Adrien Brody probably thinks he crushed his speech at the 2025 Oscars

If there was another bad speech at the Oscars, I don’t remember it, because Adrien Brody decided to take so much time near the end of a show that was already running long – he erased all recollection of anyone else who was annoying up on that stage with a trophy in their hand.

But only after the whole gum-throwing thing…

Adrien Brody throwing his gum to his girlfriend while going up to accept his Oscar pic.twitter.com/rU08nNMyUL
— Shannon Burns (@itsshannonburns) March 3, 2025

Could he have turned that moment around? Had he kept his speech shorter and not haughtily told the orchestra that he’s been there before and knows what he’s doing…maybe? But there was no indication coming into the Oscars that Adrien was capable of this because throughout the season, he’s given consistently mediocre to sh-tty speeches – starting at mediocre and getting sh-ttier and sh-ttier.

Clearly no speechwriter, then, and clearly no interest in hiring one. Which makes the case for why they might be increasingly necessary. For those of you who might think that working with a speechwriter for award season lacks sincerity or authenticity or whatever, from now on, I want you to remember Adrien Brody.

To me it was arrogant. To think that he could go up there and be profound without preparation? Arrogant. This is not a man who just wanted to get up there and be appreciative – Adrien Brody had some life experience that he felt was valuable to share. And didn’t seem to have bothered writing down some thoughts or asking someone else to write down some thoughts for him. And to Duana’s point, since we’ve been yelling about this in our hotel room, he probably still thinks he crushed it. He probably went to the Vanity Fair party and thought he inspired some people. Because he’s arrogant!

So I honestly, as much as I love her, wish Halle Berry had not done this.

She looked f-cking spectacular of that Christian Siriano dress, by the way, but doing the reverse of what Adrien did to her kinda validated his sanctimony from the night. Or at least muted the criticism of his insufferable speech because that’s one of the bigger headlines where he’s concerned.

You know who isn’t insufferable?

RALPH FIENNES!

Ralph Fiennes showed up to the Oscars with his third nomination, having done virtually no campaigning, and worked the entire press line, for a LONG ass time, happily, even though it would benefit him not at all. I watched him laughing and joking and charming reporters from around the world. And posing like this… just for fun…