With one of the best speeches of award season so far, Hollywood veteran James Hong was able to get on stage in a room full of his peers and finally talk his shit.
Everything everywhere all at once had a starry evening At 2023 SAG Awardswith michelle yeoKe Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis all won statues for their respective roles in the sci-fi comedy, before taking home SAG’s top prize for Cast in a Motion Picture.
Before handing the mic over to Hong, Yeoh introduced him. “There’s one that’s been supporting sets longer than any of us have been alive,” she said. “He’s been playing since there were only 49 states, and he just turned 94. And it’s taken 69 years to get him to this point.”
Hong began his speech in Cantonese, as “we might air in Hong Kong”, before switching to English. With his comrade predominateyouWith Asian actors next to him on stage, Hong reflected on when Hollywood thought Asian actors couldn’t play Asian characters. And, sag on everyone in the audience, recalled that her first film credit was in a Clark Gable film. Oh, and he received his first SAG card 70 years ago, back when being Asian in Hollywood looked completely different.
“At that time, I have to tell you this, the main roles were played by these guys with blindfolds on,” Hong said during his speech. “And the producer said Asians weren’t good enough, and they’re not at the box office. But, look at us now, huh?”
Since its beginnings in 1955 Soldier of fortuneHong has amassed more acting credits than almost anyone else in Hollywood history, with more 600 titles to his name. He became known for his work on Seinfeld, Chinatown, Blade Runner, Mulna, Kung Fu Pandaand much more, with recent roles in turn red And Wendell and savage. However, his role as Gong Gong in EEAAO is the first to take it to a major award stage in the United States. He certainly seized his long-awaited moment, delivering an emotionally skilled speech with a biting humor and a lot of crowd work.
He took a few moments to take a swipe at Daniels’ wild script for EEAAOand that Daniel Scheinert is actually white, before ending his speech by drawing a line from Yeoh’s own awards season storyline: “Shut up. i can beat you.”
At 94, Hong has been on more film and TV sets than almost anyone, and it’s a shame we’ll probably never hear of some of his illustrious background. However, as Hong said in his speech, we hope review it on the SAG at 100, and EEAAO will lead to even more opportunities to share their life story.