Yas Kween

It wasn’t until this past weekend that I finally watched the critically acclaimed period-piece film “The Favourite.” After watching it, I instantly thought to myself, “Why didn’t I watch this earlier and how can I keep rewatching it?” The three main actors — Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone and Olivia Colman — all really went for it in this movie, and the results were amazing. The costuming was so extravagantly over-the-top; the script was original, dramatic and genuinely funny; and the cinematography was exceptional. But somehow on Hollywood’s biggest night, the film came away with only one Oscar, even though it was nominated for 10. Instead of lamenting about what the film missed out on (it was robbed of Best Original Screenplay), I will focus my attention on the big, beautiful, shining moment that was Olivia Colman’s acceptance speech for Best Actress.

Going into the night, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Glenn Close was going to win for Best Actress for her role as a wife in “The Wife,” a movie that approximately 72 people had seen. Close was taking home all the acting awards throughout awards season and all the other acting awards on Oscars night had played out as they had at previous awards ceremonies. Sure, Lady Gaga had a slim chance, but the Academy had already shown that it didn’t care about “A Star is Born.” Everyone else in the field was just happy to be recognized. So Colman won for her role as Queen Anne and all the nominees looked genuinely shocked, but perhaps no one was more surprised than Colman.

Colman opened her speech by saying, “It’s genuinely quite stressful. This is hilarious.” As she’s saying this, it is obvious by her stammering that she feels very nervous. She then goes into her thanks and then essentially concedes that Glenn Close should’ve won as she calls Close her idol. When thanking her mom and dad, she becomes overwhelmed by emotions (a sweet moment), but manages to turn even this emotional moment into a funny one because of her keen and VERY British sense of humour. Later on, she gives a shout-out to her children, whom she hopes are watching — even though they shouldn’t be — because her winning an Academy Award “is not going to happen again.”

My personal favourite (ahh, see what I did there?) part of Colman’s speech was when she is informed to start wrapping up and she proceeds to make a fart sound with her mouth and then goes on to mock her husband for crying.

In closing, Olivia Colman is the best and she can be my queen any day.