Elle Women in Hollywood honors and speeches: Jennifer Aniston, Teyana Taylor, Emily Blunt
19 years ago, she signed her very first record deal. She was only 15 years old, but already she had this crazy, brilliant, fearless, visionary heart. You know, while most kids were just being teenagers and discovering who they were, this young woman was laser focused on designing her future. Fel saw in her what the whole world would soon witness. her fire, her instinct, her presence, her undeniable talent. There is poetry to the idea that her global takeover as a cultural icon began with Frell. But the story of her success must be mostly credited to her because there simply is no one in the world quite like the phenomenon that is Tiana Taylor. Tiana is one of those rare artists who refuses to fit into a single box, mostly because she’s too busy building entirely new ones. She is a singer, a songwriter, a storyteller, a dancer, a choreographer, a creative director, an actor. I’m exhausted. A feature film director, a designer, a mother, a soon-to-be chef. I mean, she’s smart, she’s funny, she’s beautiful, she’s fearless, she has the most incredible abdomen, right? That’s why The Rock wants to work out with her. She is a visionary. And still, somehow, honestly, none of those words feel big enough because Tiana doesn’t just do a thing. She evolves it. She transforms it. She transforms herself. In everything she touches, Tiana reminds us that originality and authenticity are our superpowers, that style can be storytelling, that artistry is also activism, and she does it all with a presence that is so magnetic that you feel it before she even enters a room. It’s Mana. Tonight, as we gather to celebrate women in Hollywood, and thank you, Nana Garcia, for doing this year after year. I am so honored to be here with you and for you, Tiana. I am tremendously inspired by your story and your success and your sisterhood and your strength. On the day that the Grammy nominations came out, you sent me flowers for your nomination. This is your time. So, please let the record show that I am here tonight because this year, the flowers are all for you. Please welcome to the stage Tiana Taylor. Thank you so much, Carrie, for that incredible introduction. And to Nina, and everyone over at L, I love you all. Thank you so much for this incredible honor. I’m truly humbled and honored to be standing here tonight. Carrie, not to blow your spot up, but everyone in this room should know she came here on her very own premiere night. She’s supposed to be at a premiere right now and she’s here. This season of my life is incredibly exciting and also overwhelming in the best way though. Um, as Carrie mentioned, I’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years and I’ve been through it. But what I’ve continued to do for myself and for others is show up and most importantly showing up for the women in my life that has shaped me into who I am today. That starts with none other than my queen, my mother, my first teacher, my fiercest protector, the woman who gave me so much that I could stand in my purpose. She unfortunately could not be here tonight because she is helping me by taking care of my babies back in Atlanta. To my mom and my babies, you show up for me, day after day, year after year, teaching me the power of grace, dignity, resilience, and the power to never give up. This industry can be very tough. It can be isolating. It can demand more than we ever say out loud. But along the way, I’ve been blessed with examples of women who show up with excellence in heart. Tonight, I honor all of you. The women who inspire me, who walk beside me, who remind me that we are never doing this alone. Because showing up is more than being present. It is choosing again and again and again to stand in community and to champion one another to create space for each other’s brilliance. And when women do that, we truly show up. We create something powerful, something lasting, and something that echoes far beyond any stage or screen. Thank you for showing up and thank you for letting me show up too. All glory to God in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you so much. Thank you. So firstly um I would also like to congratulate all the honores tonight. I’m excited to be here and introduce our first honore Green Acres Beverly Hillbillies in Hudville Junction. Those were the first words I uttered on set to my rising co-star and tonight’s recipient of the Ralph Lauren Spotlight Award, Chase Infinity. And as we all know, all actors face rejection. As your agent reminded you, it’s okay. That job, it wasn’t meant for you. That’s good advice in Hollywood and everywhere really. But trust me, there is so much coming your way. And remember, if you ever need me or any of us like Willanita Deandra, all you have to say is Greenacres, Beverly Hillbillies, and Hudville Junction. Everyone, join me in welcoming tonight’s recipient of the Ralph Lauren Spotlight Award, Chase Infinity. Thank you, Regina. I truly love and appreciate you so much for being here. First off, thank you to Ralph Lauren and L for putting together this incredible evening and for including me amongst so many transformative and inspiring women. I’m so humbled to be here and to be honest, it feels quite surreal. My life has been marked by being inspired by strong women. From my grandmother to my grandma, from my mom to my sister, from Ruth, sorry, from Ruth Regina to Tiana, so many others. I’ve had the absolute privilege. [Applause] had the absolute privilege of being surrounded by love, light, power, and sisterhood. It is wild to be 20 feet from so many actors I admire and whose work has immensely inspired me. Jennifer, Emily, Jesse, Ranatada, Rose, Tiana, Haley, Jamie, and Wii. You’re all incredible and I’m so freaked out that my name is just listed alongside of yours. Um, but anyways, congratulations to everybody and thank you Nina Garcia, L Ralph Lauren for this honor. I’m so grateful to be a woman in Hollywood. Thank you so much. You know, Emily, like all these actresses here, she can act 10 feet tall and there’s there’s a real force of nature behind Emily as as there are all the honores tonight and you can feel it. There’s uh in I’m half black and half Samoan and in the Polynesian side of my culture, there’s a word we use called mana and you can feel it. You could feel it in the room and it’s an energy and you could feel that with Emily and you could feel that with these honores and I have worked with Emily on Jungle Cruise but then when we got on Smash Machine and we started working together it’s a very dramatic film and our int our our our scenes are really raw and they are intense and when we fight we fight and I felt that force. Emily Blunt is a lot of things. She’s an actress who can act 10 feet tall. She is she will go down as one of the greatest actors of our time and continues to serve as an inspiration to so many actresses coming up in the game. Um the philanth philanthropic work that she does is incredible as it relates to stuttering. There’s so much that she does. An amazing wife, an amazing mom, an amazing friend to me. everything. That’s how Emily Blunt lives. That’s her life is that she makes everyone she meets feel special and it’s authentic. So, uh, without any further ado, now I’m going to look at this thing. Now, let’s take a look at some of her incredible work. Thank you so much, L and Nina. And I’m so honored to be with these amazing chicks. My god, it’s the coolest. and you guys stir me and you stir this industry and I’m so grateful. I’m very grateful to breathe the same air as all of you tonight. I think it’s what I’m most grateful for is that this industry and the stories that I’ve got to tell and the characters I’ve got to play have given me that feeling, that elsewhereness, that letting go. And I’m most grateful for that, for the feeling, you know, that it gives me all the time. And I’m in equal parts so grateful for my beautiful family who are just the softest place to land after I’m done trying to shake it like Otus. But I’m Yeah, it just has been a beautiful journey and it gives me whiplash watching it back. It’s very wild. So, thank you and I appreciate it so much. What Rose did is she saw showed us relentless and raw and honesty in this film. If I had legs, I’d kick you is challenging and fraught and just heartbreaking. Every frame of this film skit sits squarely on Rosy’s shoulders, which I can tell you are very soft, almost creamy, tiny little Aussie shoulders. They can carry so much weight and grit and every every other color of the palette. This film was shot in I believe 27 days. Hope that’s corre Okay, that’s correct. And the camera stays so close on Rose’s face that the audience feels her twist and fight and teeter with her sanity. For 25 years, she has defied anyone to put limits on her talent. And now if there’s any justice in the world, she’ll find herself in the one role she was always meant to play, which is an Oscar nominee. Women are complicated. Feminism is complicated. And um we are not a monolith. This event is is so special because it specifically celebrates all these shades of women with these wildly different, complicated, and nuanced challenges, challenging, funny, and radical careers and performances. Tonight, these performances are such a reflection of all the things women encompass in all their glory and all their horror. Um, I’m here because Mary Bronstein wrote a film called If I Had Legs, I’d kick you. And she gave me the most incredible opportunity to portray a woman, a mother, a wife. This experience has stretched me as an artist. It has changed me. She wrote a character full of flaws, of humor, of bravery, of fault, of shame, and of power. She’s a radical filmmaker who is asking radical things of her audience to reckon with and I feel like this evening tonight is celebrating the radical. So, thank you so much for having me. I really, really, really appreciate it. Thank you. I’m enjoying the night. You’re enjoying the night. It’s pretty incredible. Love it. I love it. I love it. Um, you know, it’s an honor to be in the company of so many talented women and tonight we have the pleasure of introducing three of them. The women of sinners Jamie Lawson and Haley Steinfield who unfortunately was unable to be with us tonight. She caught a she caught a little bug. She’s feeling under the weather so she couldn’t make it with us tonight. And I just want to say thank you to these amazing women that we honoring tonight just for saying yes to this crazy story for saying yes to to to to us. Um you know without without y’all we don’t have anything. And Wii and I we were on the same page. As she once said, the scariest part of this movie is fe is is the feeling that no matter how far you’ve gone, you still might be exactly where you started. Wommy, thank you. Thank you for your gentle wisdom, your love, your support. Uh, tonight we honor you and always. What’s so powerful about Jaime’s performance is how she channels the joy, spirit, and the genius of black women in the South, whose contributions would change the world many times over. Thank you, Jamie, for your artistry. And I got to say for us, you were never too much and you were always enough. There it is. If you think she’s brilliant in this film, that may be because the role was very, very personal to her. Sinners gave Haley the opportunity to dive into her own family’s history, and she didn’t hold back. She asked big questions about her maternal grandfather’s identity as a halfilipino, half black man. That theme of inheritance is still in every frame of sinners. and Haley, we love you and we honor you for doing that story justice. It’s It’s really hard to think of somebody who’s uh made more of an impact in the past three years uh who’s lodged themselves into our hearts and our minds to such an extent as the incredibly talented Ranada Reigns. I was um Renady with one look can mend or break your heart. With uh one smile, she can change your day. And then when she laughs, it’s uh like she can change your life. Um I uh I’ve had the pleasure of working with her twice. Um and um been in awe of watching her disappear in her roles in a matter of seconds. her whole face and eyes just holding a world all unto themselves, lying nothing, betraying nothing, conveying the most raw and complex of human truths. I know tonight is one of many, and I’m so excited for what’s to come for her.
Kerry Washington, Emily Blunt and more celebrities spoke at the Elle Women in Hollywood event. Watch the full video to hear their speeches.
#womeninhollywood #jenniferaniston #teyanataylor #emilyblunt
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