FROM ATWOOD TO PLUMMER
There were no direct Canadian winners at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, but this country was well represented in the show, as well as in the main theme of the night — female empowerment, Victoria Ahearn writes.
ATWOOD SHOUT-OUT
When Elisabeth Moss won a best-actress trophy for The Handmaid’s Tale, she dedicated it to acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood, whose 1985 dystopian novel inspired the series. Quoting from The Handmaid’s Tale novel, about a totalitarian theocracy that makes women property of the state, Moss said onstage: “We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.” Moss continued: “Margaret Atwood, this is for you and all of the women who came before you and after you, who were brave enough to speak out against intolerance and injustice, and to fight for equality and freedom in this world.”
CHEERING VIA TWITTER
Toronto-based Margaret Atwood wasn’t at the Golden Globes due to “age-related energy depletion,” as she tweeted on Saturday. But she showed plenty of social-media support for The Handmaid’s Tale, in which she is a consulting producer and has had a cameo. “Hovering in spirit from the 10 below snow,” Atwood tweeted Sunday night, along with a photo of herself standing outside. “So many congratulations,” she later tweeted to the show’s team after the wins. “What a terrific Writing Room by the way! So much of what you do is unseen.. It has been an all-out group effort from Day One.”
A FEARLESS LEADER
Montreal director Jean-Marc Vallée’s series Big Little Lies won several awards and he went onstage as it took the trophy for best limited series or TV movie. The series, about women caught up in a murder mystery in a tony California community, has also felt timely with its look at an abusive relationship. In accepting her acting trophy for Big Little Lies, Nicole Kidman said the show would not have been what it is “without the mastery of Jean-Marc Vallée and (creator) David E. Kelley.” Laura Dern, a winner for best supporting actress, called Vallée their “fearless leader.” And Kelley noted Vallée “directed every single episode, he took this material in his heart, and more importantly he delivered it from his heart.”
HOUSE OF CHRISTOPHER?
Toronto-born acting veteran Christopher Plummer went into the night with much buzz for his supporting-actor nomination for All the Money in the World. The 88-year-old got the nomination a mere month after he replaced Kevin Spacey as billionaire J. Paul Getty in Ridley Scott’s finished biographical drama. Spacey was ousted from the movie in the wake of sexual assault allegations that also led to his firing from Netflix’s House of Cards. Plummer didn’t win the trophy, but host Seth Meyers mentioned him in his opening monologue: “I was happy to hear they’re going to do another season of House of Cards. Is Christopher Plummer available for that, too?”