Inside The 76th Annual Golden Globes Press Room

For the first time ever, Awards Daily was credentialed to cover the biggest party of the year, the 76th Annual Golden Globes. In previous years, I’ve covered the parties after the party, but 2019 kicked off with this great start.

Due to security, we took shuttles off-site from nearby Century City and were taken to the Beverly Hilton where the red carpet was laid out and ready for the calm before the storm. The weather Gods were good on Golden Globes Sunday with the sun shining over Hollywood, giving way to rain late in the evening.

Once I had placed myself in the press room, sitting next to Gold Derby’s Chris Beechum, I took a wander around the Beverly Hilton and a stroll down the red carpet to glimpse the red carpet.

By the time the red carpet shows kicked off, it was back to the press room waiting for the show to kick start. As the world’s media gathered outside to catch arrivals, media set up in the press room from Deadline, Jeannie Wolf, Fandango, CBC, Australia, Philippines, U.K and Spain.

In case, you missed the winners and discussion, Awards Daily was updating here as the night went on.

Back in the press room, the first winners to come through was the team from Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. Peter Ramsey who was played off during the acceptance speech was asked by a reporter to finish his speech. Ramsey said, “The idea that we all felt deeply that anyone can have this kind of experience, be this kind of legend, be this kind of hero character.” He went on to say, “Miles was able to crystallize that from his first treatment and it made us want to give it our all. Anyone can wear the mask; everyone is powerful, everyone is necessary, and that’s the spirit of the movie.”

Ben Whishaw who stars in Paddington 2, Mary Poppins Returns and won for his role in A Very British Scandal talked about equality and playing a gay character on the show said, “I think there needs to be greater equality. It should be an even playing field for everybody, that’s where we should be aiming.”

Patricia Arquette took home a Globe for her role as a prison warden in Showtime’s Escape From Dannemora dropped the F-Bomb during her acceptance speech apologized saying, “You can’t take it back, can you? I didn’t plan that. It was an unplanned f-bomb.” Yours truly asked her about how filming in the actual prison helped her. You can hear my question below and her response, “This prison was built at the turn of the century. You’re walking down the halls, and then dead ends. You don’t know what’s around the corner. It’s really cold in the winters. There are people with untreated mental illness. It’s scary to work in there, and it’s scary to be a prisoner.” She went on to say, “Just looking at the prison complex in America and the intensity of the prison system on everybody involved, it was really interesting.”

Lady Gaga and the Shallow songwriting team that included Mark Ronson came back and were greeted with a huge cheer. Asked about working with Bradley Cooper, she deflected, wanting to talk about Shallow and writing the song, cue my unprepared “I’ll ask a question” moment. Hence my stumbling, but also it’s Lady Gaga and if you know me, you’ll know I’ve been a monster since the beginning.

So, I asked away about the process of writing Shallow. Gaga said the song was written here in LA and “it’s a conversation between a man and a woman and that actually happened in that room and it came alive on screen.” Ronson said, “She starts with an idea and she’s a MasterChef and we’re all like holding up celery and we’re like ‘do you like this? you like this?’ If she likes something, she does.” Ronson and Gaga both said what was more meaningful was that they all care for each other and they were “willing to go to a vulnerable place for this song.”

Green Book’s Mahershala Ali said, “I only say yes to something that makes me uncomfortable. When I get a script and a little ego pops its collar and says ‘I could do that,’ I usually say ‘no.’ So I only say yes to the jobs that scare me.” Talking about his anxiety and how prayer and meditation are the key to his calmness, Ali said, “At the end of the day I know when I get in my trailer and I step on set, no matter how I have my lines memorized, I just feel so nervous and new at that point and all that work goes out the window. Prayer and meditation, that’s my ticket!”

Other highlights included royalty herself, Olivia Colman who has to fly back to London to continue shooting on The Crown. Colman won for playing Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite said, “Love scenes with women are much easier. In my head, I was being unfaithful to my husband (otherwise). Kissing a man just feels awful…Kissing a woman is much more fun.”

Glenn Close who took home the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for The Wife said, “I never played a character like her before who chose to be in the background. In many scenes, she didn’t talk at all. In many ways, she existed in her head and I was fascinated by that.” She added, “I thought that would be the easy question but it was much more complicated than that and finding that and finding the reasons why they had this long, complex, very real marriage was a great process.”

Close who got emotional talking about fulfilling dreams said, “My mom and my dad got married when they were 18. My dad went off to the war, and my mom, she never went to college. She started having children very early. She had a great artistic mind, she always said, ‘I made a vow, and I’m gonna stay in this.’ But I can’t say it was fulfilling for her, for all the potential that she had. She said to me, ‘I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything.’ Of course, as a child, you say, ‘No, no, no — that’s not true!” She went on to say, “I understood what she meant, because there’s another part of you that has nothing to do with who’s in your life and everything to do with what’s in your heart. So I hold this, I hold her in my heart, and I’m very moved to get this award for this particular story. For her sake.”

Before Close came into the room and was announced winner, Ryan Murphy and the cast and crew of American Crime Story: Versace were on stage and when he had wrapped talking to the press, he stepped down in front of the screens to watch Close’s acceptance speech.

Rami Malek who won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury said, “There was only one thing that we needed to do and that was to celebrate Freddie Mercury in this film. Nothing was going to compromise that.”

Alfonso Cuaron who won two Globes for Roma made a stop in the room and was asked by a reporter whether Netflix was killing the movie theater, “How many theaters do you think a Mexican film in black and white, in Spanish?” Cuaron went on to say, “How big a release do you think it would be in a conventional theatrical release? I’m having a way bigger release than that.” He added, “The movie opened more than a month ago and is still playing. That is rare for a foreign film. I think that is very unfair to say that. Why don’t you take the list of foreign films this year and compare the theatrical release to those things and for how long they’ve been playing. See how many are playing in 70mm.”

For those keeping tally, Green Book took home the most Globes with three wins, Bohemian Rhapsody and Roma followed with two each. Taking home one Globe: The Favourite, A Star Is Born, Vice, First Man, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Wife, and Spider-Man.