Veteran actress Amy Madigan earned her first Academy Award on Sunday night, winning Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Weapons at the 98th Academy Awards.
The win comes four decades after Madigan received her first nomination in the same category for Twice in a Lifetime in 1986. Taking the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, the 75-year-old actress admitted she was stunned by the moment.
“This is great,” Madigan told the audience. “Everyone has been asking me, ‘It’s been 40 years, what is different about this time?’ It’s different, this little gold guy.”
She joked that she had tried to prepare a speech the night before while in the shower, but was advised not to list too many names. “We were kind of advised that, ‘Don’t say all these names because nobody knows who the hell they are,’” she said. “But you’re not rattling them off; they’re people that mean something to you that you couldn’t be here without.”
She first thanked Weapons writer and director Zach Cregger, calling the role a dream opportunity. “He just wrote a dream part and let me grab it by the throat,” Madigan said. “We had a ball.”
Madigan also acknowledged her fellow nominees, Elle Fanning, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Wunmi Mosaku, and Teyana Taylor, praising the camaraderie among actors during the awards season.
“When I was doing all the Weapons stuff, I was travelling on my own, and people from One Battle and Sinners and all the films gave me a hug and said, ‘Yeah, come on in, let us know you and you know us,’” she said.
She ended her speech by thanking her family, including her husband, Ed Harris, her daughter, Lily, and her son-in-law, Sean.
“Most of all, I want to thank my beautiful daughter Lily, her husband Sean, and all the dogs,” Madigan said. “But the most important is my beloved Ed, who has been with me forever and that’s a long ass time, and none of this would mean anything if he wasn’t by my side.”
Madigan closed by telling the crowd she was still processing the moment. “As you can tell, I’m a little flummoxed,” she said.
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