‘All women are superheroes’: Sigourney Weaver, Brie Lason and Gal Gadot give empowering Oscars speech
'Kidding aside, we want to say this together,' said Weaver
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sigourney Weaver, Brie Larson and Gal Gadot gave an inspiring feminist speech before awarding the Oscar for best original score.
The three women, who have respectively played Corporal Ripley in Alien, Wonderwoman and Captain Marvel, joked they wanted to start a “fight club”.
They continued: “And the loser will get to answer questions from journalists about how it feels to be a woman in Hollywood.”
Then Weaver added: “Kidding aside, we just want to stand here together and say all women are superheroes.”
The women then awarded the Oscar to Hildur Guðnadóttir, who wrote the score for The Joker, the first Icelandic woman to ever win an Oscar.
Taking to the stage to collect her award, Guðnadóttir said: “To the girls, to the women, to the mothers, to the daughters who hear the music bubbling within: please speak up.
“We need to hear your voices,” she added.
The Oscars has become a platform for feminist statements: in 2019 Glenn Close and Regina King spoke extensively on the issues of women finding personal fulfilment and gender equality.
When Frances McDormand won the Best Actress Oscar in 2018 for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the actor used her moment on stage to champion all women working in the film industry.
She asked all the female nominees to stand up. "Meryl, if you do it, everybody else will, c’mon – the filmmakers, the producers, the directors, the writers, the cinematographer, the composers, the songwriters, the designers. C’mon!” she said.
“Okay, look around everybody. Look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed.”
McDormand ended her speech by urging for greater representation in Hollywood by using the term “inclusion rider”, which is when a cast and crew is contractually required to hire a diverse workforce.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments