When the nominations for the 50th Golden Globe Awards were announced, they immediately sparked heated discussion. Looking at the success of Scent of a Woman and A Few Good Men, it was easy to understand the explosive reaction from the media. Hugo's performances, bookending 1992 with brilliance, left people in awe.
At the beginning of the year, he had taken home a Golden Raspberry Award. By year's end, he had earned two Golden Globe nominations. Such a dramatic turnaround will likely be nearly impossible to replicate in the future. And every news outlet had played a part in this magical journey—some even fanning the flames—so journalists were all the more astonished. It wasn't just the Los Angeles Times; nearly every major paper was abuzz about the Golden Globe nominations, even triggering early speculation about the upcoming Oscar race.
Hugo's performance in A Few Good Men was undeniably praiseworthy. The challenge, however, lay in the Best Actor in a Drama category, which was fiercely competitive. Hugo had only made the shortlist for that single category; once combined with the Musical/Comedy division, the competition grew even more daunting. Considering Hugo's young age—just twenty-five—and his notorious "Razzie" history, the outlook was anything but certain.
As for his supporting turn in Scent of a Woman, though the Golden Globes do not distinguish between drama and comedy/musical in the supporting categories and Hugo did earn a nomination, the truth was that his chances were slim. Everyone knew Al Pacino was the unquestionable star of that film. It brought to mind Dead Poets Society: Robin Williams received the accolades, while Hugo, despite delivering an excellent performance, went unrecognized. The Oscars, therefore, remained unpredictable.
Even so, the fact stood unshakable: Hugo had won two Golden Globe nominations. Whatever the Oscars might hold, this marked a major comeback in his acting career—a true breakthrough in his ten years as an actor. That alone was reason enough for the press to celebrate.
The nominations were released in the morning; by the afternoon, Joseph received an important invitation—the most significant program invitation Hugo had ever gotten: The Oprah Winfrey Show!
Talk shows, as a unique television format, can be traced back to the 1930s. These early shows featured not only hosts linking the segments but also audience participation, with a focus on widely discussed social issues. Over the decades, the format stabilized, and by the 1980s talk shows had risen to prominence, becoming a cornerstone of American television.
Including the late-night shows Hugo had already appeared on, American television boasted more than a dozen talk shows of different styles. During the promotion of his films, Hugo had appeared on several, using the light and straightforward format to engage audiences and promote his work.
Among them all, however, The Oprah Winfrey Show occupied a special place during the talk show boom of the 1980s. While it wasn't the very first program to popularize the genre—Johnny Carson deserves much of that credit—Oprah brought the format to new heights.
Oprah Winfrey, then thirty-eight, took over ABC's AM Chicago in February 1984. She boldly restructured the program, stripping away trivial, flowery topics and replacing them with relevant, socially charged issues. She avoided superficial subjects that others might lean on, and instead dared to explore what no one else would touch. Unlike most talk shows of the era, which thrived on scandal, chaos, and humiliation, Oprah approached her guests as a friend—using empathy and her perspective as a woman to comfort those in hardship and help them regain strength.
Within just one month, AM Chicago leapt from a third-rate local program to rival the reigning talk show giant, Phil Donahue, whose Phil Donahue Show had long dominated the field. Within three months, Oprah had overtaken Donahue in the ratings, becoming the number-one talk show host in Chicago overnight.
In 1985, AM Chicago was officially renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and expanded to syndication across 120 cities. By the end of that year, Donahue, unable to compete with Oprah's success in Chicago, moved his show to New York—a sign of the sweeping transformation Oprah had brought to the talk show landscape.
The Oprah Winfrey Show quickly became not only the most successful talk show in America but also one of the most successful worldwide. With an average of over ten million viewers daily, it held the top ratings spot among American talk shows for years, continually breaking its own records. Its popularity reflected audience approval, while multiple Daytime Emmy Awards affirmed its professional acclaim. Oprah's show won the hearts of audiences worldwide and ushered in a new era of daytime television.
The program became a cultural milestone, a symbol of American popular culture itself. Oprah herself grew into a legend: once a poor, awkward young girl, she transformed into the most famous talk show host in the world. She became the first Black female billionaire in America and one of the most influential Black women in the country's history.
Guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show included not only everyday people and experts but also the world's top celebrities. Appearing on the show meant standing before an audience of more than ten million viewers. Hugo's appearances on The Tonight Show had been highly successful—the first drew 4.8 million viewers, the second 5.3 million, both ranking as the top-rated shows in their time slot that month. In fact, the latter appearance, promoting A Few Good Men, ranked among the five highest-rated talk show episodes of 1992.
Yet even those numbers paled in comparison to Oprah's. If Hugo remembered correctly, The Oprah Winfrey Show was not only the highest-rated daytime talk show in American history but also the longest-running, with one episode even setting the record for the highest single-episode viewership in U.S. television history. That was in 1993, when Oprah interviewed Michael Jackson—an event that drew an astonishing 62 million viewers. A nearly unbreakable record.
So, to be invited onto such an influential program—especially at Oprah's own initiative—was without question the greatest recognition Hugo could have received in 1992.
Joseph accepted the invitation without hesitation. There was no time to make elaborate adjustments; the very next day, the two boarded a flight to Chicago.
The United States is vast—the fourth-largest country in the world by land area—and home to several massive metropolitan regions. New York is the largest, Los Angeles ranks second, and Chicago, together with its surrounding suburbs, makes up the nation's third-largest metropolitan area.
Although Hugo had been in the United States for nearly a year, the number of cities he had actually visited was surprisingly few. This was his first time in Chicago, and he was filled with curiosity about the so-called "Windy City."
Chicago sits along the curving shoreline of Lake Michigan, cradled on three sides—east, south, and west—like a pocket. The cold winds sweeping down from Canada to the north are funneled directly into this pocket, blasting through the city. Combined with the wide streets and open river channels, the gusts cut easily through much of the downtown. That's how the city earned its famous nickname. Locals joke wryly, "One long wind a year—it starts in spring and doesn't stop until winter."
Chicago is also known as the "City of the Big Shoulders," a phrase coined by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Carl Sandburg in his 1916 poem Chicago: "Hog Butcher for the World… City of the Big Shoulders." The nickname stuck, giving the city a second identity to match its blustery one.
The name carries weight for another reason: Chicago is the birthplace of the skyscraper. In 1885, the world's first high-rise was built here, marking the dawn of a new architectural era. Since then, the city has become a showcase for towering buildings and today boasts more skyscrapers than any other American city. In that sense, "City of the Big Shoulders" could also be seen as a metaphor for standing on the shoulders of giants.
Of course, Hugo had no eye for architecture. To him, the rows of buildings looked like nothing more than forests of steel and glass. Standing outside the airport, he couldn't tell how different Chicago was from New York. But once he stepped out of O'Hare International Airport, he experienced the Windy City's reputation firsthand.
Even as the plane descended, Hugo had suspected the fierce winds might make landing difficult. On the ground, however, he finally understood the meaning of "biting cold."
"Oh, God…" Hugo gasped. The moment he tried to open his mouth, a gust of freezing wind rushed in straight from Lake Michigan, making him cough uncontrollably.
Joseph, standing beside him, couldn't resist laughing at Hugo's misery. When Hugo looked up, he saw Joseph with his jacket zipped all the way up to cover his mouth, clearly prepared for the onslaught. Hugo's lips twitched in exasperation, but he had no time to scold. He quickly flipped his own collar up, desperately trying to shield himself from the merciless wind.
December in Chicago wasted no time teaching Hugo a lesson: the Windy City was no exaggeration.