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When Joe Pesci picked up the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Goodfellas in 1991, he took to the stage at the Academy Awards and said just five words: “It’s my privilege. Thank you.”
Incredibly, though, Pesci’s speech is not the shortest in Oscar history. (When Patti Duke won for The Miracle Worker in 1963, for instance, she merely said “thank you” and left the stage.) But at the opposite end of the scale, some actors have stayed long beyond the now standard 45-second time limit—despite the threat of being played off the stage by the orchestra.
10. TOM HANKS, 1994
3 minutes
The 45-second time limit rule has been bent quite a few times in recent years, allowing several performers to give speeches coming in around the three-minute mark—among them Kate Winslet for The Reader, Colin Firth for The King’s Speech, Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour, and Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody.
But it’s worth highlighting Tom Hanks’s three-minute speech for his Best Actor win for Philadelphia in 1994 here, if not merely to point out that he went on to win the same award the following year for Forrest Gump (becoming the first back-to-back Best Actor-winner since Spencer Tracy a staggering 56 years earlier), giving him the opportunity to add a further two minutes to the total time he’s spent at the Oscar-winners’ podium.
9. MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY, 2014
3 minutes, 10 seconds
The McConaissannce reached its peak in 2014, when Matthew McConaughey won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club. His speech ran for just over three minutes—giving him just enough time to add a trademark “Alright, alright, alright” before the end.
8. CATE BLANCHETT, 2014
3 minutes, 15 seconds
Following her Best Actress win for Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, Cate Blanchett just bested her fellow Academy Award-winner Matthew McConaughey on Oscar night in 2014, with a speech that ran to just over 3 and a quarter minutes.
7. JOAQUIN PHOENIX, 2020
3 minutes, 30 seconds
Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Actor Oscar for his title role in Joker in 2020, taking home an Academy Award on his fourth try (following earlier nominations for Gladiator, Walk the Line, and The Master). He went on to deliver a speech coming in at around 3 and a half minutes in length, memorably ending with a lyric written by his late brother, River Phoenix, “Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow.”
6. AL PACINO, 1993
3 minutes, 50 seconds
Despite one of the most impressive filmographies in Hollywood history, Al Pacino did not pick up an Oscar until his eighth nomination (having missed out for his performances in the likes of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon).
As a result, there was a rather long standing ovation after he first took to the microphone, having at long last won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Scent of a Woman in 1993, after which he spoke for almost a further four minutes.
5. JULIA ROBERTS, 2001
4 minutes
Julia Roberts’s winning speech, after she picked up the Best Actress award for her role in Erin Brockovich in 2001, famously included a direct address to the baton-wielding leader of the live orchestra on Oscar night, who had stood to begin playing her off the stage.
Already over three and a half minutes into her speech, Roberts jested, “Stick man, I see you…” The reproof did the trick, though, and with no music playing, Roberts continued talking before rounding up her four-minute speech with the words, “I love the world, I’m so happy, thank you!”
4. HALLE BERRY, 2002
4 minutes
Having just become the first Black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in history, Halle Berry was understandably very emotional when she took to the stage to accept her Oscar for Monster’s Ball in 2002. As a result, it’s difficult to say precisely when her speech begins, but in all, she spent around 4 minutes at the microphone on Oscar night.
3. WILL SMITH, 2022
5 minutes, 20 seconds
Will Smith’s conduct on Oscar night in 2022 was already making waves online before he had even set foot on the stage to collect the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in King Richard. But he then went on to deliver a 400-word, 5-minute and 20-second-long speech in which he mentioned everyone from the Williams sisters to his mother’s knitting circle in Philadelphia.
2. GREER GARSON, 1943
5 minutes, 30 seconds
When she won Best Actress in 1943 for her role in Mrs. Miniver, English actress Greer Garson took to the Oscar stage and gave a rambling 5-and-a-half-minute-long speech that would remain the ceremony’s longest for the next 82 years. In fact, the speech was so long that Garson’s wordiness is thought to have spurred the Academy into introducing time limits.
1. ADRIEN BRODY, 2025
5 minutes, 40 seconds
Greer Garson’s record was blown out of the water as recently as 2025, when Best Actor winner Adrien Brody spoke for a staggering 5 minutes and 40 seconds after his win—the second of his career—for his lead role in The Brutalist. (Appropriately enough, the film was also the year’s longest in Oscar contention, running to 215 minutes.)