Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant, 2016
The year of #OscarsSoWhite was a banner season for political protest, even if the expected complaints about ethnic diversity failed to ignite at the Oscars ceremony itself. Lady Gaga provided a heartfelt gesture in support of sexual abuse survivors, and the producers of Spotlight directly addressed the pope, saying: “It’s time to protect the children and restore the faith.” But the king of protest turned out to be DiCaprio, who used his best actor win as a platform to call for action on climate change, “for our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed”. Weeks earlier, DiCaprio had used his Golden Globe win to support First Nation issues, to “protect your indigenous lands from corporate interest and people that are out there to exploit them.”
Michael Moore for Bowling for Columbine, 2003
Moore’s track record as an activist had gone before him, so expectations of something special were high when he won a best documentary Oscar in 2003. He didn’t disappoint, with an incendiary effort decrying the Iraq war. “We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons … Shame on you, Mr Bush, shame on you. And any time you have got the pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up.” Moore was booed, threatened and stalked for his trouble.
Vanessa Redgrave for Julia, 1978
Moore, though, was an amateur compared with Redgrave, who doubled down on her record of radical pro-Palestinian activism upon winning the best supporting actress Oscar in 1978. Having been the target of protesters herself, Redgrave complimented her audience that they “stood firm and you have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behaviour is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression … I salute you and I thank you and I pledge to you that I will continue to fight against antisemitism and fascism.”
Marlon Brando for The Godfather, 1973
All-time honours, though, go to Brando, who boycotted the 1973 ceremony, and had native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather collect his best actor Oscar instead. (That old smoothie Roger Moore, co-presenting the award with Liv Ullmann, no doubt raised a quizzical eyebrow when Littlefeather refused the statuette.) Littlefeather cited Brando’s reasons as “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry” and the infamous Wounded Knee standoff which had started a month before. Brando’s letter, which Littlefeather didn’t read on the podium, was later released to the press and asserted: “We lied to them. We cheated them out of their lands. We starved them into signing fraudulent agreements that we called treaties which we never kept. We turned them into beggars on a continent that gave life for as long as life can remember.”
Richard Gere, 1993
New-age political protest arrived via Gere’s most public articulation of his views on Tibet, although it wasn’t technically an acceptance speech, as he was at the Oscars to present the best art direction award to Howards End. But he took the opportunity anyway, describing China’s human rights as “horrendous” and asking the audience to send vibes directly to Deng Xiaoping. “If something miraculous, really kind of movie-like could happen here where we could all kind of send love and truth and kind of sanity to Deng Xiaoping right now in Beijing – that he will take his troops and take the Chinese away from Tibet and allow these people to live as free independent people again.” Would anyone try that today?
Patricia Arquette for Boyhood, 2015
Gender equality was the big issue in 2015; and its one that has never really gone away in Hollywood. Its most stirring articulation was arguably by Arquette, who won best supporting Oscar for her role as a harassed mother in Boyhood. “To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s time to have wage equality once and for all. And equal rights for women in the United States of America.”
Kanye West, A Concert for Hurricane Relief, 2005
It wasn’t an acceptance speech, but West’s ad-libbed interpolations during a scripted segment of the 2005 benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Katrina took an earnest, well-meaning blandathon hostage just as effectively as any awards show. After complaining about the way black flood victims were portrayed in the media, West finished up by saying: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Co-presenter Mike Myers, who tried to stay on-script, looked suitably consternated as the camera cut away.
