It's that time of the year again! The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards are here and so far women have set the stage on fire. It was a mixed bag Sunday night, with a shocker like Fleabag — winning big, which was a big surprise for us, and other expected wins, like best drama going to Game of Thrones.
Check out some of the most memorable moments from the night:
Michelle Williams calls for Pay Equality
Williams, 39, took home the award for outstanding actress for her portrayal of Broadway dancer Gwen Verdon in Fosse/Verdon. However, it was her acceptance speech that grabbed the most attention. She stood up for equal pay at workplace and stole hearts. For the portrayal in the series, she was paid equally. Appreciating the good change and how it'd inspire more women to work harder, Williams said at Sunday’s ceremony, “Thank you so much to FX and Fox 21 Studios for supporting me completely and paying me equally because they understood that when you put value into a person, it empowers that person to get in touch with their own inherent value. And then where do they put that value? They put it into her work.”
“The next time a woman — and especially a woman of colour, because she stands to make 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white male counterpart — tells you what she needs in order to do her job, listen to her, believe her.”
“Because one day she might stand in front of you and say thank you for allowing her to succeed because of her workplace environment and not in spite of it,” she added.
Recalling the days when she was making less money than male co-stars on All the Money in the World, she expressed that incident “woke me up.”
“I’d always known how difficult it was, I know from the inside how difficult it was to feel like you were ever really getting ahead, and it felt like no matter how many accolades I amassed, I still couldn’t make that translate into your retirement money or something that really felt like long term security,” she said. “And so the discrepancy in All the Money in the World is so huge that it really illustrated a larger point not just for myself, obviously. But as I said before, there was this difficulty for me of white woman in a privileged industry. How difficult is it for women of colour across all industries? Tonight is a kind of like fairytale ending for me for my own personal story. And there really won’t be any satisfaction for me until the larger message is heard, and that’s what I really wanted to point out tonight.”
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A special mention here for Billy Porter's historic win
A historic win was captured forever when Porter won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role as ballroom emcee Pray Tell on the FX series Pose. According to the Associated Press reported this makes him the first openly gay man to win in the category.
“I have the right, you have the right, we all have the right.” Billy Porter celebrated his historic win for lead actor in a drama while giving an empowering speech.
Fleabag wins the most
A woman at the helm, Fleabag swept four major awards — Best Comedy, Best Actress in a Comedy, Best Writing and Best Direction. “Well this is just getting ridiculous,” creator, writer and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge said. “‘Fleabag’ started as a one-woman show at Edinburgh Festival in 2014 and the journey has been absolutely mental.”
Waller-Bridge also said “Season 2 would not have had happened or exploded in the way that it did if it were not for Andrew Scott who came into the ‘Fleabag’ world as a whirlwind.” Yes, the hot priest.
Jodie Comer wins first Emmy
First-time nominee Jodie Comer won best actress for playing a psychopathic assassin in Killing Eve, another women-led series. She takes home best lead actress over co-star Sandra Oh, who was tipped to be the first woman of Asian descent to win the category. This was her first Emmy nomination as well. The actress also bested out Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones).
In her speech she started by saying an emotional “I love you” to show creator and fellow Emmy winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge. “I cannot believe I'm in a category alongside these women, one of them who is my co-star, Sandra Oh. Sandra, safe to say this has been a whirlwind. I'm lucky to have shared the whole experience with you,” she said.
Patricia Arquette’s emotional speech
Patricia Arquette won an Emmy for best supporting actress in a limited series for true crime series The Act. She paid tribute to her late transgender sister Alexis, who died in 2016. Here's to the trans community as Arquette calls for equal rights.
“In my heart, it’s so sad,” the actor said tearfully as she accepted her award. “I lost my sister Alexis and trans people are still being persecuted. “I’m in mourning every day of my life, Alexis, and I will be the rest of my life for you until we change the world so that trans people are not persecuted.” “And give them jobs,” she added. “They’re human beings, let’s give them jobs and let’s get rid of this bias that we have everywhere.”
Feature Image Credit: NY Times
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