Mahershala Ali wins first Golden Globe Award

Los Angeles: In a breezy hosting affair at Golden Globes 2019, Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg opened the first awards ceremony of the season and went straight for the kill by addressing the new elephant in the room – Kevin Hart’s Oscars debate.

The monologue by the co-hosts was volumes lighter from last year’s politically heavy-handed content by Seth Meyers, who memorably tore into Hollywood’s sexual harassment scandal that started the winds of change from October 2017 in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

 

Oh and Samberg, however, covered all things that kept the social media buzzing in the last year. Samberg, who will be back with hit cop comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” this week, told the star-studded crowd that “one lucky audience member will host the Oscars”.

He then admitted that “some of you may be wondering why” he and Oh were chosen to host this year’s Globes.

To which, Oh added, “We’re the only two people left in Hollywood who haven’t gotten in trouble for saying something offensive,” in an apparent reference to Hart stepping down from the Oscar gig after his old homophobic tweets resurfaced.

Taking a pot-shot at racism, Samberg turned to Oh and said, “Sandra, that reminds me. You know what race of people really gets under my skin?” This prompted Oh to faux try and stop him from going ahead with the sentence, only for Samberg to finish the line, saying, “The Hollywood half-marathon, because it messes up all the traffic, you know?”.

The actor, who took a sigh of relief, replied, “Oh, yeah. I hate that race of people. Acknowledging the fact that they are known for being “the two nicest people in showbiz,” Oh and Samberg promised a lighthearted show while vouching for roasting the stars in attendance.

Before the emceeing, Oh had said she would not be talking about US President Donald Trump and his policies as she wanted to focus on the visible difference. And she kept her word as she finished the address on a “serious note”, in which she hailed that the “moment of change” is real.

“I said yes to the fear of being on this stage (stuttered) tonight because, because I wanted to be here to look out into this audience and witness this moment of change. And I’m not fooling



myself.

“Next year could be different, it probably would be. But right now, this moment is real, trust me, it is real. Because I see you, I see you, All these faces of change and now so will everyone else,” Oh, who won the Best Actress in Drama Series for her TV show “Killing Eve”, said in an emotional speech.

The actor’s comments came after Samberg’s joke wherein he feared that he had “whitewashed” Oh’s part of the monologue because he read some of her lines off of the teleprompter. Oh also lauded the box office business by “Crazy Rich Asians” and quipped that the title of “First Man” described Hollywood’s hiring habits for directors.

Earlier in the monologue, the hosts said that films such as “Black Panther”, “Crazy Rich Asians” and “If Beale Street Could Talk” are special, not only because they resonated with audiences who are often under-represented but because they “resonated with everyone”.

Mahershala Ali thanked the most important women in his life for their constant support as he received his first ever Golden Globe Award.

The actor won the trophy in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture category for “Green Book”.

 

This was Ali’s second Globe nod. He was nominated for his performance in “Moonlight” in 2017.

In “Green Book”, which is set in the ’60s, Viggo Mortensen plays Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga, a New York City bouncer who ends up working as a driver for Ali’s character, “Doc” Don Shirley, a famed pianist, driving him on a tour of venues through the American South.

In his acceptance speech, Ali said, “I have to thank my wife, my mother, and my grandmother. I thank you for your prayers. I’ve needed each and every one of them. Peace.”

The actor also thanked the real Shirley, Mortensen — who he called an “extraordinary scene partner”, director Peter Farrelly, his other co-star Linda Cardellini — who he called a “beautiful person” and other colleagues.

He bested Timothee Chalamet (“Beautiful Boy”), Adam Driver (“BlacKkKlansman”), Richard E Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?”) and Sam Rockwell (“Vice”) to win the award.