It seems Adrien Brody can’t win an Oscar without also breaking a record. In 2003, Adrien became the youngest-ever man to nab Best Actor with his upset win for The Pianist when he was a wee bairn of 29. Had Timothée Chalamet won last night, he would have tied Adrien. So for now, Adrien still holds the title for youngest winner. But not one to rest on his laurels, Adrien broke an entirely new record with his second Best Actor victory: Guinness World Records confirms that Adrien’s acceptance speech for The Brutalist is the longest one in Oscars history. At a lengthy five minutes and 40 seconds, Adrien edged out the previous recorder-holder (Greer Garson in 1943) by 10 seconds. Thanks for making it official, Guinness, but I think anyone watching Sunday night could’ve verified that!
As per the Guinness World Records, Adrien Brody’s best actor acceptance speech at the 2025 Oscars is the longest in Oscars history.
Brody emerged triumphant ahead of Timothée Chalamet, Sebastian Stan, Colman Domingo and Ralph Fiennes at the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, claiming one of the top performance prizes for his portrayal as Hungarian-Jewish architect Lászlo Tóth in The Brutalist.
He came up onstage — not before spitting out his chewing gum and throwing it to partner Georgina Chapman — and ignored the standard 45-second timer to speak for a whopping five minutes and 40 seconds. It beats the record of five minutes and 30 seconds held by Greer Garson, according to GWR, when she won for Mrs. Miniver in 1943 (though there is no existing footage of the speech in its entirety).
When the music started to cut the star off, he said: “Turn the music off! I’ve done this before. Thank you. It’s not my first rodeo, but I will be brief.” The moment may have conjured up old memories for Brody — his first Oscar win aged 29 for The Pianist in 2003 was interrupted, too. At the time, he said: “One second, please. One second. Cut it out. I got one shot at this. I didn’t say more than five names, I don’t think.”
He got payback by covering myriad topics this time around, among them antisemitism and racism: “I’m here once again, to represent the lingering traumas, and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression, and of antisemitism, and racism, and of othering and I believe that I pray for a healthier and happier, and a more inclusive world, and I believe if the past can teach us anything it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked.”
The actor also described acting as “a very fragile profession.” He continued: “It looks very glamorous, and certain moments it is, but the one thing I’ve gained, having the privilege to come back here is to have some perspective and no matter where you are in your career, no matter what you’ve accomplished, it can all go away, and I think what makes this night most special is the awareness of that and the gratitude that I have to still to do the work that I love.
“OK, I’ll get out of here, I love you, I appreciate you all,” he said as he wrapped up. “Let’s fight for what’s right, keep smiling, keep loving one another, let’s rebuild together. Thank you.”
When speaking to GMA after his acceptance speech, Brody explained, “It’s a pretty long movie so I had to have a little bit extra time to say what’s relevant,” he said. “It’s been a very long time between speeches.”
I didn’t know your allotted speech time correlated to film length? [insert sarcasm here] Look, I like Adrien Brody. I think he has a real artist’s soul. And I didn’t hate his speech (like some people did). But to borrow an artistic metaphor, the speech needed some serious sculpting. There were peaks of heartfelt, beautifully-worded moments. And then valleys of agonizing pauses! He stopped the orchestra from playing him off, with the words, “It’s not my first rodeo, but I will be brief.” And then how many silent seconds was it before he started speaking again?! The pauses just ended up diminishing the impact of the better parts of his speech. So in short (short, get it!), I give full marks to Adrien for emotion and sincerity, but his timing needs work. At his caliber, he should be able to deliver a tighter performance of an actor in an acceptance speech. And this isn’t even getting into the whole unfairness of less-famous winners being cut off, all for unnecessary dance numbers (you know who you are).
subjecting cillian murphy to the longest oscar speech in history should be a crime https://t.co/YlJTSX9Llt
— Vasilisa (@vasilisonka) March 3, 2025
Photos credit: Avalon.red