AfriPulse
Historically, awards shows have given celebrities major opportunities to make their politics known and advocate for causes near and dear to their hearts. And although the 77th Emmys occurred in the wake of an incredibly bleak week in American politics, big stars like Meg Stalter, Javier Bardem, and newly crowned Emmy winner Hannah Einbinder didn’t shy away from using their platform to make a political statement—in many cases explicitly showing their support for Palestine.
After being a perennial also-ran at the ceremony, Einbinder won her first Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy for her role on Hacks. Though Emmy host Nate Bargatze set a 45-second timer on speeches, cheekily docking money from a donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for every second a winner went over that time, Einbinder ignored the limit (“I’ll pay the difference,” she shouted) in order to champion causes close to her heart. After shouting out the Philadelphia Eagles, a team beloved by her and her Pennsylvania-born father, Einbinder made two more statements—one that was bleeped out and one that was perfectly clear.
The bleeped one was “Fuck ICE”—a reference to the government agency currently undertaking a mass deportation campaign that has swept up US residents. Einbinder then turned her attention to the Middle East, shouting, “Free Palestine.” Einbinder also wore an Artists4Ceasefire pin on her dress. Even before the Emmys, Einbinder had made her support of Palestinians well-known, delivering a rousing speech in support of Palestine at a Human Rights Campaign event in March.
In the pressroom after her win, Einbinder explained why she felt the need to publicly voice her support for the Palestinian people. “It is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the state of Israel,” she said. “Our religion and our culture is such an important and long-standing institution that is really separate to this sort of ethnonationalist state.”
Einbinder wasn’t the only comedian who made a political statement. Stalter, who recently starred in Lena Dunham’s Netflix romantic comedy, Too Much, walked the red carpet in a simple white T-shirt and jeans, carrying a black purse with the message “CEASEFIRE!” Stalter has been a major fixture at award shows as of late, wearing comedy-forward, tongue-in-cheek outfits dedicated to brands like Dunkin’ and Diet Coke at ceremonies like the VMAs and the Las Culturistas Culture Awards. But at the Emmys, she chose to instead make a simple but effective statement, letting her purse do the talking.
Javier Bardem, a nominee for outstanding supporting actor for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, also found a way to work his political beliefs into his outfit, wearing a keffiyeh around his neck. On the red carpet, he spoke with E!’s Zuri Hall about his support for Palestine. “For me, what is important today is to denounce the genocide in Gaza and talk about IAGS, which is the International Association of Genocide Scholars, who at the end of August declared that what is going on is a genocide,” he said. “And that’s why we ask for the commercial and diplomatic blockade and the sanctions on Israel to stop the genocide and free Palestine.”
Bardem continued by shouting out Film Workers for Palestine, a group that recently released a pledge, signed by stars including Bardem, Emma Stone, Ayo Edebiri, and Olivia Colman, to boycott Israeli film institutions “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
“We don’t target people by their identity. That’s absolutely wrong; nobody said that,” Bardem said. “We target film companies and institutions that are complicit and are whitewashing or justifying Israel’s genocide and its apartheid regime. That’s what we’re targeting—not to stand with those who oppress people.”
While talking with Variety on the red carpet, Bardem said that he was “hopeful” for a brighter future in these incredibly bleak times: “There have been so many deaths and children being murdered that the world is waking up.”
Not every political moment at the Emmys had to do with Israel and Palestine. After being introduced by This Is Us star Justin Hartley, the chairman of the Television Academy, Cris Abrego, shed light on the recent shuttering of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “At the end of this year, CPB will close its doors because Congress has voted to defund it,” Abrego said, to loud boos from the audience. Abrego went on to remind viewers of television’s ability to “bend that arc of history towards justice.”
“Neutrality is not enough. We must be voices for connection, inclusion, empathy,” he continued. “We know that culture doesn’t come from the top down; it rises from the bottom up. Culture belongs to the people. So if our industry is to thrive, we need to make room for more voices, not fewer.”
The political moment of the evening, however, belonged to Stephen Colbert. The host of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on CBS received a standing ovation as he presented the first award of the evening. A vocal critic of President Donald Trump, Colbert’s top-rated late-night show was shockingly canceled by CBS as the network’s parent company, Paramount, waited for the Federal Communications Commission to greenlight a multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance. “Is anyone hiring?” Colbert quipped before shouting out the 200 Late Show staff members who will be out of a job after his late-night series comes to an end in May.
Members of other late-night programs spread the love to Colbert, like the team from Last Week Tonight With John Oliver , who took home the award for outstanding writing for a variety series. Senior writer Daniel O’Brien opened his speech by saying, “We share this category with all writers of late-night political comedy—while that is still a type of show that’s allowed to exist.”
The love in the room for Colbert and his program was palpable even before The Late Show was announced as the winner of outstanding talk series. After that envelope was opened, Colbert received the loudest applause of the night as well as the biggest standing ovation of the evening. As Colbert made his way onto the stage, there were audible chants of “Stephen! Stephen!” filling the room.
“Think of the children,” Colbert quipped as he approached the mic. “I want to thank CBS for giving us the privilege to be part of the late-night tradition, which I hope continues long after we’re no longer doing this show.” He went on to shout out his 200-member staff, as well as his wife and three children, before telling an anecdote about the beginning of his tenure at The Late Show. “Ten years ago, in September of 2015, Spike Jonze stopped by my office,” Colbert shared. Jonze apparently asked Colbert what he wanted his show to be about. “A late-night comedy show that was about love,” Colbert said.
“At a certain point, and you can guess what that point was, I realized that in some ways we were doing a late-night comedy show about loss,” he continued. “And that’s related to love, because sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it.”
Fittingly, he ended his speech on a message of love. “I have never loved my country more desperately,” Colbert said to close his speech. “God bless America. Stay strong, be brave, and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor.”
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