Alex Borstein's acceptance speech for her second consecutive Emmy for "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" began with a racy underwear joke.
She started by saying the award she won last year she accepted braless. This year, she said she skipped another undergarment.
But the Highland Park-native who grew up in Deerfield quickly made a dramatic pivot with a strong message for women.
Bornstein told a poignant and harrowing memory about her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, who during the war had been in line "to be shot into a pit."
She said her grandmother had asked a guard, "What happens if I step out of line?" and the guard had replied that he didn't have the heart to shoot her, "but somebody will."
She did — and they didn't. "And for that, I am here," Borstein said. "And for that, my children are here."
"So step out of line, ladies!" she told the crowd, to cheers.
