Golden Globes 2019 talking points: From A Star is Born being overshadowed to Glenn Close's empowering speech

Plus, an apology from The Favourite's Emma Stone and a call to action from A Very English Scandal's Ben Whishaw

The Golden Globes, the first major ceremony of the awards season, has rolled in with a slew of unexpected wins and memorable moments. Here are the five biggest talking points from the night.

A Star is Robbed

The Globes have thrown a wrench into this year’s awards season. Despite being considered a two-horse race between Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born and Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, last night the former walked away almost completely empty-handed, with Bohemian Rhapsody now emerging as a major contender for the ultimate prize at the Academy Awards.

Since Roma was barred from nomination for Best Motion Picture – Drama, as Golden Globes rules stated only English-language films are eligible, it was assumed that A Star is Born would be a shoo-in.

However, Bohemian Rhapsody snapped up the prize, with Rami Malek also accepting Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for his portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. A Star is Born won in a single category, as “Shallow” picked up, as expected, the award for Best Original Song.

(l-r) Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt, Lady Gaga, and Mark Ronson backstage after accepting the award for Best Original Song - Motion Picture at the 2019 Golden Globes (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

It’s a disappointment for anyone hoping this year’s Golden Globes would reflect the monumental cultural shifts achieved by the Time's Up movement, taking into account the sexual assault allegations levelled against the film’s director, Bryan Singer. Malek, notably, did not thank Singer or Dexter Fletcher, who stepped in to replace Singer after he was fired from the project, in his acceptance speech.

While it’s yet to be seen whether Academy voters will show as much enthusiasm for the film, the Golden Globes have proven that A Star is Born is casting less of a spell over the awards race than we thought, putting Roma in a strong position to walk away with the Oscar for Best Picture (where it is actually eligible to compete).

An Apology from Emma Stone

Sandra Oh, who co-hosted the evening alongside Andy Samberg, used the ceremony’s opening monologue as an opportunity to celebrate 2018 as an incredible year for Asian and Asian-American representation on film. The moment of sincerity was followed by a quip about Hollywood’s lengthy history of whitewashing, with Oh joking that Crazy Rich Asians is “the first studio film with an Asian-American lead since Ghost in the Shell and Aloha” – a reference to the fact both films starred white woman playing Asian characters.

Emma Stone, who starred in Cameron Crowe’s Aloha as the part-Chinese, part-Hawaiian character Allison Ng, was heard shouting “I’m sorry” in response to Oh’s remark. Stone confirmed to the The Los Angeles Times that the yelled apology came from her, saying: “It wasn’t like I planned it, but I did say it.” However, there was a more sincere point to be made here by Oh.

As she started to well up with tears, she added: “I said yes to the fear of being on this stage tonight because I wanted to be here to look out into this audience and witness this moment of change. I'm not fooling myself, next year could be different, it probably will be, but right now, this moment is real. Trust me, it is real. Because I see you. And I see you. All these faces of change. And now, so will everyone else."

Oh also won the award for Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Drama, making her the first woman of Asian descent in 39 years to win a Golden Globe in that category.

The Lord of Darkness got a surprise mention during this year’s Globes, thanked by Christian Bale during his acceptance speech for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. The actor, who won for his portrayal of Dick Cheney in Adam McKay’s satirical biopic Vice, said: “Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration for playing this role.”

The remark clearly gave great pleasure to The Church of Satan, which has had a busy year in Hollywood between denouncing American Horror Story and suing Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. A statement on Twitter read: “To us, Satan is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism, and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential. As Mr Bale’s own talent and skill won him the award, this is fitting. Hail Christian! Hail Satan!”

Powerful speeches demand the end of gender disparity

The night included several moving and emotive speeches from the women who won, with Glenn Close receiving a standing ovation as she spoke about women needing to “find personal fulfilment”. Winning the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, she heralded her “category sisters" – having been nominated alongside Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy and Rosamund Pike – and added: “We have gotten to know each other a little bit so far, and I can’t wait to spend more time with you. I’m so – everything that you did this year, or what you are here for – we all should be up here together, that’s all I can say. Oh my God, I just don’t believe it.”

Close added that her role in The Wife, as a woman whose own internal life is crushed in order to help her husband to flourish, taught her that women need to “follow our dreams”. She continued: “Women, we’re nurturers, that’s what’s expected of us. We have our children. We have our husbands if we’re lucky enough, and our partners, whoever. But we have to find personal fulfilment!”

Regina King, who won Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture, spoke about the need for gender equality in her speech.

“So often, everyone out there that hears us on a red carpet, and they say celebrities are using the time to talk about ourselves, when we are on our soap box, and using a moment to talk about the systemic things that are going on in life, time's up times two,” she said. “The reason why we do this is because we understand that our microphones are big and we're speaking for everyone. I am going to use my platform to say, right now, that in the next two years, and I am making a vow and it's going to be tough, to make sure that everything that I produce, that it's fifty percent women."

A call to even the playing field

Ben Whishaw beat out category favourite Henry Winkler to win Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for his role as Norman Scott in A Very English Scandal, the target of an alleged murder plot by his former lover, MP Jeremy Thorpe.

Backstage, he stressed the need for more LGBT+ actors to be cast in straight roles, opening up their avenue of opportunity, after he was asked about Darren Criss’s vow to no longer, as a straight man, play homosexual characters on screen.

“No. I don’t think that should happen because I really believe that actors can embody and portray anything and we shouldn’t be defined only by what we are,” he said. “I think there was a time when we didn’t know anything about actors, they were very mysterious. But now we know everything. So no, I don’t think that."

"On the other hand, I think there needs to be greater equality. I would like to see more gay actors playing straight roles. It needs to be an even playing field for everybody, that would be my ideal. I don’t know how far we are away from that.”