“Minari” star Youn Yuh-jung is still fighting for the glory of the Oscars, but she just won the awards season with her speech of acceptance of the best way at the British Academy of Film and Television.
After making history at the SAG Awards for her portrayal of the cute, ugly-mouthed grandmother in Lee Isaac Chung’s feature film, the veteran Korean actor took another major award this weekend.
Cementing herself as the leader of the Oscars later this month, Youn was crowned Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTA, where she accepted the practical award from presenter David Oyelowo.
The visibly shocked star, whose career spans five decades in her home country, began her speech by introducing herself to the crowd.
“Hello, Great Britain! I’m Korean actress Yuh-Jung Youn, “she said, while her nominated colleagues Ashley Madekwe, Dominique Fishback, Maria Bakalova, Kosar Ali and Niamh Algar watched.
“I was very honored to be nominated,” Youn continued, before immediately changing the statement to reflect her victory. “Now I’m the winner!”
Youn offered his condolences on the death of the Duke of Edinburgh before continuing: “Every award is significant, but it – recognized especially by the British, known as very snobby people – and approves of me as a good actor, so I am privileged.”
The crowd immediately started laughing at the “snobby” crack, with Oyelowo seeming to be spinning.
In a subsequent press conference, Youn explained that he was inspired by personal experience.
“I visited the UK many times and had a fellowship at Cambridge College 10 years ago as an actor,” she said with a smile, according to Variety. “Somehow he felt very snobbish, but not in a bad way – you [Brits] they have a long history. ”
She added: “As an Asian woman, I felt that these people are very snobby, this is my sincere feeling.”
Both the SAGs and the BAFTAs are the key bells of the Oscars, as the voting bodies for all three awards overlap significantly. Youn’s win puts her in favor of winning the Academy Awards, where voting for this year’s ceremony begins on Thursday.
Youn will face a different field of Oscar rivals, including Amanda Seyfried, Glenn Close and Olivia Colman. However, bets are now on Youn, who is the first South Korean woman ever nominated for an Academy Award in an acting category.
“This has never happened in Korea and I feel like I’m an Olympian competing for my country,” Youn told NPR recently about the Oscar approval. “It’s very stressful.”