The duo became the first father and daughter to win Emmys in the same year over the weekend.
Ron and Jasmine Cephas Jones made history last week as the first father-daughter duo ever to win Emmys in the same year!
Ron won his second award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for playing William on the hit NBC family drama This Is Us, while Jasmine scored an Emmy on her first nomination, winning Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series for her gripping performance as Tyisha on the Quibi series #FreeRayshawn.
ET spoke with the actress and her "proud papa" on Monday following the awards, where they shared what it was like to win an Emmy during the unique, virtual ceremony, and the messages they hoped to share in their acceptance speeches.
Jasmine was in Budapest, Hungary, on the night her award was announced, making her experience even more surreal. "It was 3 in the clock in the morning, six hours ahead. So I was watching on my phone, in bed, trying to stay awake," she shared, "and all of a sudden the category came up, and [#FreeRayshawn co-star] Laurence Fishburne, he won, which was absolutely amazing, and then I was like, oh my God, I think I'm next."
"All of a sudden you're wide awake, and I, literally, my name was called and I just like, screamed," she recalled with a laugh. "And we popped open champagne with my fiancé and my brother-in-law, and went on FaceTime with Mom and Dad. It was a very unusual way to find out, but I mean, I really don't have any words right now. It's such a crazy feeling."
"Her mother and I were on the phone watching the event, and the name came up," Ron recalled. "We screamed together and had a parental moment together, and then we got on the phone with those cats over in Hungary and then we all kind of celebrated together via Zoom, on FaceTime, as a family and that was beautiful. We are all just excited about being able to see each other again and sitting around the table with a good meal like what we usually do to celebrate."
Jasmine said she was still speechless about her own honor -- let alone sharing the historic moment with her dad -- "It's still sinking in." -- while Ron admitted that he didn't even realize the two had made history until after they'd both won.
"My head and my heart was still so full from that family meeting of Jasmine winning," he admitted. "It was really all about. 'Oh my God, my daughter just earned an Emmy!'... I didn't think in terms of, 'Oh we made history,' I was like, 'Oh I got another win, my daughter's got a win, that's beautiful.'"
"And then my manager was like, 'I think you made history, man. I think you got the first father-daughter family to win in the same year.' So [in the family], we have three Emmys, a GRAMMY, and a Tony." Not too shabby!
"It's just a full circle [moment]," Jasmine reflected. "Growing up in the theater, having my dad open my eyes to theater at a very young age. Having so many talks with him and analyzing scripts, and kinda figuring out this road, and years later, here we are."
"My dad says it's always about the work and that's what both of us love," she added. "It's stuff that you dream about, really. It's in your dreams, that, 'One day maybe we can do this together.'"
For Ron, the true joy came from reflection -- in winning alongside his daughter, he thought back on the journey he's been a part of to see her achieve that honor for herself.
"You just go back and you say, wow. When you were at the rehearsal, when you came to Chicago, when I flew you to so and so, when I got you home at three in the morning from the Nuyorican Poets Café and when I took you too that jazz club and I got yelled at for keeping you out too late, it's all that," he recalled. "Just beautiful stuff, man."
Ron didn't get a chance to give a speech following his win at this year's Creative Arts Emmys, so he shared with ET his thanks for his This Is Us co-stars -- "It's been such a joy, it's such a family atmosphere over there" -- and creator Dan Fogelman.
"He gave me an opportunity," he raved. "He opened the door for me and changed the course of my career. And it also changed the course of my life, and put me in a different stage where I could actually show my craft, my craftsmanship, at a level that I always felt I wanted to be."
"To finally be at that level, starting with that opportunity, and then the writers gave me an opportunity to expand on that character, so thank you all very much," he added. "And the fans from all over the world who write these wonderful letters, I wanna thank all of them as well. Because they've been supportive and so lovely."
And of course, he also had to thank his family: "My daughter's mother, for her support, my daughter, my family, and everyone that was connected with this historical moment... There are a lot of people in my life that have been involved in the culmination of this event, so it would take me a long time to thank em all, and they all know who they are."
Jasmine accepted her Emmys in a powerful pre-taped statement, echoing how grateful she was to be an "emotional vessel" for victims of police violence and racial injustice.
"As I sit here on my rooftop in the middle of Brooklyn, in the middle of a pandemic and this social climate that we're in, I am honored and grateful to be a part of the important story that is #FreeRayshawn, to be an emotional vessel, to shed light on these victims and what their families go through," she said as she accepted her award for the Quibi series, which tells the story of a black veteran who finds himself in a confrontation with New Orleans police. "Let's vote in November, and let's continue to tell these important stories."
See more from the family's Emmy moment in the video below.
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