Bright and early this morning, the nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were announced and the nominees are weighing in.
Michelle Yeoh reacted to her historic nomination. She’s the first Asian Best Actress nominee.
“It’s taken a long time. But I think this is more than me,” Yeoh told The Hollywood Reporter. “At the present moment, constantly, all the time, having Asians walking up to me saying, ‘You can do it, you’re doing it for us.’ It’s like, ‘I understand. I totally understand.’ All this time, they’ve not been recognized, they’ve not been heard.”
Austin Butler called the nomination “bittersweet” when he called into Today with Hoda and Jenna, as the announcement comes just days after Lisa Marie Presley’s passing.
“I think of how much I wish she was here right now to get to celebrate with me. It’s the same thing I feel with Elvis; I wish that they could see these moments, you know,” the actor said. “It’s just sort of strange to celebrate at a time of such deep grief. But I sort of think of it as a way to honor her. This is for her.”
He called the nomination “surreal” especially when he looked back at his journey for playing the King.
“It was such a daunting undertaking, making this movie, and it was also a very long process. I just remember those sleepless nights and all the fear and all the possibilities for how it could have gone wrong,” he explained. “Being recognized just feels very surreal and amazing.”
Jamie Lee Curtis posted a photo to Instagram of the moment she found out about her Best Supporting Actress nomination. It’s the first for the veteran star.
“THIS IS WHAT SURPRISE LOOKS LIKE! One of my oldest besties (Debbie Oppenheimer) texted me at 5:15 that she was sitting in front of my house and did I want company watching the announcements,” her caption read. “Debbie Oppenheimer has won an Oscar for the beautiful documentary she made about her mother’s story as one of the kindertransport in the Oscar-winning documentary. “Into The Arms Of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport.”
“There she was in the pitch black, freezing, cold in a parka,” her post continued. “She came in and sat with me as I had sat with her the day she was heading toward the Oscar ceremony, the year she won. We held hands. I didn’t even realize she took pictures. The first is the moment of hearing my name, and then the thrill of my friend, Stephanie’s @stephaniehsuofficial name, and the rest of the nominations and then the best thing of all, a loving embrace for my husband. No filters. No fakery. Just the truth of a moment of joy captured by a friend.”
Brendan Fraser shared a statement to Good Morning America for his Best Actor nod for “The Whale.”
“I’m absolutely overjoyed and deeply grateful to The Academy for this recognition and for recognizing Hong Chau’s beautiful performance and Adrien Morot’s incredible makeup,” he said. “I wouldn’t have this nomination without Darren Aronofsky, Samuel D. Hunter, A24 and the extraordinary cast and crew who gave me the gift of Charlie. A gift I certainly didn’t see coming, but it’s one that has profoundly changed my life. THANK YOU!”
Angela Bassett also made history as the first to receive an Oscar nomination for an actor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Bassett received her first and only prior Oscar nomination three decades ago for the Tina Turner biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”
“I’m very excited about it because I know that it’s been 30 years,” Bassett told The New York Times. “So it’s not easy to come by landing in just these five coveted slots.”