Martin Scorsese Sent 'Personal' Letter to Bong Joon Ho After Oscar Wins: 'You've Done Well'

Bong Joon Ho got some love from a Hollywood legend after his historic Oscar wins for Parasite.

Following the 2020 Academy Awards — where his thriller became the first non–English language film to win Best Picture — Bong, 50, said he received a congratulatory letter from Martin Scorsese, whose film The Irishman was also nominated.

“This morning I got a letter from Martin Scorsese,” said Bong at a recent press conference in his home country of South Korea, according to IndieWire. “I can’t tell you what the whole letter was about because it’s something personal, but toward the end he wrote: ‘You’ve done well. Now rest. But don’t rest for too long.’”

“He continued by saying how he and other directors were waiting for my next movie,” Bong added.

While accepting his Oscar for Best Director at the awards ceremony earlier this month, Bong gave shoutouts to his fellow nominees, gushing particularly heavy on Scorsese, 77, who won the award in 2006 for The Departed.

“When I was in school I studied Martin Scorsese’s films. Just to be nominated was a huge honor. I never thought I would win,” he said in his speech, translated by his interpreter Sharon Choi.

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“I’ve seen Scorsese lose this award multiple times,” Bong added. “He didn’t know back then but I was so frustrated, so to be nominated with him is a huge honor.”

In his delightful speech, Bong — who also won Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature that night — also joked that he wished he could “get a Texas chainsaw and split the Oscar trophy into five and share it with” the category’s other nominees, Quentin Tarantino, Sam Mendes and Todd Phillips.

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On his way to get his multiple Oscar statuettes engraved, Bong had some fun backstage at the ceremony, which was held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Feb. 9.

“I’m so sorry for the hard work,” the filmmaker told engravers in footage captured by Variety and shared later on Twitter. “There’s too many.”

Also at the engravings station was Renée Zellweger — who took home Best Actress for playing Judy Garland in Judy — who joked with Bong about his handful of trophies.

“We meet again,” Zellweger said in clip from Variety, as Bong slyly responded by nudging the golden awards in her direction. “Oh, stop it,” she said with a laugh. “Alright, everybody scoot down. We got to make some room!”