Blake Lively beat out Emily Blunt, Julia Roberts, Amy Adams, and Meryl Streep to win best dramatic actress tonight at the People's Choice awards for The Shallows. She accepted the award from Luke Hemsworth, who she briefly fangirled over before giving quite a speech.
Ryan Reynolds got a heartfelt shoutout as well as anyone lusting after him: "Thank you to my husband who's everything to me. You can't have him, he's mine!"
But the real surprise was Lively's Spice Girl anecdote and her impassioned appeal to everyone to please use your voice in the days ahead of us. As she put it in her full, slightly rambley speech:
Thank you guys! Thank you! I think this was a ploy to get myself up here because I love Westworld so much so I'm so excited. No, you guys, thank you, this is more than I ever could've dreamed of or hoped for. My mama, she always taught me as a kid that you can't ever let anyone limit you. Don't ever let anyone tell you there's something you can't do and yeah, it was pretty cool. Thanks, mom! No, but, she deserves it. So I was always an ambitious kid and so I set a goal for myself as a kid and I knew if I could accomplish this, that I would be successful and I'd be happy and that was to meet the Spice Girls. Still haven't accomplished it. It was very ambitious. No, but what was so neat about them was they were all so distinctly different and they were women and they owned who they were and that was my first introduction into girl power and I'm watching this movie and the women nominated in this category and when you guys voted for this, you didn't just vote for this movie or me but you voted for girl power. And so thank you! Thank for you—it's true! And men voted for girl power too and you guys are awesome for doing that so thank you for sending a message to Hollywood that people want to hear stories about women, and we want to hear your stories, whether it's social media, your iPhone, whatever, tell your stories—now more than ever. You need to be heard. You are valuable and no one can limit you. So thank you guys and thank you to my husband who's everything to me. You can't have him, he's mine! Thank you!
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
