Adrien Brody set a new record for the longest Oscars acceptance speech on Sunday, delivering a marathon five-minute-and-40-second monologue after winning Best Actor for The Brutalist. His speech surpassed an 80-year-old record, even as the awards ceremony saw a slight dip in ratings.
The Academy Awards, broadcast on ABC and streaming live on Hulu for the first time, drew 18.1 million viewers—down from last year’s 19.5 million. Technical issues during the stream caused some online audiences to miss key moments, marking the end of a three-year ratings rebound.
Despite repeatedly assuring the audience he would be brief, Brody spoke well beyond the usual time limit, instructing the orchestra to stop playing when it attempted to cut him off.
“Please, turn the music off. I’ve done this before,” he said, referencing his previous Oscar win for The Pianist in 2003. His speech surpassed the previous record of five minutes and 30 seconds, set by British actress Greer Garson in 1943 when she won for Mrs. Miniver. Garson’s lengthy speech led to the Academy introducing stricter time limits and musical cut-offs, which Brody defied on Sunday.
While still the most-watched awards show in the U.S., this year’s Academy Awards failed to maintain last year’s upward ratings trend. A decade ago, the Oscars regularly surpassed 40 million viewers, but numbers have declined, hitting a low of 10.4 million during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s ceremony, which stretched to nearly four hours, saw independent film Anora dominate with five Oscars, including Best Picture.
Critics generally reacted positively to the event. Variety called the ceremony “successful in more ways than not,” and praised Conan O’Brien for his hosting debut, describing his performance as balancing “acid and affection.”
However, The Hollywood Reporter found the evening “unstable” and “uneven,” while the Los Angeles Times criticized a “pointless” dance tribute to James Bond.
Brody’s acceptance speech reflected the epic nature of The Brutalist, a three-and-a-half-hour drama with an intermission. He used his time to thank more than a dozen people, including director Brady Corbet, co-stars Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, and his girlfriend Georgina Chapman.
One of the evening’s strangest moments came when Brody, mid-stride on his way to the stage, removed chewing gum from his mouth and tossed it to Chapman, who caught it.
“I forgot I was chewing gum… ‘I’ve got to get rid of this somehow!’” he later explained in a post-ceremony interview.
Brody ended his speech on a serious note, reflecting on The Brutalist‘s historical themes:
“If the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked.”
