You always want to roll your eyes when someone breaks out a piece of paper during their Oscar speech. But after Patricia Arquette thanked her cast members and family while picking up her Best Supporting Actress trophy for “Boyhood,” she suddenly switched gears and brought down the house with a booming call for wage equality.
“To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights,” she announced. “It is our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America!”
Best moment of #Oscars2015 so far: #PatricaArquette's speech. (h/t @thewonderwheel for GIFs) pic.twitter.com/tAEkuOn3na
— Marcus Errico (@MarcusErrico) February 23, 2015
Cut to this incredible reaction from Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez in the audience.
She continued the conversation backstage, reports The Post’s Geoff Edgers:
“It is time for us … We don’t have equal rights for Americans. The truth is even though we sort of feel like there is, there are huge issues that are at play and really do affect women.It’s time for all the women in America, and the men who love women and all the gay people and people of color we’ve all fought for to fight for us now.”
Backstage, Patricia Arquette says there aren't equal rights for women in America, because the Constitution was written for men. #Oscars2015
— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) February 23, 2015
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