It’s not just the acclaim and awards nominations that have made Greta Lee’s performance in Past Lives a turning point for the star. After a successful Hollywood career playing supporting roles in the likes of The Morning Show and Russian Doll, Lee took on a lead role for the very first time in Celine Song’s debut feature—and as she tells it, her career will probably never be the same.
“I’ve been waiting my whole life for a role like this, and the opportunity,” Lee told Vanity Fair on Saturday on the red carpet for the Unforgettable Gala, the annual awards ceremony that celebrates the year’s most impactful Asians and Pacific Islanders in entertainment, arts, and culture. “Getting to do what I have been seeing in all of my favorite artists and what my peers get to do all the time is what has changed my life. I had the chance to be free of the heavy lifting that comes with having to constantly explain yourself and your own existence. That’s why this is the role of my lifetime.”
Lee was among the evening’s big winners, honored with the Breakout in Film award for her Past Lives performance, which has also earned Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations. A Broadway veteran with more than a decade of film and TV experience, Lee said she had previously auditioned for lead roles, only to be constantly overlooked in favor of white actors. With just a certain number of opportunities available, she said, “I started to accept the reality and the inequities. I started to think maybe I wouldn’t have the kind of career I had imagined and wanted.”
Then Lee landed the starring role in Past Lives, acting opposite Teo Yoo and John Magaro in the film about two childhood sweethearts reconnecting as adults. “It changed my belief that some sort of signal is maybe changing things,” she said. “So I’m feeling really optimistic and grateful, and I’m excited for the future.”
In her acceptance speech in front of more than 700 guests at the gala, Lee motivated the predominantly Asian crowd by sharing her experience of being number one on the call sheet for the first time. “Now that I know what it’s like, it might be really hard to go back [to playing supporting roles], and I don’t want that for myself, and I don’t want that for any of you,” she said. “I think it’s time now for us to be at the center of our own stories, on our own terms. I hope to break through over and over and over again. There’s so much more work to be done, so let’s do it.”
Lee said the acclaim for Past Lives has even helped win over her toughest critics—her mother and father. “My parents, they never go see anything, but when the movie came out, they went to every theater in LA that Past Lives was playing at and took selfies of themselves, and wanted to check on the ticket sales to find out how well it was selling,” said Lee with a laugh. “I thought it was so cute, but also completely unnecessary and a little scary. I’m like, please stop now!”
Many of the Unforgettable Gala winners, including Lee, May December’s Charles Melton, and Beef’s Steven Yeun, are becoming very familiar with getting awards nominations for their work. Coming off his wins at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and the Gotham Awards, Melton collected the Actor in Film award at the gala for his striking supporting turn in Todd Haynes’s film. “It was the greatest experience in my career,” Melton told the audience of filming the Netflix movie with Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman in Savannah, Georgia, for 22 days. He went on to thank Asian stars like John Cho, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, and Sandra Oh for inspiring him as a kid to pursue acting. “Seeing a piece of my own humanity onscreen, and their stories that they told no matter how big or small, was an inspiration for me,” said Melton, whose mother is Korean. “I understand the magnitude of this moment and honor the paths that were paved for me so that maybe I can pave a path for future generations in storytelling. I believe in our community and I believe in the power of us.”
Yeun, his Beef costar Young Mazino, and the show’s creator, Lee Sung Jin, were all honored for their work on the Netflix limited series, which is up for 13 Emmys at next month’s ceremony. During his acceptance speech, Lee shared that he once snuck into a Golden Globes after-party at the Beverly Hilton when he first moved to Los Angeles at age 25. “I didn’t know a soul and [was] grabbing free Champagne and looking around wondering why everyone else felt so normal and happy but I didn’t. So here we are 17 years later, in the same hotel, surrounded by all of you, receiving this award, yet inside not feeling still very much there,” he said. “But once in a while, people come along to make you forget that feeling exists—people who see you and love you as you are. Somehow I got to make a TV show with people who did just that.”