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Adrien Brody is still basking in the glow of his Best Actor win at the 97th Academy Awards, where he was honored for his portrayal of Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor László Tóth in the gripping period drama film, The Brutalist.
This marks Brody’s second Best Actor Oscar win, his first being at the 75th Academy Awards in 2003 for The Pianist. With his recent victory, he became the 10th actor to earn two Best Actor Oscars, joining an elite group that includes Marlon Brando, Anthony Hopkins, Dustin Hoffman, Sean Penn, and Tom Hanks, among others. The record for the most wins is currently held by Daniel-Day Lewis, who has secured the shiny trophy three times. In an interesting twist, Brody set a record both times he took home the golden statuette.
Back when he won Best Actor for The Pianist, Brody was just 29 years old, which made him the youngest actor to ever win the award — a record he still holds to this day. With his recent achievement, he set another record, this time for the longest acceptance speech ever given at the Oscars, timed at 5:36 minutes, per Guinness World Records.
Oscar winners are given 45 seconds to give their acceptance speech, with the countdown starting the moment their name is called. This means every step from their seat to the stage eats into the allotted time. As the final seconds tick down, orchestra music plays to encourage the winner to wrap it up. During Brody’s speech, the music played twice, be he refused to be rushed. Instead, he waved it off with confidence as he said, “I will wrap up, turn the music off, I’ve done this before. Thank you. It’s not my first rodeo, but I will be brief, I will not be egregious, I promise.” And with that, he continued the rest of his remarks.
The record-breaking speech gave birth to plenty of memes on social media, with some joking that it deserved an intermission. A couple of days later, Brody took to his Instagram to post a message to his followers, while also acknowledging his new record. While walking and talking to the camera, he shared that he wasn’t able to get some sleep — possibly still riding the high of his win — and then said, “I’m gonna keep this video short, cause I know I made the longest Oscar speech in history.” He then expressed his gratitude, calling his achievement proof that “dreams can come true.” He signed off by saying, “And I hope that your dream can come true as well. God bless you.”
There was a time when a winner’s speech wasn’t timed at the Oscars. However, that all changed after the 15th Academy Awards in 1943. That year, English actress Greer Garson won Best Actress for the war drama/romance film Mrs. Miniver. There’s no official record of her full speech length — some claim it lasted 5 minutes, others said it reached 7 minutes. Unfortunately, no complete footage of the speech exists, but surviving clips add up to 3:56 minutes. Afterward, the Academy introduced time limits for winners, though Brody wilfully ignored them.
In contrast to Brody’s record, the shortest Oscar speech came from Patty Duke, who won Best Supporting Actress for The Miracle Worker at the 35th Academy Awards in 1963, where she simply said, “Thank you.”