Adrien Brody breaks world record with Oscars acceptance speech

Adrien Brody, who is infamous for delivering lengthy acceptance speeches, has officially broken the Oscars record for the longest one in history.

On Sunday, the 51-year-old actor took home his second acting Oscar for his lead role in Brady Corbet’s historical epic The Brutalist. He earned his first Oscar in 2003 for The Pianist.

After accepting the trophy from the 2024 Best Actor winner, Cillian Murphy, Brody went on to speak for an astounding five minutes and 40 seconds. That’s ten seconds longer than the previous Guinness World Record holder, Greer Garson, who spoke for five minutes and 30 seconds after she was awarded the 1943 Best Actress Oscar for her role in the war romance Mrs. Miniver.

In his speech, Brody spoke about his own life story, and called out racism and antisemitism.

“Thank you God for this blessed life,” he said as he took the podium. “If I may just humbly begin by giving thanks for the tremendous outpouring of love that I felt from this world and every individual that has treated me with respect and appreciation.

“I feel so fortunate,” he continued. “Acting is a very fragile profession. It looks very glamorous and in certain moments it is, but the one thing that I’ve gained having the privilege to come back here is to have some perspective. No matter where you are in your career, no matter what you’ve accomplished, it can all go away.”

He additionally celebrated his fellow nominees — Coleman Domingo, Timothée Chalamet, Ralph Fiennes, and Sebastian Stan — calling them “wonderful human beings, who exude grace and goodness and brilliance with their work.”

Once Brody reached the allotted 45 seconds that winners are typically given to speak, the signature orchestral backtrack began to play to notify him that his time was up.

However, instead of complying, as many of the other winners did, Brody told them to shut off the music.

“I’m wrapping up. I will wrap up,” he promised. “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.”

At the end of his speech, he concluded: “I love you; I appreciate you all. Let’s fight for what’s right, keep smiling, keep loving one another. And let’s rebuild together. Thank you.”

Other major winners of the night included Sean Baker’s sex worker rom-com Anora, which took home Best Director, Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Editing, and Best Original Screenplay; Emilia Pérez’s Zoe Saldaña who won Best Supporting Actress and A Real Pain’s Kieran Culkin who won Best Supporting Actor.