After joining fellow world influencers at the cocktail hour of the TIME 100 Gala, Sandra Oh, one of the 2019 TIME 100 honorees, gave a toast praising Beyoncé’s new film Homecoming Tuesday night in New York City.
“It’s such an important piece of work,” Oh said of the Netflix movie chronicling Bey’s 2018 Coachella performance. “I encourage you all to see it because you’re witnessing an artist at her most potent and working on the deepest cultural level.
“The documentary follows the process and the work and the toll it takes to create, and it is, for me, viscerally inspiring. Beyoncé shows me what you can create when you give your all and you make space for others to do the same.”
Oh — who stars as MI5 operative Eve Polastri in the critically acclaimed BBC America thriller Killing Eve — recently made history as the first Asian woman to be nominated for a Best Actress Emmy. She also became the first Asian actor to ever win multiple Golden Globes, as well as the first Asian woman to win a Golden Globe for a leading TV role in over 35 years at the 2019 awards ceremony.
During her toast, Oh also spoke about the relevance of art in today’s world. “It’s a good time to be making art. It’s an important time to be making art,” she said. “I truly believe art evolves our hearts and our minds because it allows us to experience and understand another’s sorrow. It reminds us of universal truths. It connects us. Art can transform us and through us, our culture.”
Watch Oh’s toast above.
