Oscar Speech 2

OSCAR ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
BEST ACTOR FOR “THOSE GAY OLD DAYS”


“Oh My!  Oh golly gosh!  I’m completely lost for words!  And believe me, that doesn’t happen very often!  Just ask Gerald.  Gerald?  Where are you, love?  Before I do something terribly gauche like forgetting to thank you.  Oh, there you are.  Gerald Ponting, I owe this honour to you.  You are the bravest, most talented writer and director I have ever had the pleasure of working with.  And you’re not bad in bed either!  Oh!  That was probably frightfully inappropriate, even if it is true.  But honestly, Gerald’s script was so brave that when he showed it to me, I felt I just had to be involved.  The issues in Those Gay Old Days are so important and critical to our community.  I mean, who among us has not been caught with some gorgeous young lad in a public lavatory?

I would also like to thank the rest of the cast.  You really could not find a campier group of queens!  Every day on the set was like a cocktail party at Sir Ian’s.  And I don’t mean that in a bad way!  This film is an absolute showcase for the best of British acting. How often do you have the opportunity to work with Peter O'Toole and Michael Cain?  Not to mention Jude Law and Stuart Townsend as those gorgeous young lads...

I would like to offer my appreciation to the entire crew too.  This was not an easy film to shoot and the camera crew were faced with some pretty horrendous sights a lot of the time.  You have to remember that we spent a large part of the film in the nude, and between the three of us, we have combined age of well over one hundred.  The patience and discretion shown by the crew was mind-boggling.  As was, I suspect, the view….

Oh!  They are trying to get me off the stage.  Darlings, it will never happen!  I was born for the stage and until I am gasping my last breath you will not drag me from the spotlight!  Thank you everyone.  Thank you for recognising that this film is not gay pornography to titillate moral reprobates; that it is, in fact, a political statement and a work of art…."

400 words.