, Ashley Park, Jamie Chung, Ming-Na Wen, Stephanie Hsu and Poorna Jagannathan, along with directors Celine Song and Destin Daniel Cretton. Other notable guests included athletes like snowboarder Chloe Kim and ice skaters Maia and Alex Shibutani and personalities like Queer Eye’s Tan France and YouTube star Eugene Lee Yang.
The night’s honorees hailed from media, finance, and entertainment, including Netflix’s Bela Bajaria, Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Radhika Jones, trans right activist Geena Rocero, Panda Express cco-founders Andrew Cherng and Peggy Cherng, East West Bank CEO Dominic Ng, Tony winner Lea Salonga, and Ms. Marvel star Iman Vellani. And Eva Longoria was honored with the first ever Gold Ally Award. “As I look at this room I can’t help but think about our ancestors. They must be so proud,” said Longoria.
Held at the Jerry Moss Plaza at the Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles, the gala also included a 30th anniversary tribute to The Joy Luck Club. The 1993 drama, the recipient of the evening’s Gold Generation Award, was mentioned throughout the night by the other honorees as the project that played a significant role in their own upbringing, and, for many, was the first film that allowed them to see themselves onscreen. When Joy Luck Club producer Janet Yang (who is currently president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) took the stage with the film’s stars Ming-Na Wen, Rosalind Chao, Lauren Tom, Tamlyn Tomita, Kieu Chinh and Lisa Lu, they were met with a standing ovation. “Among these women I am just a bit player but a very lucky one,” said Yang as she took the stage with some of her film’s stars. Chinh added that it felt very significant to be standing together after all this time: “After 30 years, the emotion is still there. Not just for making the film, but for this family.”
Sandra Oh, who was honored early in the night with the SeeHer award, was the first to give a shout out to The Joy Luck Club for its lasting effect on her. “Like many of us here, Joy Luck Club meant so much to me,” she said. “What I was experiencing when I was watching the film was grief. A profound grief for never having seen myself until that moment.”
Rebecca Ford
Source link
