In Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All At Once, Jamie Lee Curtis played Deirdre Beaubeirdre, a forbidding and harsh tax inspector. It was a role that showcased the actress’s full range and flexibility as an actor. In the multiverse, Deirdre lived a multiplicity of increasingly bizarre lives. In one universe, where humans have hot dogs for fingers, she shed her frosty exterior and fell in love.

Curtis, who has been in the business since her breakout role in Halloween in 1978, took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the role at the 95th Annual Academy Awards. It was her first nomination. 

In her touching speech, Curtis paid tribute to the many people who made her performance and career possible. “I know it looks like I’m standing up here by myself but I’m not,” the actress began. “I am hundreds of people. I am hundreds of people.”

Curtis went on to thank the cast and crew of Everything Everywhere All At Once, including “my bae Michelle [Yeoh],” as she put it. “We just won an Oscar.”

Curtis then thanked her family. “My beautiful husband, Christopher Guest, our daughters, Annie and Ruby,” she said. “My sister, Kelly. We just won an Oscar.”

She then thanked her fans. “To all of the people who have supported the genre of movies that i have made for all of these years – the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people. We just won an Oscar together,” she shouted joyously as the crowd cheered.

Curtis’ speech took an emotional turn when she spoke about her late parents, actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. “And my mother and my father were both nominated for Oscars in different categories,” she said tearfully. “I just won an Oscar.”

Curtis’s speech was a heartfelt, touching homage to the collaborative art of filmmaking and to her multigenerational connection to the industry. What an amazing start to the evening.

Images: Getty