Youn Yuh-jung faced some serious competition in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 2021 Oscars (stream the full show now on CTV) but her Minari performance said it all and she took home the statue Sunday night.
The Korean actor was up against Olivia Colman (2019’s Best Actress winner), Amanda Seyfried, Maria Bakalova, and the indomitable Glenn Close. Luckily (for anyone watching the awards ceremony) it was Youn who won, accepting her prize from Brad Pitt.
Youn began her speech with a cheeky joke, lamenting the fact that Pitt, one of the executive producers behind her film, wasn’t around during production. "Mr. Brad Pitt, finally nice to meet you! Where were you when we were filming?"
And while the acceptance speech did include the expected shout outs to the other nominees, her cast, her crew, and her director (“Lee Isaac Chung,” she said, “without him I wouldn’t be here tonight. He was my captain and my director”) Youn also found time to call out her sons, who “make her work.”
This isn’t the first time the actor has shown a bit of an edge at an awards show this season.
Early on in April, she took home the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress, too, telling the British Academy, "Every award is meaningful, but this one, especially recognized by British people known as very snobbish people and they approve me as a good actor, so I'm very, very privileged and happy."
Youn is just the second Asian woman to win in an acting category in the history of the Academy Awards and the first Korean actress to do so. She said in her speech that she is used to having her name mispronounced by Europeans and North Americans. “Tonight,” she said, however, “you are all forgiven.”
That being said, you've all been warned.
Watch the full 93rd Academy Awards on CTV.ca and the CTV app.
[video_embed id='2188529']BEFORE YOU GO: 'Minari' Best Supporting Actress Youn Yuh-jung meets Glenn Close[/video_embed]