The 85th Annual Academy Awards were held Sunday night in Hollywood. It’s a night for actors and actresses everywhere to revel in their “greatness” and how much they made a change in the world. Of course, I would be a hypocrite if I said I was not a fan, but watching the Oscars this year was like having memory lapses. It was a strange experience and nothing seemed to fit together.
Between the forced laughter of the audience to the jokes of host Seth MacFarlane , some awards were given out at the Oscars. When accepting an award, the winners must be careful to not bore us with their never-ending sagas about life and avoid making us cringe when they begin to name drop. A winning Oscar acceptance speech is a slippery slope, but one that anyone going into the movie business must learn how to navigate.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
To start off the night, Christoph Waltz took home the first award given out for Best Actor in a Supporting Role . Waltz won for his role as bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained. ” Some considered Waltz to be the underdog, but in my opinion it’s kind of difficult to call him an underdog when he already has an Oscar win under his belt for his role in “Inglourious Basterds. ” Either way, Waltz gave a short, sweet and to-the-point speech –– as every speech should be — something that was much needed after MacFarlane’s drawn-out, over-stuffed opening monologue. Waltz had so much gratitude and respect for his director.
"We participated in a hero's journey, the hero here being Quentin," Waltz said of his director, which led to a very confused Jack Nicholson having to do a double-take to realize that he was indeed at the Oscars and not sitting in his living room.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Love her or hate her, Anne Hathaway won the night’s Best Supporting Actress award (shocker!). Hathaway earned the Oscar for her role as Fantine in Tom Hooper’s musical, “Les Miserable s” and most people saw it coming. As she reached the microphone, she squeaked, “It came true !” causing me to roll my eyes and prepare myself to destroy every word she said. In her past acceptance speeches this year, Hathaway had been critiqued for giving over-the-top, breathless, insincere speeches that left everyone groaning with annoyance. To be honest, though, besides that opening line, Hathaway gave a pretty run-of-the-mill speech. She rattled off a bunch of names, thanked her husband and ended it by connecting her role in the film to a bigger issue in the world. Of course, her speech sounded so practiced and her voice so calm that my guess is she either hired an acting coach for the night or had been reciting her acceptance speech in the mirror since the Golden Globes (the poor mirror).
BEST ACTRESS:
Jennifer Lawrence stumbled her way up to the stage to accept her award for Best Actress for her role of Tiffany in “Silver Linings Playbook .” The audience gave her a standing ovation to which she quickly quipped with a reference to her tumble saying, “You guys are just standing up because I fell and that’s really embarrassing, but thank you” (such a better opening line than Anne’s). If she already isn’t, Lawrence is quickly becoming America’s sweetheart and her flustered, heartfelt speech only added to the reasons why we love her. She had genuine admiration for her fellow nominees, and even wished fellow nominee Emmanuelle Riva , who turned 86 that night, a happy birthday. She went through the mandatory list of those she needed to thank, but somehow came off completely authentic. She avoided the artificial trap that many actors fall into when they begin to spew out names. Her expression as she left the stage was so giddy and child-like that it only confirmed her sincere gratitude and gracious attitude for the award.
BEST ACTOR:
There was too much talent for one Oscar stage Sunday night when Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep graced us with their presence together. Day-Lewis became the luckiest man alive when he got the chance to hug Streep — oh, and he won an Oscar too. He won the night’s sought-after Best Actor award , which had his name on it since long ago, for his role of Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s film “Lincoln.” He was expected to win and took the opportunity to show us his funny side, making a joke about how he was originally supposed to play Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady ” and Streep was Spielberg’s first choice for Lincoln. This led to a raucous applause from the audience because everyone knew that both actors would be fantastic in each other’s roles. His speech was eloquent and humble about his win, telling the audience, "I really don't know how any of this happened.” Well, I do. It’s because you are an acting god and have now only cemented in your place as this generation best actor. With his win, Day-Lewis has become the only actor ever to win three Oscars in the Best Actor category — a feat that is deserved by no one more than Daniel Day-Lewis.
