5 of the best moments from the 2023 Golden Globes

Rory Cashin

This year’s Golden Globes ceremony was quite the emotional rollercoaster

Unlike any speech by any of the Golden Globes winner ever, we’re going to keep this intro short. So here we go…

1. Host Jerrod Carmichael’s opening monologue

The host for the 80th ceremony set the tone immediately, by putting the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (the folks who vote for the Golden Globes winners) under fire: “I won’t say they’re a racist organisation, but they didn’t have a single black member until George Floyd died. Do with that information what you will.”

The audience initially remains mostly quiet during his set, before settling into Carmichael’s groove of comedy:

Watch Jerrod Carmichael's full #GoldenGlobes opening monologue, in which he roasts the HFPA pic.twitter.com/GCmQQM1a2z

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 11, 2023

And he left the crowd stunned with a Scientology comment referencing Tom Cruise, just before introducing Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick co-stars Glen Powell and Jay Ellis to the stage.

2. Everything to do with Colin Farrell

There were two big winners at this year’s ceremony, and one of them was Colin Farrell. On top of winning the Best Actor In A Musical/Comedy for his role in The Banshees in Inisherin, he also charmingly won over the audience during his acceptance speech when it ran on a bit too long: “You can forget that piano!”

But if there was a single moment that stands out, it was when Farrell literally rushed up to lend an arm to Jennifer Coolidge as she took to the stage for her win. The actual official chaperone behind him didn’t stand a chance:

*Nothing* was gonna stop Colin Farrell from walking Jennifer Coolidge up those #GoldenGlobes steps. pic.twitter.com/7HgiRKp1Bq

— Decider (@decider) January 11, 2023

3. Everything to do with Jennifer Coolidge

Which brings us nicely on to Coolidge herself, who won for Best Supporting Performance in a Limited Series, the second time she takes this award home for her portrayal of Tanya in The White Lotus. On top of Farrell walking her to the stage, host Jarrod Carmichael also gave her a special shout out ahead of her turn presenting an award, saying “I want to apologise to her on behalf of all the gays for what we tried to do to her on that boat.”

Her presenting speech was incredibly funny, as she revealed she was having an anxiety attack over mispronouncing celebrity names – “Bill Niii-eee” and “Kaley Cucucuoco” – before returning to the stage later in the night, and her acceptance speech was both hilarious and heartbreaking, to the point that she had Mike White (creator of The White Lotus) in tears.

Jennifer Coolidge delivers an epic #GoldenGlobes acceptance speech that makes #TheWhiteLotus creator Mike White cry. https://t.co/m069JEKekW pic.twitter.com/WBWx9H6BCj

— Variety (@Variety) January 11, 2023

4. Everything to do with the piano player

The poor piano player. It isn’t their fault that they’ve been told when to start playing the winners off. It should be up to them to write a more succinct acceptance speech. We’ve all got places to be!

Anyways, on top of Farrell’s comment above, the piano player was also the aim of Austin Butler during his win for Elvis: “You could at least play ‘Suspicious Minds’ or something.” However, it all culminated during Michelle Yeoh’s emotional speech for her Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Yeoh was giving a timeline of her entire career, how it had led to this exact moment, and right as she got to talking about EEAAO, the piano kicked in. And Yeoh was having none of it:

Michelle Yeoh ready to throw hands with the piano player 😂 pic.twitter.com/Z4oXYF5wfH

— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) January 11, 2023

5. Surprising wins and losses (for both good and bad reasons)

We all knew Farrell was going to win, as was Martin McDonagh for his Banshees script, and the movie winning Best Comedy or Musical. Neither Barry Keoghan or Brendan Gleeson took home the supporting award for their roles in the film, with that going to Ke Huy Quan for EEAAO, which is also quite deserving, to be honest. Meanwhile, Angela Bassett made history as she won the first ever major acting award for a Marvel Studios movie.

Pretty much everything else in the movie categories (The Fabelmans, Spielberg, Blanchett) was not a surprise, but there were a few rug pulls in the television categories. Everyone assumed that because Better Call Saul was up for its final season, it would do a clean sweep as a sort of farewell. Instead, it lost Best Drama (to House of the Dragon) AND Best Actor (to Kevin Costner in Yellowstone).

And there was a deserved win for Evan Peters, as he picked up the award for Best Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Television Motion Picture for his chilling portrayal of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

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