Frances McDormand won best actress for her role in for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, at the 2018 Oscars, but she made sure the moment wasn’t just about her!
“So I’m hyperventilating a little bit, if I fall over pick me up because I’ve got some things to say,” the Almost Famous actress, 60, began after Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster presented her with her second Academy Award on Sunday, March 4. (McDormand won Best Actress for Fargo in 1997).
“I think this is what Chloe Kim must have felt like after doing back to back 1080s in the Olympic half-pipe,” she continued. “I want to thank Martin McDonagh, look what you did. We are a bunch of hooligans and anarchists, but we do clean up nice. I want to thank every single person in his building, and my sister Dorothy, I love you Dot. And I especially want to thank my clan … I know you are proud of me and that fills me with everlasting joy.”
McDormand then put down her award and said she wanted to “get some perceptive.”
“If I may be so honored to have all the female nominees in every category stand with me in this room tonight, the actors, Meryl, if you do it everybody else will, come on,” McDormand said. The camera immediately cut to Meryl Streep taking a stand. “The filmmakers, the producers, the directors, the writers, the cinematographers, the composers, the songwriters, the designers.”
It did not take long for the women in the room to rise and the crowd to break out in applause. McDormand added, “I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentleman, inclusion rider.” (An inclusion rider means that actresses can make stipulations in their contracts for things like a percentage of the cast and crew needing to be women or people of color.)
McDormand beat Sally Hawkins for The Shape of Water, Margot Robbie for I, Tonya, Saoirse Ronan for Lady Bird and Streep for The Post.
Emma Stone took home the Best Actress trophy for La La Land in 2017. Other actresses who have won in recent years include Brie Larson, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett and Lawrence.
