As we’ve come to know in the past few years from Ricky Gervais, the Golden Globes’ monologue tends to get awkward. But without all of Hollywood in the room at once and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosting this year, maybe there’d be a change of tone? Nope. The show started off with the duo calling out the Globes and awards shows in general for being trashy, and then honed in on the topic of diversity, with a huge call out to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to have at least one Black member sitting on their board.
As the comedians noted in their scathing monologue, not a single member of the association is Black, and there’s 87 members. It’s a criticism that has been already talked a lot about in recent weeks leading up to the Globes, but Tina Fey and Amy Poehler took it to the stage this year.
This evening’s monologue had the hosts in two different places, but together. Tina Fey is reporting from the Rainbow Room in Manhattan and Amy Poehler coming from Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton. It started off pretty goofy, with the former Weekend Update pair playing at the split screen with Tina Fey outstretching her hand from New York and a random hand caressing her hair. There were some pokes at Emily in Paris’ nomination and Netflix’s The Prom, but the conversation just kept going back to how it could all be pointed back to a lack of diversity among the HFPA. In Fey’s words:
Inclusivity is important, and there are no black members of the Hollywood Foreign Press… you've gotta change that. So here's to changing it.
Fresh off that point, the first award for Best Supporting Actor almost went completely awry when Laura Dern announced Judas and the Black Messiah star Daniel Kaluuya received the win, but was met with silence on his end, as his surprised reaction was initially silenced due to technical difficulties. The camera cut to Dern, who apologized and attempted to keep the show rolling when Kaluuya stopped her and exclaimed, “You did me dirty!” and was then able to give his full speech. Check out the moment below:
Obviously it was just terrible coincidental timing, and Daniel Kaluuya’s win shows a move toward awarding more minority talents in of itself, such as the immensely talented Kaluuya, who portrayed Fred Hampton in Shaka King’s biopic about the Black Panther party icon. Kaluuya was nominated alongside Sasha Baron Cohen for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Jared Leto from The Little Things, Bill Murray for On The Rocks and Leslie Odom Jr for One Night in Miami. All that said, it was still amazingly awkward.
Although movies featuring Black voices and filmmakers are recognized tonight – including Judas and the Black Messiah, Regina King’s One Night in Miami and George C. Wolfe’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – one notable shut out was Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, most notably with Delroy Lindo’s fantastic performance being ignored. Stay updated with how the 78th Golden Globes shakes out with live updates of all the winners.
