MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
This year's award season kicked off last night with the Golden Globes. Aside from the various winners and losers, the Golden Globes themselves had something at stake. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which ran the Globes for decades, disbanded last year after a series of financial and diversity-related scandals. The Globes are now under new management.
Glen Weldon, host on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, is here to discuss all the takeaways from last night, including whether the Globes have redeemed themselves. Hey there, Glen.
GLEN WELDON, BYLINE: Hey. How's it going?
KELLY: It is going fine. My question is, how did the ceremony go last night?
WELDON: Well, I mean, let's start with the good stuff. OK. Actor Lily Gladstone won best actress in a motion picture drama for "Killers Of The Flower Moon," and her acceptance speech wasn't simply historic - she is the first Native actor to win a Golden Globe - but is also really good.
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LILY GLADSTONE: Native actors used to speak their lines in English, and then the sound mixers would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera. This is an historic one, and it doesn't belong to just me.
WELDON: She began her speech by speaking the Blackfeet language, and ended by dedicating her win to every little rez kid who has a dream.
KELLY: OK. Let's stay with the good stuff for a moment longer (laughter). The other winners - I saw "Oppenheimer" did great.
WELDON: Yeah. I mean, the Globes award both film and TV. And the big winner, as you say, was "Oppenheimer," which took home best drama, director, actor, supporting actor and score. That's 5 out of the 8 nominations that received. "Succession" won best TV drama and three acting awards. In the TV miniseries category, Netflix's road rage revenge comedy "Beef" took home the globe. Creator Lee Sung Jin accepted the award and gave credit where it's due.
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LEE SUNG JIN: You know, our show is actually based on a real road rage incident that actually happened to me, so I'd be remiss not to thank that driver.
(LAUGHTER)
LEE: Sir, I hope you honk and yell and inspire others for years to come.
WELDON: "Beef" also took home lead actor and actress in a miniseries for Steven Yeun and Ali Wong.
KELLY: OK, but - you knew the but was coming - the ceremony itself and this central question, did the Globes right the ship?
WELDON: Well, apart from some good speeches, it was an oddly muted telecast - very low energy, kind of slack. You got to put some of that up to the evening's host, Jo Koy. Koy is a hugely popular stand-up comedian who sells out huge arenas, but his opening monologue was filled with joke after joke that just didn't land. I mean, his vibe was off from the very beginning, and he could tell he was bombing. He tried to make light of it.
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JO KOY: Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago.
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KOY: You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up.
(LAUGHTER)
KOY: You got - you're kidding me, right? Slow down. I wrote some of these, and they're the ones you're laughing at.
WELDON: Look. When you are only a few minutes into your set and you're already throwing your writers under the bus, that's not a good sign. Now, in his defense, hosting a Hollywood award ceremony is a famously tough gig. I mean, yeah, there's an open bar at the Globe - that helps. But your audience is a bunch of stiff, showbiz types in very tight, very expensive clothing who spend the whole night distracted. They're worrying about losing or they're worrying about what they'll say if they win - classic tough crowd.
KELLY: And the whole thing of reading the tea leaves. I mean, the Golden Globes come first, but the biggie big, big is the Oscars. Anything to read from what happened last night as we look ahead to what comes next?
WELDON: I don't know. It's hard to say. The Globes are weird. Comedian Guy Branum tweeted last night that the Globes are really an audition for the Oscars ceremony. Your speech has to prove that you can deliver, you know, a memorable moment. And if that's true, Lily Gladstone's speech for "Killers Of The Flower Moon" really delivered, big time. She nailed that audition.
KELLY: Glen Weldon hosts NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. Glen, thank you.
WELDON: My pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAVANNAH BLEU AND THE AUDIBLES' "NOT THE SAME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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