Patricia Arquette Wins Supporting Actress Oscar For ‘Boyhood’, Demands Wage Equality For Women

Ever since the Richard Linklater directed film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014, there has been talk of the actress who plays mother Olivia Evans and the Academy Awards. Tonight that talk became reality as Patricia Arquette won Best Supporting Actress at the 87th Oscars. The Boyhood actress thanked the cast and crew of the pic in her speech on stage at the Dolby but talked about politics too

“To my friends who work so hard to make the world a better place,” she said with a passionate declaration for environmental polices and 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,” Arquette said as Meryl Streep and others jump to their feet and applauded. :It’s time to have wage equality once and for all. And equal rights for women in the United States of America.”

Made over 12 years on a budget of about $4 million as it depicted a family through the trials and tribulations of childhood and parenting, Boyhood is still also up for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing Sunday. Ehthan Hawke was nominated for Best Supporting Actor but that went to Whiplash‘s J.K. Simmons as many expected.

The Best Supporting Actress category saw the Emmy winning actress up against Laura Dern in Wild, Keira Knightley in The Imitation Game, Emma Stone in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) and multiple Oscar winner Meryl Streep in Disney’s Into The Woods.

Long considered as much of a sure thing as can happen in Hollywood, Arquette’s win on her first Oscar nomination comes after BAFTA, CCMAs, Golden Globes and SAG Awards victories for the actress. Yesterday, Arquette snagged another win at the Independent Spirit Awards with a very well received speech thanking her cast members, Linklater and distributors. Boyhood is distributed by IFC Films, which supported the pic through its long gestation. On Saturday in Santa Monica, Arquette also noted her duel careers in the indie world network TV. Having starred on Medium for seven seasons on NBC and having been a part of the last two seasons of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, the actress will return to CBS early next month in the new spinoff CSI: Cyber.

At the party IFC had for Boyhood after the Indie Spirits, I saw Arquette sitting quietly with a look of serenity. Tonight on stage at the Dolby, she had the well-deserved look of euphoria and making the spotlight count.