Atlanta

Golden Globes Celebrates Diversity in 2017: Globes ‘Is Woke'

"I really want to thank 'Atlanta' and all black folks, for real… for just being alive," said "Atlanta" actor Donald Glover

The 2017 Golden Globes boasts one of its most diverse list of winners at its 74th annual awards show.

"Moonlight," a story that chronicles the coming of age of a black man from childhood to adulthood took home the top prize for Best Motion Picture, Drama. The film chronicles a child's struggle "to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami," according to the film's website.

Tracee Ellis Ross dedicated her win for Best Supporting Actress Television Series, Musical or Comedy to "colorful people" and said, "I want you to know that I see you, we see you." 

Additional stories representing the African American experience realized Golden Globes success this year such as Viola Davis' emotional portrayal of Rose Maxson, the wife of a sanitation worker, in "Fences." She won for Best Supporting Actress in any Motion Picture while Ellis Ross took home a statue for her work on "Black-ish," as did the TV show "Atlanta" for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy. 

"I really want to thank 'Atlanta' and all black folks, for real… for just being alive," said Donald Glover while accepting the Golden Globe for his hit show "Atlanta" in the category of Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy. 

"Yo, @goldenglobes is woke!!!" 

Comedian Larry Wimore took to Twitter to give the awards show a nod for being "woke" following Ellis Ross' win. 

After the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of 2016, it seems Hollywood is steadily understanding how to celebrate and uplift stars that do not fit into one particular shell.

The diversity of the ceremony wasn't limited to race alone. The members of this year's nominee pool range in age, experience and shape, proving that an award winner is not one size fits all.

2017 Golden Globes: Notable Nominees

Take, for example, the other women in Meryl Streep's Best Actress category. The 67-year-old nominee for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy is up against a fellow legend, 58-year-old Annette Bening, and first-time nominees, 27-year-old Lily Collins and 19-year-old Hailee Steinfeld.

[NATL] Golden Globe Nominees 2017

While there are no women of color in that category, they are the majority in the Best Supporting Performance by an Actress category with nods to Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Naomie Harris, as well as Michelle Williams and Nicole Kidman. In comparison, the category in 2016 included winner Kate Winslet and nominees Jane Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Helen Mirren and Alicia Vikander.

"At 10:00 every Thursday night...you come into my world and you sit with me, my size, my hue, my age, and you sit and you experience," Davis recently said during her acceptance speech for the Critic's Choice #SeeHer Award. "And I think that's the only power I have as an artist."

That power is one that many stars--and the directors, producers and screenwriters behind their roles--seem to have embraced significantly this year.

For Chrissy Metz, one of the stars of NBC's "This Is Us," has an authentic ability to portray a woman battling her weight not only turned her into a television heroine and is the first woman outside the typical Hollywood sample size range to earn a nomination in the Best Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film category in decades. As the series' creator Dan Fogelman put it, Metz is as easy to root for as she is to write for--perhaps because she embodies a human experience understood by many, yet often glossed over.

[NATL] Best-Dressed Couples on the 2017 Golden Globes Red Carpet

Diversity doesn't only come in skin tone or waist measurement. In the age of the ongoing television renaissance, actors are not limited to one particular kind of medium to tell a story--there's network television, cable television and online television. While it took a bit to adapt to the idea of TV on the Internet, it has evolved to not only exist, but excel and the proof is in several of this year's honorees who got their start on the World Wide Web.

Issa Rae on What Insecure Brings to the TV Table and Being a Newly Minted Golden Globe Nominee

Both Rachel Bloom and Issa Rae rose to fame initially on YouTube, where they created and starred in their own content. Now, they're both Golden Globe nominees with successful series shaped by distinct--and at times underrepresented--voices.

"I think black people aren't really used to seeing themselves be the norm, and the default and have these regular human emotions that white people are afforded on every single type of show," Rae told E! News. "So, to just to have relationships and friendships exist in a normalized way is something that hasn't been done in like 20 years."

Similarly, Riz Ahmed, who portrayed a Pakistani-American inmate on HBO's "The Night Of," not only garnered his first Golden Globe nomination but also became the first Pakistani-American actor to earn the nod in recent history. "It was an honour to portray Nas, and through him the untold stories of so many," the actor said in a statement.

[NATL] Top Red Carpet Looks: 2017 Golden Globes Arrivals

As the star pinpointed, diversity in Hollywood can only go as far as the material that gets to the top of the pile. "I think we have to choose from a pool that's representative of the country we live in. I think studios need to step up and be aware of the need to make films, not just having actors that represent the population, but writers, directors and crew members that do," director J.J. Abrams told E! News in February.

"I think it's good business," he continued. "I think the movies will get better, the stories will get stronger and audiences will respond bigger and that's good for the bottom line."

Copyright E! Online
Contact Us