Jamie Lee Curtis Wins Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars 2023

In perhaps the most unpredictable race of a season chock-full of them, Jamie Lee Curtis won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role as Deirdre Beaubeirdre in Everything Everywhere All at Once, moments after her costar Ke Huy Quan won his own supporting-actor statue. 

“I know it looks like I’m standing up here by myself, but I’m not, I am hundreds of people,” a visibly emotional Curtis said, acknowledging the vast team behind her film. She even made mention of her long career as a scream queen and the moviegoers who supported her over the years, and emphasized, “We just won an Oscar together!”

Curtis faced stiff competition from The Banshees of Inisherin’s Kerry Condon, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s Angela Bassett, The Whale’s Hong Chau, and her Everything Everywhere All at Once costar Stephanie Hsu, and for weeks it was anyone’s guess who would emerge victorious. Curtis thanked her Everything Everywhere collaborators and emphasized the group effort that went into her victory: “We just won an Oscar!”

Curtis mounted one of the more traditional yet unconventional campaigns. The industry vet made her way into the best-supporting-actress category for her comedic turn as Deirdre the IRS agent in Everything Everywhere All at Once, most likely buoyed by the outpouring of industry love for the best-picture front-runner. Once she nabbed the nomination, Curtis went to work, homing in on her decades-long career in Hollywood and also embracing her status as the “OG nepo baby,” highlighting her Hollywood lineage as the youngest daughter of Oscar nominees Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis in interviews and award speeches. At the SAG Awards, Curtis triumphed over the same lineup of competitors that she faced this evening in her category—the first major sign that she was a serious threat to take home Oscar gold. Still, it was anyone’s guess whether the onetime scream queen would triumph come Oscar night. 

Curtis invoked her nepo-baby status in her acceptance speech, mentioning her parents and their own Oscar nominations, and shouted to the heavens the news of her win. Despite her four decades in the industry, Everything Everywhere All at Once marks Curtis’s first Oscar nomination and win.