2023 Variety Creative Impact Awards: Highlights from the brunch

Even though the Variety Creative Impact Awards and 10 Directors to Watch Brunch at the Parker Palm Springs is a private and small affair, it's just as prestigious and star-studded as the other Palm Springs International Film Festival soirées.

On Friday, Variety honored directors Baz Luhrmann ("Elvis") and Rian Johnson ("Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery") as well as actors Brian Tyree Henry ("Causeway") and Angela Bassett ("Black Panther: Wakanda Forever") with the Creative Impact Award. The ceremony also highlighted 10 new talents in directing.

The 10 directors recognized during the brunch were "Maggie Betts ("The Burial"), Elegance Bratton ("The Inspection"), Elijah Bynum ("Magazine Dreams"), Alice Diop ("Saint Omer"), Eva Longoria ("Flamin' Hot"), Nida Manzoor ("Polite Society"), Laurel Parmet ("The Starling Girl"), Saim Sadiq ("Joyland"), Jingyi Shao ("Chang Can Dunk") and Charlotte Wells ("Aftersun").

Presenting the Creative Impact Awards were actor Austin Butler for Luhrmann, actress Danielle Deadwyler for Henry, actress Kate Hudson for Johnson and costume designer Ruth E. Carter for Bassett.

Here are some highlights from the brunch.

Ruth E. Carter described Angela Bassett as 'so committed to her craft'

Carter said there are two numbers she knows by heart – her mother's phone number and Bassett's measurements. She described Bassett as "so committed to her craft" and remembered one particular moment when the actress portrayed Malcolm X's widow Betty Shabazz in the 1992 Spike Lee film "Malcolm X" during a scene when the Nation of Islam turned their backs on the former spokesperson before his assassination in 1965.

"I saw Angela go toe-to-toe with the great Denzel Washington, point after point," Carter said. "I saw she was determined to get through to him, not only as a character delivering a scene perfectly, but also as an actress leading and winning the debate. When they called 'cut,' I saw her decompress, but I really noticed Denzel's reaction. He looked over at her kind of stunned and said, 'That was good, real good!'"

Bassett opened her speech with a story about taking a class taught by late American novelist Toni Morrison while attending Yale University that was "not for long" because she wanted to get "good grades," but learned some important advice from the "Song of Solomon" author.

"(Morrison) said, 'From my point of view, your entire life is a miracle of chance waiting for you to shape its destiny,'" Bassett said. "When I get up each day to go to work, I'm often reminded that this work is my destiny. Especially for a young brown girl who grew up in the era when everything came to a halt and you paid attention to Black people on TV."

Kate Hudson credited Rian Johnson for reviving a film genre

"Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" is categorized as a "murder mystery," which Hudson said "there's not too many of" currently. She credited director Rian Johnson for reviving the genre and making actor Daniel Craig's role as Detective Benoit Blanc iconic and recognizable.

"That's the mark of an artist," Hudson said. "Telling a story is one thing, telling a story with something on (Johnson's) mind is another, and that's what we all get from Rian Johnson. Each of us who are lucky enough to be part of this film were dazzled by what he crafted on the page."

Johnson described Hudson's role as Birdie J as a "great drunk performance" that she had to play while sober while being an actor of "incredible comic intelligence."

He went on to describe his personal background in filmmaking, including how he learned to make films during his childhood with friends.

"That was my real film school," Johnson said. "I was doing that and there was no screenwriting or prep. There's production and then post. You just made a movie. You came up with it and you made it with your friends. I feel like the spirit of that is still very much how I approach screenwriting."

Brian Tyree Henry was 'jealous' of serial killers

As a child of the '80s and '90s, Henry talked about the "great invention" of the video camcorder and how he was "jealous" while watching true crime TV shows about serial killers because of how much footage was acquired over several years by the killers' family members while Henry had none of himself.

Henry drew laughter from the crowd when telling a story about calling his therapist, who told him "Let's unpack that."

"I was like, 'Where's my family's special footage of me?'" Henry said. "What does that mean? Maybe they were too busy."

Henry said it was "unbelievable" to feel the love from the audience and to see people that inspired him such as theater director Lila Neugebauer. The actor also told a story about being in a play as "a heroin addict with no lines" while attending Yale University when Neugebauer told him, "That was one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen."

"That lets you know that when people see you, you have to believe them," Henry said. "I believe that this room saw me and sees me, and I just want to thank you."

Austin Butler called working with Luhrmann 'unlike any experience'

Following the success of the film "Elvis" and all the accolades, Butler said working with director Luhrmann is "unlike any experience an actor might have' and has changed him both as a performer and a person.

"Impact doesn't begin to describe all that Baz gives of himself to make an entire cast and crew, a film and the experience an audience will have the absolute best it can be," Butler said while honoring Luhrmann.

After Butler gave Luhrmann his award, Luhrmann asked "would you be so kind" to take the award back to the table with him and said "That's directing" when Butler obliged.

Luhrmann described his films as "like children," he loves them all equally, so it's difficult to answer when asked which one is his favorite. But he said "Elvis" is a different child, and then told a similar story to the one he shared Thursday at the Palm Springs Film Awards about nearly losing the film due to COVID-19 shutting down production.

"When everyone came back, we held this child like a precious thing because its mission was to inform and bring audiences back into the theaters of every background, both young and old, and the fact that actually happened is why I'm sitting here," Luhrmann said.

Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: 2023 Variety Creative Impact Awards: Highlights from the brunch