Maya Rudolph’s partner, Paul Thomas Anderson, took home his first-ever Oscar awards on Sunday night for One Battle After Another. While those were definitely great moments for him, he also got to watch with pride as Rudolph slayed in a Bridesmaids reunion. Which do you think he enjoyed more? It’s hard to say!
Anderson, who had previously been nominated for 11 Oscars throughout his career, finally took home statues for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. While accepting his screenplay award, Anderson thanked Rudolph and the rest of his family for putting up with “what it means to live with a writer.”
“I wrote this movie for my kids, to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we’re handing off to them,” Anderson said. “But also for the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency.”
Anderson also took home the night’s big prize. After handing one of his other Oscars to Rudolph and nearly getting taken out by a headlock from Teyana Taylor, he gave a speech thanking his cast and sharing the love with his fellow nominees. “In 1975, the Oscar nominees for Best Picture were Dog Day Afternoon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jaws, Nashville, and Barry Lyndon,” Anderson said. “There is no ‘best’ among them. There is just what that mood might be that day.”
And the mood today was the Academy finally deciding to throw a bone to the father of Maya Rudolph’s children. Great choice. Rudolph will probably have to move some of her Emmys to accommodate PTA’s new hardware, but she seems like someone who will be gracious about it.