There were plenty of overdue wins to celebrate at the Oscars on Sunday night. Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win the Leading Actress trophy. It was the first Academy Awards to honor two Asian artists with acting Oscars. Costume designer Ruth E. Carter became the first black woman to win two Oscars – for something.
Here’s another remarkable statistic: everyone who won an acting Oscar on a Sunday night was over the age of 50. In an industry and city obsessed with youth, where every effort is made to erase every sign you see. 35 (OK, 30) Expect, these talented actors, who have passed the half-century mark, are still being hired for Oscar-worthy work.
Not that it was easy.
Ke Huy Quan, the youngest of the group at age 51, was cast in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when he was 12, but went without acting for a long time. Jamie Lee Curtis has made some memorable movies (including A Fish Called Wanda and True Lies), but spent years slaving away in a horror franchise and Activia commercials before landing in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Brendan Fraser, 54, was a blockbuster (“Encino Man”), but he struggled with stunt injuries and saw his career slow down in the years before “The Whale” landed.
Of course, it’s not that older actors don’t win Oscars. Last year’s acting awards went to Will Smith (who can forget?) for “King Richard” and Troy Kotsur for “CODA” – both 53 years old at the time. And in 2021, Leading Actress winner Frances McDormand was 63 and Supporting Actress winner Yuhjung Youn was 73 years old. The lead actor award that year went to then 83-year-old Anthony Hopkins (who currently holds the record for oldest actor winner). Supporter Daniel Kaluuya, age 32, was the winner’s baby.
But Hollywood is especially hard on older actresses – harder than it is on male actors – so they don’t talk about their age. Artists’ union SAG-AFTRA has been urging for years that IMDb – the Internet Movie Database – remove actor birth dates from the site. (IMDb eventually agreed to let each entertainment expert in the database decide what demographic information could be listed.)
So it was particularly encouraging to see actresses over 50 not only winning this year, but also celebrating the win at their age. “I am 64 years old!” exclaimed Curtis when she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for “Everything Everywhere All At Once” in late February. “And it’s just great.” Curtis, who won the Academy Award for Supporting Actress, never tried to hide her age, let her hair go gray, and often said she’d tried cosmetic surgery but swore by it.
Yeoh, who has starred in action movies for years and most recently in Crazy Rich Asians, happily blurted out that she had turned 60 a few months ago when she accepted a Golden Globe for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
She won her lead actor Oscar for the film on Sunday night. “And ladies, don’t let anyone tell you you’re past your prime,” Yeoh said onstage at the Oscars, looking her best in a white Dior couture dress with feathered fringe and dangling diamond earrings.
Embracing age kind of reminded me of the late Jessica Tandy, who won a leading actor Oscar in 1990 for Driving Miss Daisy. I covered the awards ceremony for The Washington Post this year. Backstage, where the winners spoke to the media, a reporter informed Tandy that she was the oldest lead actress winner.
“Am I the oldest? Well, good for me!” she said. I remember how she beamed when she said that. She still holds that record. But the record for the best hug by a woman over 60 could now go to Yeoh and Curtis. #OscarSoWith prideOld.
Source: LA Times