(Live Chat Preview) -- A Speechwriter Goes to the Oscars
As we prepare for tomorrow night's Academy Awards live chat here on Ricochet, this erstwhile speechwriter got a kick out of the Los Angeles Times' lengthy piece on award show etiquette in yesterday's edition, particularly because of what it had to say about Academy speechmaking:
After months of strenuous self-promotion, Oscar winners must surmount one final hurdle — deliver an acceptance speech that thanks the academy, their co-nominees, the real-life people who inspired their characters, their costars and crews, the executives and agents who got their film made and the families who cheered them on, ideally with polish and wit and in under 45 seconds.
"You have multiple audiences," said public speaking coach Lisa Braithwaite. "It's a balance, if there are people politically you need to mention, you also have to remember that the people who actually pay to see your movies are watching."
To underscore the need for brevity, this year the academy gave nominees a practice DVD with a 45-second countdown timer and a video tutorial by two-time winner and Jedi master of the acceptance speech, Tom Hanks. Hanks recommends winners choose in advance who will accept for a group, and never take out a piece of paper to read from. "Reading a long list of names only shows us your bald spot," he said in the video.
What makes Oscar acceptance speeches singularly challenging is that they are delivered to an audience composed largely of losers. Remembering that can help euphoric Academy Award winners avoid awkward moments like James Cameron's "king of the world" speech for "Titanic" in 1998. What Cameron had intended as a display of his exuberance — holding up his trophy and quoting Leonardo DiCaprio's line from the film — came across instead as arrogant to a room that had already seen "Titanic" win most of the Oscars they hoped would go to their own films.
Obviously my words have been used more in Washington than Hollywood, but after watching these ceremonies for decades, my advice to the winners is simple: You're not giving a speech, you're giving a blurb. Have three good lines -- one gracious, one funny, and one sentimental -- ready to go. And as soon as you've gotten through them, sit down.
Will any of this year's winners be able to discipline themselves accordingly? You'll have to join us tomorrow night at 7:45 ET/4:45 PT to find out. We hope we'll see you there.
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May '10
Re: (Live Chat Preview) -- A Speechwriter Goes to the Oscars
What with Ricochet and Twitter, I may be watching the Oscars for the first time since Harrison Ford was a fresh-faced newcomer. Or maybe not.
Jul '10
Re: (Live Chat Preview) -- A Speechwriter Goes to the Oscars
Troy Senik:
Obviously my words have been used more in Washington than Hollywood, but after watching these ceremonies for decades, my advice to the winners is simple: You're not giving a speech, you're giving a blurb. Have three good lines -- one gracious, one funny, and one sentimental -- ready to go. And as soon as you've......
[cue music]
May '10
Re: (Live Chat Preview) -- A Speechwriter Goes to the Oscars
The Oscars haven't interested me in years. But there's always a chance something interesting might happen.
- Jeff Bridges may win Best Actor in a role that already won an Academy Award for another actor. (John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in the original True Grit.) Marlon Brando and Robert DiNiro both won for playing Vito Corleone but in different categories.
- Only one actor ever received both a Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nomination for the same role was Barry Fitzgerald as Father Fitzgibbon in Going My Way (1944). He lost the former to costar Bing Crosby and won the latter.
- Hattie McDaniel's Best Supporting Actress award (at that time, those were plaques not the iconic statues) was bequeathed to the Drama Department of Howard University upon her death in 1952. They lost in the 1970's and nobody knows where it is.
Edited on Feb 26, 2011 at 8:30pmJan '11
Re: (Live Chat Preview) -- A Speechwriter Goes to the Oscars
A good chunk of the acceptance time is wasted, which could be used to thank the people that the audience never heard of cares about. I'm talking about the twenty seconds where the winner reacts to the announcement. The twenty seconds of people helping her up because ... she just can't believe she won. Then twenty seconds to walk to the stage.
That's a full minute. You could have a crawl at the bottom of the screen listing those people, while all the rest is going on. If they have a political statement, we can speed up the crawl.
That will leave the stage time for the poignant moment and the funny moment.
We should also have a twelve-foot by twelve-foot square platform for the acceptance speech area. When the allotted time is up, the platform descends beneath the stage, meaning that the winner either finishes his speech on time, or he literally drops from view.
Edited on Feb 26, 2011 at 4:24pmJul '10
Re: (Live Chat Preview) -- A Speechwriter Goes to the Oscars
KC Mulville:.
We should also have a twelve-foot by twelve-foot square platform for the acceptance speech area. When the allotted time is up, the platform descends beneath the stage, meaning that the winner either finished his speech on time, or he literally drops from view. · Feb 26 at 4:22pm
Not descends, but the floor drops like a dunking booth! Those still yammering past the allotted time immediately fall like a bag of rocks with their arms and hair flailing in the air.
They'd be giving those speeches faster than that FedEx Guy.
May '10
Re: (Live Chat Preview) -- A Speechwriter Goes to the Oscars
What's your dream speech?
"I want to thank the members of the Academy, all of whom cashed their checks in a timely manner and kept my accountant happy. To my spouse, who I've cheated on with everyone of my costars... sorry, honey, now that I have this, it's definitely time to trade up! A special "Screw You" goes out to the nation's film critics and to all of you who thought I was insufferable before this, you ain't seen nothin' yet!"
Jan '11
Re: (Live Chat Preview) -- A Speechwriter Goes to the Oscars
Oh my, extra motive! Well done Jimmy.
May '10
Re: (Live Chat Preview) -- A Speechwriter Goes to the Oscars
EJHill: What's your dream speech?
"I want to thank the members of the Academy, all of whom cashed their checks in a timely manner and kept my accountant happy. To my spouse, who I've cheated on with everyone of my costars... sorry, honey, now that I have this, it's definitely time to trade up! A special "Screw You" goes out to the nation's film critics and to all of you who thought I was insufferable before this, you ain't seen nothin' yet!" · Feb 26 at 4:50pm
I see you are a James Cameron fan.
Sep '10
Re: (Live Chat Preview) -- A Speechwriter Goes to the Oscars
Zenga Zenga!
Jun '10
Re: (Live Chat Preview) -- A Speechwriter Goes to the Oscars
Why don't they just put up a teleprompter with precanned speeches and let these actors read lines like they do at work?