[2022 Academy] Youn Yuh-jung Announces Best Supporting Actor Award in Sign Language

Deaf Actor Troy Kocher Seems to Have Been Prepared For
"Realizing How Difficult It Is to Pronounce the Names of Award Nominees"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Youn Yuh-jung, the first Korean actor to win the Best Supporting Actress award at last year's Academy Awards in the United States, attended the 94th Academy Awards ceremony held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California on the 27th (local time) as a presenter for the Best Supporting Actor award.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which hosts the Academy Awards, invites the previous year's winners as presenters according to tradition. Youn Yuh-jung won the Best Supporting Actress award last year for the film Minari. On this day, Youn announced the name of Troy Kotsur from CODA, the winner of the Best Supporting Actor award, through sign language. Kotsur is a deaf actor.

At the ceremony, Youn said, "I am not a Hollywood person, but I am happy to be here again." She added, "Seeing the names of the nominees here, I realized how difficult it is to pronounce them correctly," and apologized.

At last year's Academy Awards, she said, "My name is Youn Yuh-jung, but Europeans often mispronounced it as ‘Yeo-young’ or ‘Yu-jung’," and added, "I forgive everyone who has mispronounced my name until now."

On this day, Youn appeared on the red carpet wearing a black dress and holding a clutch. On her left shoulder, she wore a blue ribbon from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) campaign ‘#WithRefugees’.

This year's Best Supporting Actress award went to Ariana DeBose for the film West Side Story. DeBose played the role of Anita. She is a Latinx Black actress and openly identifies as queer. Denis Villeneuve’s film Dune swept the technical awards, winning Cinematography (Greig Fraser), Film Editing (Joe Walker), Production Design (Patrice Vermette), and Sound (Mac Ruth), among others.

Meanwhile, in a recent video interview for the Apple TV+ drama Pachinko, Youn recalled her award last year, saying, "Nothing has changed. I hang out with the same friends and live in the same house. I will just live and die as myself." She added, "If I had received the award in my 30s or 40s, I might have floated around, but (getting the award at an older age) did not change me."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.