Adrien Brody shatters Oscars speech record in marathon monolog

Best actor winner Adrien Brody broke the record for Sunday's longest-ever Oscar acceptance speech. The lengthy gala suffered a slight ratings dip, reaching 18 million people on the US network ABC and streamer Hulu.

Despite promising to be "brief" on multiple occasions during his marathon monologue, "The Brutalist" star Brody clocked a whopping five minutes and 40 seconds on stage, surpassing an eight-decade-old record.

The ceremony, in which the low-budget indie "Anora" won five Oscars, including best picture, lasted nearly four hours.

According to the Guinness World Records website, British star Greer Garson, who won best actress for "Mrs Miniver" in 1943, held the record with a five-minute-and-30-second speech.

The Academy introduced time limits and the practice of "playing off" winners with music following Garson's speech. But Brody ordered the orchestra to stop on Sunday.

"Please, turn the music off. I've done this before," said Brody, who won best actor in 2003 for "The Pianist."

"It's not my first rodeo, but I will be brief. I promise I will not be egregious," said Brody before continuing for another 90 seconds.

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ABC shared the preliminary 18.1 million US audience figure on Monday, including Hulu. The Oscars went live on streaming for the first time, but technical glitches meant some online viewers missed the final prizes.

This means that the recent three-year streak of improved Oscar ratings has ended.

Last year's comparable early ratings figure was 19.5 million for a gala that saw Christopher Nolan's blockbuster "Oppenheimer" dominate prizes and featured live musical performances from the smash hit "Barbie."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oscars ratings sank as low as 10.4 million. Just a decade ago, the Academy Awards telecast regularly topped 40 million.

'Acid and affection'

Sunday night's show received generally positive reviews.

Variety called the 97th Academy Awards "successful in more ways than not" and said Conan O'Brien "absolutely rocked his debut as host, walking the perfect line between acid and affection."

The Los Angeles Times declared the show "generally navigable despite a pointless excursion into a dancing-singing salute to James Bond films."

Indiewire called it "one of the best Oscars telecasts in years," but The Hollywood Reporter found the evening "unstable" and "uneven."

Brody's extended speech was perhaps appropriate for "The Brutalist," a three-and-a-half-hour drama with an intermission.

Brody plays a brilliant architect, haunted by the Holocaust, who moves to the post-World War II United States to begin a new life.

The actor used his speech to thank more than a dozen people by name, including his mother and father, "Brutalist" director Brady Corbet, co-stars Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, and his girlfriend, Georgina Chapman.

Adrien Brody threw his chewing gum to Georgina Chapman after winning Best Actor.The Sun

In a bizarre moment on his way to the stage, Brody paused and removed chewing gum from his mouth, tossing it to Chapman, who caught it.

"I forgot I was chewing gum... 'I've got to get rid of this somehow!'" In a post-victory interview on Monday, Brody later explained, "Live with Kelly and Mark."

Brody concluded his speech with a more serious note.

"If the past can teach us anything, it's a reminder not to let hate go unchecked," he said.