Beverly Hills: The Golden Globes, which host Nikki Glaser introduced as “Ozempic’s biggest night”, dished out awards Sunday for Demi Moore in the body horror film The Substance, Sebastian Stan for A Different Man and the genre-shifting trans musical “Emilia Pérez”.
In a ceremony that offered few surprises early, one shocker was Moore’s win for best actress in a comedy or musical. Her comeback performance in The Substance, about a Hollywood star who resorts to an experimental process to regain her youth, landed the 62-year-old Moore her first Globe — a victory that came over the heavily favoured Mikey Madison of “Anora”.
“I’m just in shock right now. I’ve been doing this a long time, like over 45 years, and this is the first thing I’ve ever won as an actor,” said Moore, who was last nominated by the Globes in 1991 for “Ghost”. “Thirty years ago, I had a producer telling me that I was a popcorn actress.”
Best supporting actor in a musical or comedy went to Sebastian Stan for another movie about physical transformation: “A Different Man”, in which Stan plays a man with a deformed face who’s healed. Stan, who was also nominated for playing Donald Trump in “The Apprentice”, noted that both films were hard to get made.
“These are tough subject matters but these films are real and they’re necessary,” said Stan. “But we can’t be afraid and look away.”
Glaser opens
Comedian Nikki Glaser kicked off the 82nd Golden Globes, with a promise: “I’m not here to roast you.”
But Glaser, a stand-up whose breakthrough came in a withering roast of Tom Brady, made her way around the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, Sunday picking out plenty of targets in an opening monologue she had worked out extensively in comedy clubs beforehand.
Glaser, hosting the Globes two weeks before the inauguration of Donald Trump, reserved perhaps her most cutting line for the whole room of Hollywood stars.
“You could really do anything … except tell the country who to vote for,” said Glaser. “But it’s OK, you’ll get ’em next time … if there is one. I’m scared.”
She then turned toward Wicked star Ariana Grande with a request: “Ariana, hold my finger.”
Glaser complimented Timothée Chalamet, nominated for his performance as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” for having “the most gorgeous eye-lashes on your upper lip.”
While Glaser might not have reached Tina Fey and Amy Poehler levels of laughs, the monologue was mostly a winner, and a dramatic improvement over last year’s host, Jo Koy. Glaser assured the crowd that, win or lose, “the point of making art is to start a tequila brand so popular that you never have to make art again.”
Early Winners
The night’s first winner was Zoe Saldaña for best supporting actress. Saldaña won for her performance in Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” the trans musical that came in with a leading 10 nods. Later, it added another prize, for best non-English language film. French director Audiard said through an interpreter that he hoped the film is “a beacon of light” in dark times.
