Good Speech

I have been reading so much lately on how Kate Winslet gave a cringe inducing speech at the Golden Globes, and Anne Hathaway gave one at the BFCA awards. These articles are saying either that these speeches could hurt or benefit their Oscar chances.
Hurt, because no one apparently wants a twittering idiot on the stage, and help because emotion means they are honest (apparently the Academy want someone up there who is thankful to be included).

I think the people who sit around and pick apart these type of speeches are people who most probably have never ever given an off the cuff speech in their lives.
How you give a speech totally depends on who you are. Different Strokes for different folks.
We all loved Tilda Swintons’ speech last year. It was funny, easy going and she seemed very relaxed simply because, as well know, it is doubtful that she really cares much about these awards so there is no pressure.
Marion Cotillard did care, and her speech was brimming over with excitement and gratitude, and I found that adorable.

I can’t judge a speech, especially if it is not rehearsed or written down because it is an emotional scary time. You have been selected by a group of your piers as being the best of a given year, then you have to get up, walk up steps to a microphone and give a speech to a room full of those piers as well as millions of people watching you around the world, live on TV.
Talk about pressure.

So if Halle Berry thanks her lawyer, who cares?…she was happy and emotional and ran with it.
Gwyneth bawled her eyes out, true, but her dying father was with her and she lost the plot a little.
Who can blame her?
People really expect far too much from these people.
Do we forget they are human?
Christ, all through the awards race they are being judged! One would think once the award was handed out the judging would stop. Apparently not.

The only time a speech is truly horrible is if you have someone like Jennifer Connelley who read it from a piece of paper with her head down.

Or worse yet Jamie Foxx who went to every awards show giving the exact same rehearsed speech that got old, annoying, and arrogant very very quickly.

If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences giveth and taketh away based on how good or bad a precursor speech is, then all that means is they have no business saying what the ’best’ of any year is and that their awards really do not matter.
Then again, deep down, we all know this is true and get sucked in anyway (we love that air of superiority don’t we?)

So to the eventual winners this year, please get up on that stage and laugh, cry, get hysterical, do whatever you want. Go frikkin insane! Thank your colourist and the woman who gives you your colonics. . Just don’t rehearse or read!