At the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday night, the biggest winner was Sean Baker’s “Anora,” the indie flick that scooped five trophies including Best Picture. However, the longest winner turned out to be Adrien Brody.
After claiming his second Best Actor gong for his role in “The Brutalist” (he first won in 2003 for “The Pianist”), Brody gave a speech that, per Cosmopolitan, clocked in at more than five minutes, or 558 words in total.
While post-ceremony chatter might now be more focused on a certain piece of chewing gum, the win not only marks Brody joining a select group of 10 peers who have won Best Actor twice or more, but also as having one of the longest Oscar acceptance speeches in history to his name. Beating out Matthew McConaughey’s 549-word speech (2014) and Halle Berry’s 528-word thank-you (2002), the only person who might have spoken for longer than Brody was Greer Garson in 1942, whose speech could have lasted up to seven minutes, though limited footage of the ceremony means reports vary.
The shortest Oscars speech ever? Shared by Patty Duke and Alfred Hitchcock, among a handful of others, is just a simple, two-word, “Thank you.”