As was widely expected, Patricia Arquette has won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Boyhood. Patricia hasn’t had much competition in this category. Despite the talent she’s been up against, she’s won every major award this season. An unnamed Academy member told The Hollywood Reporter that she was voting for Arquette because “she gets points for working on a film for 12 years and bonus points for having no work done during the 12 years.” Much more than that, Arquette embodied the role in a way that made her seem exactly like her character; a struggling single mom trying to better herself while raising her kids and dealing with a string of bad relationships. Arquette’s character Olivia sometimes faded into the background, she sometimes begged us to pay attention to her. Either way she was completely believable. Here’s some of the text of Arquette’s speech, which was quite rushed but full of sentiment. She ended with a rousing call for women’s rights:
Thank you to the academy to my beautiful, powerful nominees… our whole cast and our crew, my Boyhood family who I love and admire, our brilliant director Richard Linklater, the impeccable Ethan Hawke, my lovelies Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, Thomas and Paul thank you for giving me my beautiful children, Enzo and Harlo you’re the deepest people that I know, my friends who all work so hard to make this world a better place, to my parents [and siblings] to my favorite painter in the world, Erick White, for the inspiration of living with a genius, to my heroes, volunteers and experts who help me bring ecological sanitation to the developing world with givelove.org.
To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights, it’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America.
We’ll have to see if Boyhood takes home either the Best Director and/or Best Picture statues tonight. I have my fingers crossed. Congratulations to Arquette on a well-deserved win!
Photo credit: WENN.com.
Well deserved win, she lived that role in Boyhood and she killed it with that speech!! Nicely done!!
I’m all for equal pay but the way Patricia Arquette said she supports it rubbed me the wrong way. Based on her comments after she won (which I read on Washington Post if anyone else wants to see them) she seems to be implying that its “women’s turn for equality” because other groups who are oppressed (POC and LGBT) now have equality so all that’s left is women to be treated fairly. POC and the LGBT community are still fighting for equality and a lot of them do support the feminist movement so to imply anything other than that to me is offensive and idiotic. Did she forget that there are WOC and lesbian, bisexual and trans women? Or the fact that MOC are often paid a lot less than white men?
I know a lot of people are calling it the best speech of the night but I much preferred John Legend’s speech.
I doubt she forgot about the other minorities especially the LGBT group since her brother is transgender. I think she is just saying that its not OK to be OK with the stays quo regarding gender pay inequality
I get that she probably meant that, but that’s not how it sounded at all.
Thats how it sounded to you….What I heard, is that there ARE people fighting for other minorities! I have heard of groups and people fighting against discrimination for all those minority groups you mentioned. When do you hear people fighting for the rights of women…ALL WOMEN!!!! Women are 50% of this country…black women, latino women, white women, asian women, lesbian and trans women etc…..We would help ourselves by standing as WOMEN, and not putting each other into categories…I worked at Walmart, and there were a lot of poor women, single moms, all colors, ethnicities, shapes and sizes. Not only were these women taking care of theie kids, sometimes parents, too, but helping out other women when someone was having a problem. And they were the hardest working employees, and yet, somehow, they aren’t worth the same pay as the male workers?
MrsBPitt, only that they get the same pay. if you take into account work experience and hours work the pay gap vanishes. its only exists for very old women that spent most of their career working when there was no equal pay and in the highest paid positions like CEOs.
Anna I hear you backstage She further clarified with by saying ” It’s time for all the women in America, and all the men that love women and all the gay people and all the people of color that we’ve all fought for to fight for us now.”
Well Last time I checked gay people are women and POC are women so who exactly is “us “??? Sigh and I was really loving it till then
What I really got from her emphasis was that as women, we are always the ones fighting for others, always a part of the various equality movements, always doing for others (as is still expected, spoken or unspoken, even in 2015), and that we still are paid less than men so it’s time for us to demand our equality, especially after all of the work women do to support equality movements for other specific banners. I also believe she was making reference to the recent revelations from the Hollywood execs’ emails and correspondence about the huge discrepancies between what women and men were offered for many of the films from this year and last. So she was speaking specifically to the film industry in light of that. I especially think this was her point, too, because in almost every interview, she talks about supporting her family by working in t.v. and how films don’t pay so there’s definitely a point she’s making in light of the information that just came out about the inequalities.
True dat!
Way to go, Patricia!
I loved it! But I love her so…..
What a speech! Woohoo! Way to go Patricia and well deserved win!
LOVE her! So happy she won!
me too! 🙂 she is simply wonderful!
That speech made me sooooo happy. Class act thanking her ex’s for her children and amazing, rousing words about equality. Love her.
+1
Enough with this pay equity taboo preventing actresses from speaking up.
And whatching Meryl point her finger all excited about the speach was also a treat.
Preach it, Patty! Glad she got her golden statue!
Fabulous.
ABSOLUTELY!
She’s beautiful and fabulous.
Gosh, i wish she had done something different with her speech. Kept it more about the movie and the spirit of the awards. Her message ended up coming of so rushed it was difficult to understand. Her other acceptance speeches were so much better
But the movie was about a single mother struggling for better wages in order to raise her children and having to make bad relationship decisions in order to build an economically stable family, which never actually came true, because she could never afford to do it on her own.
Between Arquette calling for female equality and JK Simmon’s calling for kids to call their parents, I’m loving it.
I’m happy she won, i’ve always liked her and much like JK, has been a working actor for a long time.
While it’s always a little awkward, I kind of love that she decided to take the moment and champion something she believes in. She used her red carpet interview to promote the sanitation charity she’s working with too.
Fantastic and brave! Love her. She killed it in Boyhood. Trying to stay in character over the course of a few months is tough; over 12 years? Brilliant.
Lovely speech, lovely performance! So happy she won!
Amen, sister!
I love Patricia Arquette’s reading glasses she wore accepting her award!! Who makes those frames?
I don’t know, but I hope someone names the designer. Definitely want.
Found them mentioned on another board – I think they are Bvlgari BV 4075
Amen Patricia! !! Equality for all!!
only that she isnt for that. she clearly said ” for women in the united states”.
also calling out people of colour and the LGBT community for not working hard enough to help wealthy white women?
I love Meryl’s reaction to Patricia’s speech.
Me too. I was doing the same thing on my couch! 🙂
Me too!!! She was super excited.
I love her. Always have since stigmata, always will. So happy for her!
HELL YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!
Loved her speech but wish Kiera Knightley would have won.
Yay to all of it! Her work, her win and her words of wisdom. Bravo!
Great acceptance speech but her backstage speech was confusing. 🙁
C’mon Patricia, your sister Alexis is a trans woman. Sigh! I still love you.
Yeah, that last line of her backstage speech was a little bit of a #headdesk moment…
it wasnt only headdesk, it was a good learning lesson for white feminists. “Hey, PoCs i only make a couple of millions and would like to make more, why dont you support me???”
Does anyone know the maker of the reading eyeglasss frames that Patricia Arquette wore for the Oscars???
She’s got an Oscar and Meryl straight up praising her. However good your life is, PatricIa Arquette is having a better one (for at least today 😉).
I don’t think it’s appropriate for the Oscars to be used as a platform for salary equality, but not only that, what is salary equality to them, when they’re earning millions? Don’t they have agents to wrangle salary amounts? To me, it’s a bit rich for actresses, who are paid millions, to whine about salary equality when they have agents to do that.
Only non celebrity women, in 9 to 5 jobs have no agents to wrangle their salary for them, and it’s a real issue there. As for La-La Land? My heart bleeds – not.
Arquette should have, as should others who win, kept her speech to the topic at hand. I don’t think the Oscar segment for speeches (quite short really) is not adequate to reveal to the world that your child has committed suicide and the like, to garner attention – for starters, the tiny segment doesn’t do justice to topics like suicide.
i agree. it was rich white women problems. but that seems what mainstream feminism is about. (Hi Emma Watson, you had such a hard childhood that you remember being called bossy twenty years later? BOOHOOO fly first class to your parents vineyard and relax)
people like Reese Witherspoon who treat people who are not famous like dirt want equality? sure for rich and famous people not for us.
Also:
“”And equal rights for women in the United States of America.”
WTF? i dont even. there are other countries in the world ,patricia and the people there mean just as much.
Please don’t with the “rich, white women problems” I work at Walmart…trust me, all white women aren’t living the dream, baby….all the women I work with, black, latino, white, etc. are POOR…single mom’s….all struggling…not a race thing…its a poor vs rich thing. And just because other countries in the world have women’s rights problems, doesn’t mean that women in America are any less important…I have seen mom’s not eat all day, because they had to buy food for their kids dinner. Making it a black women vs a white women, doesn’t help any of the poor women out there. We should stick together and fight for the rights of ALL WOMEN, EVERYWHERE! If we didn’t segragate ouselves into groups of race and ethnicity, we would be a strong group! 50% of the world…
MissPitt: you say its a rich vs poor problem and then go on its only about women. guess what most homeless people are men.
it IS a rich vs poor problem, i dont know what it would have to do with women.
if you look for example at young urban women vs young urban men, the women make more.
its far more about race and wealth than about gender.
men are the extreme case, they are at the absolute top but also at the absolute low end of our society.
“we would be a strong group! 50% of the world…”
again you are not having any empathy for poor men. how about all poor PEOPLE get together? guess what then we are the 99%. why let us segregate by gender when its way more about in what family you are born.
this gender war is the best thing to ever happen to the wealthy.
@maria-I hear you.. evrything you have said is true. But I do think that all people struggle. I am a white woman, and trust me, I am far from rich-I struggle with money. But I know my struggle is NOTHING compared to a homeelss person or a person in another country, who is struggling to find one meal a day. If they are lucky. But I think Patricia was speaking not for actresses, but for ALL women to be recognized and treated fairly. You could tell she was nervous/overwhelmed when she spoke and she tried to get in all the things she wanted to say. Yes, she left out some groups, but I don’t think it’s because of her race or her gender or her money. I think she was earnest and sincere and. Just like you. I was thrilled with what hse said in the small amount of time she had to say it.
Nicely said Patricia!!
Love Patricia!
I am too of the opionion that all actors, female and male, must earn EQUALLY as much as every bartender and every waitress.
I am too of the opionion that all actors, female and male, must treat police officers EQUALLY and not pull the “do you know who i am” line on them
I am too of the opionion that all actors, female and male, must earn EQUALLY to all screenwriters, costume designers and visual effects artists
I am too of the opionion that all actors, female and male, must turn down table offers in good restaurants and not accept free stuff
i am happy that all actors, female and male, give up their incredible privileges for the fight for equality.
i am also for an ugly quota in movies. male and female are way above average looking in every movie even if the roles calls for something different. also we need more ugly women and ugly men in the fashion industry.
She’s the reason I showed up today, love her!
She won the whole night! I literally jumped off of my couch during her speech I was so happy! Love her!
I thought Shirley MacLaine’s reaction was just as great as Meryl’s, actually. Mine was pretty good too 🙂 I love Patricia for giving that issue a much needed spotlight.
HER GLASSES! They were excellent – can anyone ID them?
I am wanting to know the same thing! Haven’t found the answer yet. Let me know if you do. 🙂
Found the brand posted on another site – Bvlgari BV 4075
She gave such a lovely performance in Boyhood, so glad she won. Her acceptance remarks though? After all there are women who are ALSO of color/gay/etc who ALSO merit wage equality, and not just white women, which is what she seemed to be suggesting instead. I guess she meant well though.
I don’t think she was suggesting that at all. I think her remarks were reflective of the revelations this year of pay discrepancies still at play between men and women in Hollywood and also referencing the fact that women have always been supporters of and participants in equality movement but still make 79 cents to a man’s dollar. There are a lot of other statistics that we can mention for each demographic, but I think that she was speaking specifically to the women’s rights/equality movements (yes, there were/are different groups within this but looking as a whole and historically) to remind us that we are not there yet. In the same way that John Legend and Common reminded us of a Black and worldwide struggle for equality. Why should Patricia’s message be torn down and John and Common’s heralded? Both spoke to specific incidents and themes. All three are wealthy entertainers regardless of where they started as children. So they are all coming from within the “Hollywood” system at this very moment. I think that each of their statements was directly related to the work they received Oscars for (Arquette with being a downtrodden mother in Boyhood and JL/C with “Glory” and Selma) so I find their comments very appropriate and timely and inspiring. I don’t expect them to each list every equality group or organization nor do I think that by mentioning one group, they are leaving out or speaking ill of others. There really is only so much time. And on top of that, as someone who has been a member of LGBTA and Black and women’s rights groups, I have encountered hatefulness and love in all three. I have experienced extreme misogyny in LGBTA environments and ridicule within Black for various reasons that had nothing to do with me, just humans behaving like the lowest common denominator humans, that’s just life regardless of the group. But the fact is that we still fight, we still work for equality, we still struggle because we must and because we honor those who have gone before and because we want to see a better present and future. Anyway, for some reason this whole PA speech discussion has gotten me worked up…inequality sucks!
Patricia Arquette is everything.
I’ll watch anything she’s in (especially her early stuff in A Nightmare on Elm Street and Tales from the Crypt). She’s a lot like JK, in that she’s an extraordinary talent who has worked consistently in terms of number of projects and quality of performance and deserves this so much.
Only came here to say…
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!