00:00Our first speaker is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning Hollywood producer,
00:08and is currently the president of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences.
00:14She is the first Asian American to hold that position.
00:19She came to prominence through her collaboration with Steven Spielberg on Empire of the Sun,
00:25followed by a long partnership with multiple Academy Award winner Oliver Stone,
00:31where she served as executive producer on the iconic Joy Luck Club,
00:36and is a producer on the Golden Globe-winning The People vs. Larry Flint.
00:41I can't imagine two different movies.
00:48All right.
00:51Most recently, she was an executive producer on the Oscar-nominated Over the Moon.
00:57Her other works include Dark Matter, The Weight of Water, High Crimes, Zero Effect, and Shanghai Calling.
01:04She was named one of the 50 most powerful women in Hollywood by The Hollywood Reporter,
01:10including in Varieties, Power of Women 2023, featured on the Forbes 2024 50 over 50 list.
01:19Please welcome Janet Lai Yang to the stage.
01:41Hello, Hollywood and Hollywood Boulevard.
01:44How are you all?
01:46What an honor to be here with this amazing woman in her resplendent gown.
01:50I'm dying to know where she got it made.
01:52We'll talk about that later.
01:55But I did want to say in Lisa Lou's many decades of acting across many continents in dozens of roles,
02:05one thing remains constant, her grace and elegance.
02:09She seems utterly unflappable and formidable, as she is today, as you can all see,
02:15but especially in the recent roles where she has played a grand matriarch.
02:21From the last emperor to the Joy Luck Club to crazy rich Asians,
02:27her quiet strength is at once intimidating but warm, fearsome but inviting.
02:33I feel like I have a special connection to Lisa, not only because I worked with her,
02:40but she attended the same university as my father.
02:45Right?
02:46When I see her, I sense more deeply my own ancestry and the generations that have come before me.
02:54The fact that Lisa has been able to break every barrier imaginable in Hollywood
03:00has been such a source of inspiration and courage for me.
03:05I am particularly grateful for her joining the cast of the Joy Luck Club,
03:09for she perfectly embodies the character of Aunt May
03:13and how she navigates the deep scars of her tragic past.
03:19Aunt May's mother was in a forced marriage and her eventual suicide profoundly informs her character.
03:28She is determined to not let her daughter fall into a similar trap.
03:34I'm going to wait for that truck to go by because it's loud.
03:38Like Aunt May, Lisa Liu is similarly tough and warm.
03:43At an amazing 98 years young, as we were just told, she seems to not ever skip a beat.
03:51Thank you, Lisa, for being a beacon of strength and wisdom and talent for so many of us.
03:58And congratulations on your incredible honor and your walk of fame.
04:03I am so proud to bear witness to this historic and splendid moment.
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