Leave it up to an editor to find the best way to express something.
Paul Rogers, who won the Best Film Editing Oscar for his work on “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” delivered a charming acceptance speech during the ceremony Sunday night by opening with the line: “This is too much. This is my second film, y’all, this is crazy.”
But many social media users have pointed out that Rogers also served up quite the gem during his post-award Q&A session with the media.
During his press interview, Rogers made it a point to celebrate the diverse group of people in front of the camera and behind the scenes while making “Everything Everywhere.” When one seemingly nervous reporter mentioned the immigrant story behind the film and asked Rogers what he felt was the magic behind the film, the Oscar-winner first reassured the reporter that she asked a “great question” before launching into a thoughtful response.
“We see a lot of movies that tell stories about certain types of people, and they tend to focus on the story of the man, the white man, and having this beautiful story of an immigrant family was amazing,” Rogers said before possibly referencing James Hong’s SAG speech, in which the 94-year-old actor spoke about how studios didn’t think Asians were “box office” draws. “And I think, like James Hong was describing in his speech, it’s long, long, long overdue.”
Rogers then looked down at his Oscar trophy and appeared to reference Harry Styles’s Grammy speech by altering the musician’s controversial remarks.
“This kind of thing, unfortunately, does happen to guys like me a lot, too much most of the time,” Rogers said.
During the British pop singer’s Grammy acceptance speech for Album of the Year in February, he received criticism for his clueless comment regarding his privilege by saying: “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often.”
Rogers’s spin on the controversial line received a lot of praise on social media — especially on TikTok, where a clip of Rogers’s comment has gotten over 200,000 views.
“Privileged and aware. 👏🏾👏🏾,” one comment read.
Another said: “An accountable man😳? We love to see it 😏”
Another Tiktoker joked: “Men are 99.8% less attractive when they start speaking... But not this one, this one’s special.”
And — of course — there was indeed a lot of chatter about Rogers’s shade.
“Someone send this to harry styles,” a TikToker commented. “NOT THE HARRY STYLES, DISS,” another said.
Yet, regardless of the discourse, let’s all agree that Roger’s self-awareness is one direction we hope more in Hollywood would embrace.