How Youn Yuh-jung’s Oscars acceptance speech stole the show: the first Korean to win an Academy Award, for Minari, won over the world with her grace and honesty

Apr 27 , 2021

Youn Yuh-jung, winner of best actress in a supporting role for Minari, poses in the press room at the 93rd annual Academy Awards ceremony at Union Station in Los Angeles – where her unguarded interview touched hearts around the world. Photo: EPA-EFE

The 73-year-old Korean actress made history when she claimed best supporting actress for Minari, starring alongside Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri and Will Patton

Her Oscars 2021 acceptance speech was a delightfully unguarded moment, poking fun at producer Brad Pitt, and her press room interviews just got better

Youn Yuh-jung just made history. The Oscars 2021 were a crowning moment in the talented septuagenarian’s life, where she became the first Korean actor to win an Academy Award. And as well as striking a pleasant contrast with the event’s typical glitz and glamour, there’s the matter of her headline-making Oscar acceptance speech.

Gender doesn’t matter. I don’t know how to divide like this: man, woman, black and white, yellow, brown, or gay or straight. I don’t want that kind of thing. We are just equal human beings. We have the same warm heart

Youn Yuh-jung, accepting the Academy Award for best supporting actress

Youn Yuh-jung , winner of the best actress in a supporting role for Minari, poses in the press room at the Oscars on April 25, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. Photo: AFP

The 73-year-old actress starred alongside Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri and Will Patton in Minari, a drama directed by Lee Isaac Chung and focused on a Korean-American family searching for their own American dream in the Ozarks in Arkansas. One of a historic six Asian talents to be nominated at this year’s Oscars, Youn’s nuanced portrayal of the grandma Soonja won her best supporting actress at the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday (April 25).

And she accepted the honour with grace and gravity: Youn kicked off her Oscars speech by teasing Minari’s executive producer Brad Pitt, who was apparently not present for Minari’s film production.

“Mr Brad Pitt, finally. Nice to meet you. Where were you while we were filming in Tulsa?” she quipped. “It’s [an] honour to meet you.”

Brad Pitt, right, poses with Youn Yuh-jung , winner of the award for best actress in a supporting role for Minari, in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, April 25, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. Photo: AP

The petite actress was star-struck when she actually met Pitt in person. “I saw him on the stage, and then he called my name, and I could tell he practised a lot – he didn’t mispronounce my name,” she said later during press interviews. “Then at that moment, when I got there, I just lost … what I [was] supposed to say.”

Good-humoured Pitt returned to present Youn’s trophy a year after finally claiming his own first statuette in 2020, winning best supporting actor for his role in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood after four earlier acting nominations failed to yield a prize.

Strangely enough, another journalist in the press room asked Youn what Pitt smelled like. “I didn’t smell him, I’m not [a] dog!” she replied. “I’ve been watching him [since] his first movie. He was young; he was a movie star for me. So I couldn’t believe that he was speaking to me when he announced my name. Maybe I just blacked out a couple of minutes, a couple of seconds or so!”

The charismatic Youn appeared completely shocked by her win, asking journalists to limit their attention on her. “I kept asking my friends, ‘Am I saying [this] right? Do they understand what I’m trying to say?’ I’m still not myself. So don’t ask me too many questions, please!” she pleaded.