Adrien Brody Defeats Jack Nicholson & Daniel Day-Lewis | Best Actor Oscar 2003

it was the million dollar question going into oscar's night on march 23rd 2003 who was going to win the best actor trophy it appeared to be down to two iconic figures daniel day lewis for his big and bold performance in gangs of new york or jack nicholson for his quietly powerful performance in about schmidt both men had basically split all the major precursor awards down the line and thus the winner of the academy award appeared to be a head-scratching toss-up were we to go with a superb performance in a film that's slightly disappointed or an extraordinary performance by an actor who already had three oscar trophies on his shelf there was no clear front runner it could have gone to either man and so few could have predicted what happened next halle berry the previous year's winner for best actress took to the stage opened the envelope and said this adrian brody [Applause] if there's one oscar category that rarely gives us a big surprise it's best actor but adrian brodie shocking win for the pianist in 2003 was one of those beautiful exceptions to the rule a young actor not very well known who managed to obtain more votes than such heavyweights as michael kane nicholas cage daniel day lewis and jack nicholson how did brody do it and how close did day lewis nicholson come to taking the prize in this video i'm going to talk about the 2003 oscar race for best actor and discuss the main reasons why adrian brody achieved his unexpected victory before we get to the actor race let's talk more about the ceremony itself in my last video i explored the 2003 races for best actress and best supporting actress but let's now discuss more about the 75th academy awards and some other top races steve martin hosted the show for the second time after hosting the 73rd ceremony in 2001 and now the awards that are very dear to my heart the writers awards finally the studios are getting much more respectful of writers i handed in the script last year and the studio didn't change one word the word they didn't change was on page 87. adapted screenplay went to the pianist beating the best picture winner chicago an original screenplay went to talk to her this was the night of eminem winning an oscar for his song lose yourself from eight mile and this was the night of michael moore's documentary win for bowling for columbine one of the finest segments was the presentation highlighting previous oscar winners to celebrate the show's 75th anniversary which got started with a highly deserved standing ovation for the legendary two-time academy award-winning actress olivia de havilland this night is a memorable one for me and so was that night 53 years ago if the actress race was unpredictable and the supporting actress race was mostly predictable the supporting actor race turned out to be very predictable you could argue there was a last minute surge for christopher walken who managed to surprise screen actors guild award win for his performance in steven spielberg's catch me if you can but he already had an oscar for the deer hunter and really this oscar was always going to go to chris cooper for his inspired performance and adaptation if there's one thing the film the pianist gave us it was shocking oscar wins it wasn't just the adrian brody victory which i'll talk about in a moment it was also roman polanski beating out martin scorsese and rob marshall for best director just like the actor race looked to be between daniel day lewis and jack nicholson the director race appeared to be between the massively overdue scorsese and the enormously talented marshall scorsese won the director prize of the golden globes which looked to be stop number one in scorsese's path to finally his first academy award but the response to gangs of new york was muted enough to ultimately prevent that from happening everyone agreed it was time for scorsese to win but for this movie at this moment the consensus pick quickly switched over to rob marshall who took the dga award for chicago many winners of dga go on to win the oscar 2 but as it turned out not this time some academy voters might not have wanted to reward marshall on his first feature which allowed for the eventual surprise winner to be the more seasoned roman polanski for his work on the pianist the film had been well reviewed to be sure but many at the time were not predicting it to actually win in any of the top categories in retrospect polanski's victory here makes sense scorsese and marshall effectively splitting the votes and the dark horse contender polanski who had received nominations in previous years for rosemary's baby in chinatown got the top prize instead not that he was there to accept his award which well we don't have to go into here let's get into best actor which also went to a member of the pianist family before we talk about adrien brody's win first let's discuss the nominees michael kane received his sixth academy award nomination his fourth in the leading actor category for his performance in the quiet american in which he plays a british reporter vying with a young us doctor for the affections of a vietnamese woman she's a very good dancer she should be she used to do it for a living [Applause] what do you mean she was a taxi dancer a hostess here at the arkansas i would argue kane was the only person in this category who had zero chance in winning since he'd already received two oscars previously the second one just three years prior for the cider house rules and he was also the quiet americans only nomination not a great place to be if you want to win an oscar nicholas cage received his second oscar nomination for my all-time favorite performance of his my two favorite performances really since in the movie adaptation cage plays both donald kaufman and charlie kaufman two very different personalities writing two very different kinds of screenplays charlie trying and struggling to adapt susan orlean's non-fiction book the orca thief i've written myself into my screenplay that's kind of weird huh it's self-indulgent it's narcissistic solipsistic it's pathetic i'm pathetic i'm fat and pathetic i'm sure you had good reasons charles you're an artist the reason is because i'm too timid to speak to the woman who wrote the book because i'm pathetic one of the most prolific actors of his generation cage is always firing in all cylinders and giving original daring performances and his turn in adaptation is on another level of brilliant always grounded in reality the drama and the humor of every situation coming through beautifully if the category hadn't been so stacked with such worthy contenders and if he hadn't already won an oscar in 1996 for leaving las vegas i think nicholas cage would have had a legitimate shot at a win here chris cooper took best supporting actor for the same film after all now is for playing one person not two so now we get to the three men who had the best chance at victory let's start with jack nicholson whose performance in about schmidt is absolutely one of his finest which he plays a man recently retired and widowed who embarks on a journey to his estranged daughter's wedding dear endugo my name is warren r schmidt and i am your new foster father in a career of so many standout performances this one ranks at the top of the list nicholson's so rarely given a chance to play a character this fragile and thoughtful it's not the loud charming jack we see in so many of his films like the two he made after this anger management and something's gotta give this is a quieter turn that has stayed with me the past 20 years that last scene where he reads a letter especially moving winning oscars for one flew over the cuckoo's nest in the 70s terms of endearment in the 80s and as good as it gets in the 90s nicholson deserved one more here for the 2000s as nicholson said to robin williams after winning his third oscar in 1998 we're standing backstage because they're just about to take you to the press conference and he goes you know robbo now i have one for every decade at the golden globes jack nicholson won best actor in a motion picture drama which often bodes well for someone the rest of awards season but then he lost the best actor trophy at sag to another heavy hitter who also turned in a stunning performance daniel j lewis in gangs of new york which tells of a man named amsterdam played by leonardo dicaprio who returns to the five points area of new york city circa 1862 to enact revenge on his father's killer build the butcher on my challenge by the ancient laws of combat we are met at this chosen ground to settle for good and all who holds way over the five points since the 1980s day lewis had been delivering one tremendous dramatic turn after another winning an oscar for my left foot in 1990 being nominated in 1994 for in the name of the father after a five-year absence from film following 1997's the boxer day lewis returned with one of his most original creations and build the butcher completely disappearing into the roll by far the most riveting element of scorsese's 2002 big budget historical drama day lewis was just a few years away from winning two more oscars for there will be blood in 2008 and lincoln in 2013 but at the time there was the sense that an actor of his stature and talent was worthy of a second win and gangs of new york looked to be the one that could make it happen he won at sag he won the bafta award at critic's choice he tied with nicholson that odd year when there were only three nominees for best actor and robin williams nominated for his underrated performance and one hour photo took to the stage for almost 10 glorious minutes to riff about how we lost i just want to thank you it's so nice to have nothing leaving here i don't have to thank anybody you you pretty much said thank you robin thank you i hope that's televised i would say more so than nicholson day lewis had the best chance at an oscar win his film receiving a whopping 10 academy award nominations which showed that lots of voters cared for it and were going to be watching it day lewis did indeed seem to be the front runner there was no one else who could take best actor right oh wait hold on there was also adrian brody for the pianist which seemed to be one of those just happy to be their nominees few in the world knowing brody's face and name the actor's super young at just 29 years old and not a likely candidate to win in the pianist brody plays a polish jewish musician struggling to survive the destruction of the warsaw ghetto during world war ii no no don't shoot i'm i'm polished please oh i'm foolish [Music] there was a lot of love for this movie going into the oscar ceremony the holocaust drama over performing in its number of nominations with seven but that didn't begin to compare with gangs of new york's ten nominations or chicago's near record 13. it didn't seem like the pianist was going to win anything but maybe a technical award or two with such stiff competition 2002 really was a spectacular year in film so many great movies competing for the top prizes the superb performances nominated for best actor had beat out lots of other terrific performances that could have been there like richard gere in chicago hugh grant and about a boy and adam sandler in punch drunk love when i heard that richard gere was not nominated for his great performance in chicago i said to myself welcome to my world richard gere almost any of the five men could have won and yet it was adrian brody's name that halle berry read as the winner how did this happen how did a young mostly unknown actor on his first oscar nomination who hadn't won a single major precursor award actually defeat nicholson and day lewis here are the top three reasons the first most important reason adrian brody took the top prize i'd argue is that he was the only nominee for best actor that year who hadn't already won an oscar cage and day lewis had won kane had two nicholson had three now as we've learned in recent years with francis mcdormand someone having won an oscar or two already doesn't necessarily mean their chances are obliterated but i do think sometimes especially during a long award season many academy voters will turn to a fresh face someone who delivered a strong performance they enjoyed who hadn't been on that oscar stage before there just wasn't that much excitement in giving another award to kane or cage or day lewis or nicholson for example nicholson had just won his third oscar five years prior were we really going to award him a fourth time brody winning was going to be something brand new can i ask you a little bit about oscar night have you seen halle berry recently no what is a memory of that that sure was the probably the one of the most memorable moments ever you could say time slowed down that was that moment where i really really felt it slow down in fact it must have because by the time i got finished kissing her and people kind of settled in they were already flashing the sign to say get off the stage your time is up the second reason is although the pianist didn't get as many nominations as gangs of new york it was nominated in all the right places including director and picture and it had an overall better response from critics and voters than scorsese's movie the quiet american adaptation and about schmidt didn't make it into the director of picture categories a strike to the chances for kane cage nicholson then there was the strange case of gangs of new york which on paper looked to be a major contender for actor director and picture but as impressive as that movie is there was a slight sense of disappointment among some the film not as beloved as scorsese's landmark gems taxi driver raging bull and goodfellas although gangs of new york got lots of nominations it didn't win a single one which showed that especially in the weeks leading up to the oscar ceremony many academy voters were turning on the giant miramax production speaking of miramax in a different year all the company's endless resources could have gone to gangs of new york but the company had lots of irons in the fire in 2003 including the hours which was also up for best picture and it seems like early on miramax's choice film to get behind 100 percent the one they thought could actually win director in picture was chicago the most broadly liked of their three big awards season movies if gangs of new york had been their only nominated film the way for example the english patient was their only big nominee in 1997 we could have seen a bigger marketing push for gangs of new york and it could have possibly won a few awards but since harvey weinstein and company had chicago on their minds gangs of new york ultimately fell short leaving daniel day lewis's chances at his second academy award at least that year in its wake what was going through your mind when adrian brodie kissed you at the oscars was that planned no that was not planned i knew nothing about it okay can i say it for real yeah i was like what the is happening right now that is what was going through my mind and because i i was there the year before and i know the feeling of being out of your body i just went with it the third reason brody won is that holocaust movies often do very well at the academy awards thanks steven spielberg schindler's list which won seven oscars including director and picture and think the reader which won kate winslet her oscar for best actress in 2009 liam neeson missed out on a best actor win in 1994 for schindler's list but that was an actor race tom hanks had locked up pretty early for his acclaimed performance in philadelphia it wasn't the case of 2003 when multiple actors all had legitimate shots at winning and lots of votes being split down the line which clearly made room for brody ultimately to step onto that stage do that and collect his first and to date only oscar trophy the 75th academy awards ceremony was a memorable one to be sure steve martin at the top of his game one of my favorite hosts of the show there have ever been there were many excellent speeches and that star-studded anniversary tribute was one that made any movie fan smile with the light and then there were the big surprises like nicole kidman edging out a best actress win for the hours over renee zellweger for chicago and adrian brody's name being called over daniel day lewis and jack nicholson these are the academy award moments we live for the nail biters the shockers and in the nearly 20 years since that night in early 2003 we've had few oscar shockers quite like the one with brody thanks so much for watching if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like and subscribe let me know in the comments below who you think should have won best actor at the 75th academy awards do you think brody was the right choice or would you have given it to nicholson or day lewis see you next time

Channel: The Awards Contender

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Length: 18min 11sec (1091 seconds)

Published: Tue May 17 2022