Making the perfect Oscar speech is tough. Even if you've mentally rehearsed the speech for years, there are so many people to thank.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00There's nothing quite like the annual Academy Awards, which brings together Hollywood's
00:04most elite filmmakers and actors for a celebration of the year's most impressive films and performances.
00:09For those lucky few who get to take home a trophy from the lavish showcase, it's the
00:13role of a lifetime to get to deliver an acceptance speech from the stage.
00:16I want to say thank you to everybody."
00:21But every once in a while, winners manage to make things extremely awkward.
00:26In cringeworthy comments and political overtures, these Oscar winners definitely made audiences
00:30squirm while accepting their big prizes.
00:34Sam Smith
00:35Everything seemed to be going swimmingly for British singer Sam Smith when he won the 2016
00:40Academy Award for Best Original Song for his Spectre theme, The Writings on the Wall.
00:44But things got awkward when Sam Smith erroneously implied that he was the first openly gay man
00:48to receive an Oscar.
00:50I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellen, and he said that no openly gay
00:56man had ever won an Oscar.
00:58But McKellen's comments had been about the Best Actor award specifically, which made
01:01fans of other openly gay winners like Elton John and Dustin Lance Black scoff in disbelief
01:06at Smith's false claim.
01:07So I basically said that I was the first gay person to ever win an Oscar.
01:13Smith quickly apologized for the gaffe and blamed a few too many sips of tequila for
01:16the slip.
01:17I was so happy with my performance, and we thought we had no chance of winning at all.
01:21So I was just like, let's just get the party started.
01:24And then we won, and I was just like, whoa.
01:28La La Land
01:29To be fair, the discomfort caused by the final moments of the 2017 Oscars was by no means
01:34the recipient's fault.
01:36After being announced as the winners of the Best Picture Oscar, three La La Land producers
01:40were in the middle of their acceptance speeches when it came to light that fellow nominee
01:43Moonlight had actually won the award.
01:45Damien Chazelle, we're standing on your shoulders.
01:47We lost, by the way.
01:50No, there's a mistake.
01:52Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture.
01:55Presenter Warren Beatty had received an incorrect envelope, which led to the now-infamous blunder.
01:59Moonlight's director and producers ultimately got the chance to issue their own thanks,
02:03but before they could revel in the night's biggest prize, Beatty decided he had to clear
02:06things up from the same stage.
02:08I opened the envelope, and it said, Emma Stone, La La Land.
02:14Not only did the mistake inspire some key production updates with the show, but it was
02:17also responsible for some of the wildest audience reaction shots the Oscars have ever known.
02:23Marlon Brando
02:24At the 1973 Academy Awards, viewers and attendees were shocked after Marlon Brando was announced
02:30as the winner of the Best Actor award for The Godfather, not because he didn't deserve
02:34it, but because a young woman in Native American dress appeared in Marlon Brando's place.
02:38And things got weirder from there.
02:40As she approached the podium, she refused to accept the statue from presenter Roger
02:43Moore, and instead explained that she was Sasheen Littlefeather, president of the National
02:47Native American Affirmative Image Committee, and would be representing Brando.
02:51She then said Brando would not accept the award.
02:53The reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry."
03:00Some members of the audience booed, while others applauded, and the incident also reportedly
03:05caused the Academy to ban winners from using other people to accept, or in this case, refuse
03:09their awards.
03:10In a 2016 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Littlefeather, an activist and an actress,
03:15described how she was subsequently ostracized by the show business community, saying,
03:18"'The government was madder than hell.
03:20They told everyone in the studios in Hollywood not to hire me, or they would shut them down.
03:24I was blacklisted, or you could say red-listed.
03:27Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, they didn't want me on their shows.'"
03:30In recent years, Brando and Littlefeather's actions have been reframed, with Jada Pinkett
03:34Smith crediting Littlefeather as an inspiration for her boycott of the 2016 Oscars over a
03:38lack of diversity.
03:41Gwyneth Paltrow
03:42Paltrow's 1999 win for Best Actress for her performance in Shakespeare in Love prompted
03:47a speech that has since been called the day Oscar sincerity died.
03:50Accepting her Oscar, a visibly overcome Paltrow gave a seemingly endless speech that was slammed
03:54for excessive weakness.
03:56"'I wouldn't be in this auditorium, let alone up here, if it wasn't for two incredibly talented
04:04men.'"
04:05Her words may have been heartfelt, but if she'd have delivered that kind of performance
04:08in the movie, chances are she wouldn't have won that trophy in the first place.
04:13Eleanor Burkett
04:14In what's been called the Academy Awards' Kanye West moment, journalist Eleanor Burkett
04:18made things super uncomfortable when she rushed the stage during Roger Ross Williams' 2010
04:23acceptance speech for Best Documentary Short Subject.
04:25"'This is so exciting.
04:26So exciting.'
04:27The classic thing."
04:30She then launched into her own acceptance speech, making for seriously uncomfortable
04:33and confusing viewing.
04:35It turned out that the two had serious beef over the winning film, Music by Prudence.
04:39Burkett reportedly came up with the idea for the film and had been a producer, but later
04:42left the project.
04:44She even sued Williams and claimed that she hadn't received proper credit for her involvement
04:47while he denied her claim to the picture.
04:49"'And everybody thinks I was bad for interrupting him, so they don't think he was bad for, like,
04:54big-footing me.'"
04:55Whatever the reason for their tiff, it made for the kind of stage drama you don't expect
04:59to see from any category, let alone this one.
05:02Angelina Jolie
05:04Long before she became a global humanitarian and mother to six, Angelina Jolie developed
05:08a reputation for being something of a wild child in the late 90s.
05:12Her portrayal of a sociopath in Girl, Interrupted earned her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress
05:16in 2000.
05:17And if people didn't know she was strange before, they certainly found out as much during
05:21her acceptance speech for the award.
05:23Jolie had been joined at the event by her brother James Haven, whom she basically made
05:26out with on the red carpet.
05:28And instead of running through the usual list of people to thank, Jolie turned her attention
05:31again to her relationship with him.
05:33I'm in shock.
05:35And I'm so in love with my brother right now.
05:38He just held me and said he loved me, and I know he's so happy for me."
05:41All due respect to their tight-knit sibling status and all, but that is enough to make
05:45any audience uncomfortable.