Every actor puts an enormous amount of effort into their career for their passion. In exchange, they want to be recognized and validated through the awards for which people nominate their favorite artists, on the basis of their performance. An actor at least dreams of winning several big honors in their lifetime, and the Oscars is one of them. One actress who received the award and made history was Greer Garson, who delivered the longest speech since the inception of the Oscars.
It’s like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for actors to express their gratitude to everyone on the Academy Awards stage, even if it means going over the allotted speech time. A similar overwhelming experience happened to actress Garson in 1943, when her five-and-a-half minute acceptance speech set a record for the longest Oscar acceptance speech ever.
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Greer Garson’s Speech Made History At Academy Awards
On March 4, 1943, Greer Garson stepped behind the podium at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and accepted her Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in ‘Mrs Miniver‘, a romantic war drama directed by William Wyle. She made history twice as she was the 15th actor in the history of Hollywood to take home the trophy and with this, she achieved another feat by delivering the longest recorded speech at the Oscars.
She spoke for more than five and a half minutes, making her acceptance speech the longest speech to this day. Additionally, she exceeded the 45-second time restriction set by the Academy Awards. Garson’s speech has only been preserved in small portions, lasting a total of 3 minutes and 56 seconds, rather than in its whole. The actress described her experiences and the difficulties she faced as an immigrant in the field.
“I came to this country as a stranger five years ago. I’ve been very happy and very proud to be a member of this community and of this industry all that time,” she said. “And from everybody I met or worked with truly I have received such ready kindness that for quite a long while I couldn’t believe that it was true, but tonight you have made me feel that you have really set the door of your friendship wide open and that welcome is officially on the mat, and that is why I’m so happy.”
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What Was Garson’s Speech About?
The native Englishwoman, Greer Garson focused her remarks on her experiences as an immigrant in the industry. Her speech was also relevant to the movie she received the award for, ‘Mrs Miniver‘, in which she played the role of an Englishwoman who was affected by the Second World War. Garson also touched on subjective award issues in her address, saying that she really thinks it’s an excellent game of an opportunity to be given the best assignments of the year.
“I’ve always felt that to be nominated simply means that you’ve had the great good luck to be entrusted with one of the best assignments of the current year, and that’s a cause for rejoicing in itself,” she continued. “And there isn’t a single good craftsman in this industry who if given such an opportunity can’t be counted on to measure up to it.”
It is astonishing to learn that Greer Garson never received an Academy Award earlier, despite being nominated seven times for the same role in the Best Actress category over her career and one of the movies being ‘Mrs Miniver’. Moreover, her best actress Oscar was destroyed in a fire with her other belongings but was later replaced by The Academy and to date her Speech remains unmatched.
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