Minari star Yuh-Jung Youn shocks awards race with major SAG Awards win — and gets emotional
Yuh-Jung Youn has sprouted up as a major threat in the Best Supporting Actress Oscar race.
The Minari star won Best Supporting Actress at Sunday night's SAG Awards, taking the prestigious prize in a matchup against supposed category frontrunner Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), Hollywood titan Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy), Olivia Colman (The Father), and newcomer Helena Zengel (News of the World).
"I don't know how to describe my feelings. I'm being recognized by Westerners!" the actress said in her emotional acceptance speech before expressing sincere thanks for the performances of her fellow nominees. "I'm honored, especially [that my] actor fellows chose me as their supporting actress!"
Across the last 10 SAG Awards ceremonies, nine winners have gone on to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, including the 2019 season's champion Laura Dern (Marriage Story). The only actress not to repeat at the Oscars since 2010 remains 2018 contender Emily Blunt for A Quiet Place.
Minari — about a Korean family attempting to live the American Dream in rural Arkansas — has steadily grown its profile in the hunt for Oscar glory, which culminated in six Academy Award nominations (including one for Youn, lead actor Steven Yeun, and director Lee Isaac Chung) last month. Seven members of the film's cast also contended in SAG's ensemble category during Sunday's prerecorded broadcast, including Yeri Han, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Scott Haze, and Will Patton.
"We were trying to tell the story of, 'What's it like when you wake up and you just are?' — which is how I wake up," Yeun previously told EW of the film. "I don't really wake up being like, 'I'm a Korean-American person living in a white American world.' I'm just like, 'I'm up now. What do I want to eat?' When we ignored the literal parameters, it unveiled a more truthful humanity: a story about a father, and a mother, and a family, and a son, and a grandmother, and about hardship, and about perseverance, and about faith and hope and what it takes to continue on in this difficult life."
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