With his speech Ryan Murphy has enchanted the audience of Golden Globes. During the ceremony for the 80th edition, held in Los Angeles on the evening of January 10, the director, screenwriter and producer received the Lifetime Achievement Carol Burnett Awardand has chosen to dedicate his speech on the Hollywood stage to LGBTQ+ youth who watched from home and to the many community actors with whom he has collaborated throughout his career. “Tonight’s recognition made me think about what a life of success really means,” said the creator of series come American Horror Story, Poses And glee. “You get there by not having been afraid to take risks”.
Dedication to community actors
Opening his speech, the 57-year-old producer recalled the star of Poses, Michaela Jae “MJ” Rodriguez, who became the first trans actress to win a Golden Globe in 2021, when the show was not broadcast following the Hollywood Foreign Press Association scandal and boycott of the awards. Then listed the hits of some of the stars in attendance in Los Angeles, including Billy Porterwho introduced him to the stage (calling him “Prolific. Visionary. She has turned the tables. Pioneer. Champion of truth. Fearless. Bossman. Workaholic. Ally. Mentor. Dude”), Niecy Nash (nomination for dahmer) is exactly MJwho was his partner in the past, whom he called “wonderful actors I’ve worked with, because they are symbol of hope and progress“. “My acceptance speech is dedicated almost entirely to them,” Murpy explained. “When I was young, at home in the 70s, and watched the Carol Burnett ShowI’ve never seen a person like me receive an award or even star in a TV show. It was hard being an LGBTQ kid in America. Indeed, all over the world, then as now” he underlines, and then adds: “I have a word for you: Florida“, he says referring to the law dubbed “Don’t say gay“, passed in the spring of last year, which bars state school districts from “encouraging discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary grades.”
“The way forward” for LGBTQ youth
And he continued: “Often they tell you that you will never become anything. To survive you have to hide your life. But for the guys watching tonight, I offer MJ and Billy and Niecy and Matt (Bomer) and Jeremy (Pope) as examples of possibilities. There is a way to go, use them as pole stars”. Ryan Murphy’s aim has always been to break down barriers: “For 25 years I have tried to do only this in Hollywood: my mission was to take the invisible, the unloved, to make them the heroes they always wanted to see , but which are not never been featured in pop culture“. The director and producer thanked his family, his team, his agents, his allies at FX and Netflix and the HFPA; he then listed all the actors and actresses who have remained with him “always, through thick and thin” and who were not present in the room: Jessica Lange, Julia Roberts, Lady GagaLeslie Grossman, Billie Lourd, Sarah Paulson, Gwyneth Paltrow and producing partner Brad Falchuk. A nod of gratitude could not be missing for others “special people” present in the room, including Jamie Lee CurtisAngela Bassett, Richard Jenkins, Evan Peters (who later won Best Actor for his lead role in dahmer), Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner (its early producers) e Steven Spielbergwho said he bought his first screenplay When God Was a Boy.
The Carol Burnett Award
The prize, one of the highest honors of the evening, was established in 2019, and is named after the first winner, American actress Carol Burnett, for “outstanding contributions to television on or off the screen”. The annual honor is selected by the Globes’ governing body, the HFPA Board of Directors, based on “the individual’s performance andlasting impact that the results of his television career have had on both the (television) industry and the public”. In the following years they have been rewarded Ellen DeGeneres and Norman Lear.
The Golden Globes ceremony returned to NBC this year after a year-long hiatus due to the internal scandal erupted following an investigation by the Los Angeles Times. The ceremony was hosted by comedian Jerrod Carmichael.
Ryan Murphy and the commitment to equality
Five-time Globes nominee Ryan Murphy promoted equality in Hollywood with stories inclusive that overcome barriers. His drama for FX, Poseswent down in history for the presence of largest transgender and lgbtq cast for a scripted series. His latest works The Watcher And Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, broke audience records on Netflix and quickly earned a second season renewal. Murphy has created opportunities for inclusion off-set as well, through his Half Initiativewith which he set out to ensure that 50% of all posts from movie director in his shows were occupied by women, coloured people And members of the LGBTQ community. “Ryan Murphy not only continues to thrill audiences with the most exciting and engaging series of the century, but also continues to inspire everyone with his work off-screen,” said HFPA president Helen Hoehne, commenting in part on Murphy’s casting.
Golden Globes, Ryan Murphy dedicates the Lifetime Achievement Award to young Lgbtq+