Oh Wow!

The most exciting show on TV is back and Sandra Oh is more than ready for her moment. Here, she tells Alina Cho about fighting against resistance, gaining recognition and bagging the role of a lifetime

In the days following this year’s Golden Globes, Sandra Oh remembers feeling triumphant, exhausted and a little like she just finished a marathon. ‘Just straight up, it was terrifying,’ she recalls over Skype, sporting a new fringe. ‘I had so much stress and tension about it, but by the end of Sunday night, I was exhilarated.’

Oh co-hosted the Globes with Andy Samberg in January and, in an almost-too-good-to-be-true turn of events worthy of a Hollywood ending, won one herself for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama, for her role as MI6 operative Eve Polastri in the thrilling BBC drama Killing Eve (which returned this month for a second series). Just like that, she became the first person of Asian descent to host a major US awards show and – with a 2006 Best Supporting Actress statue for Grey’s Anatomy – win multiple Golden Globes. By the end of that month she had also picked up Critics’ Choice and Screen Actors Guild awards.

The moment was not lost on Oh. In a move considered deeply meaningful to many in the Asian community (myself included), the Korean-Canadian actress honoured her parents in her acceptance speech by bowing – the ultimate show of respect – and telling them in Korean that she loved them. In the opening monologue, she spoke of getting over her fear of taking the stage as co-host. ‘I wanted to be here to look out into this audience and witness this moment of change,’ she said.