Ralph Fiennes: I've not been elected to speak; I've been designated to speak on behalf of our Conclave, our ensemble. We're missing the wonderful Stanley Tucci and Brian F. O'Byrne here, and many, many others of our great cast, Thomas Loebel, Lucien Massimati. This is down to the genius of two people: it is Tessa Ross, our producer, and Edward Berger, our director. And I'm speaking, and all our wonderful Italian film crew in Cinecittà. We had a blessed time with Edward, whose intelligence and perception and insight and care of us has, I think, brought us the gift of our community of ensemble. Thank you to Focus, who have supported us along the way here. They've been amazing. So we've talked a lot. People have spoken so eloquently and movingly about community. I don't want to add more, but I think we do recognize the supreme importance of it. In our work and in the world. We are a huge, huge admiration to the other ensembles we've seen tonight. I think that's what we're celebrating is our community. Thank you very much indeed.
This is extraordinary and so deeply meaningful. As I was thinking about this night, I realized I hadn't thought back to when I got my membership to this incredible organization. It was in 1978. I was 15, almost 16, and it changed my life because it gave me meaning, it gave me purpose, and it gave me direction because I was a kid on my own who had no blueprint for life, and I certainly knew nothing about acting, but I watched. And I listened, and I learned from all of you. You have all been my greatest teachers. And I am so, so grateful that I have continued over these so many years to be able to try and sometimes succeed and sometimes fail, but to be able to keep going. And I could not do that without the support of my incredible team, the people who've stood behind me, Kevin Uvain, Jamie Feld from CAA, Jason Weinberg, you are my heart and soul. Scott Metzger, lead; Carrie Gordon, Meredith O'Sullivan, Becca, Elise. And I just want to point out that as I watched and learned, just to bring forward this idea that As a young actor, it was the casting directors and directors and producers who got me in the room to audition where I could feel you and you could feel me. And your feedback meant everything. It's what helped me. And so as these young actors who are having to do it all, I just encourage you, don't lose sight of the human connection. That's the work that we do. It's to be connected to one another. To working together with people like Tomo Vagioli-Miller, who believed in and saw the beauty and the madness of this story, to MUBI, Effie Chacquerel, who literally has such a love of cinema and has been an unwavering support to me and to this film. And just the final thing I'll say is, you know, there's this idea that what we What we believe is so much more powerful than what we think. And the saying that, you know, I'll believe it when I see it. But the reality is when I believe it, I will see it. And I am so grateful for this. Thank you. That little girl, that little girl who didn't believe in herself. I just, there's just the words are kind of beyond me. So I'm just going to have to just say thank you. Thank you so much.
Transcript of Timothée Chalamet
A Complete Unknown
All right, well, thank you. I was not expecting this at all. Truly. I'll start by thanking my mother, who I'm here with tonight. She has been working at Actors' Equity for 40 years, the stage union. And I'll quickly run through this, you know. I know the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role and how much this means to me, but the truth is this was five and a half years of my life. I poured everything I had into playing this incomparable artist, Mr. Bob Dylan, a true American hero, and it was the honor of a lifetime playing him. It's an honor I share with Monica, Elle, Edward, the entire cast who in a genre, doing a biopic that could be perhaps tired. Everyone gave it their all. So I'm deeply grateful to them. And lastly, I can't downplay the significance of this award because it means the most to me. And I know we're in a subjective business, but the truth is I'm really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don't usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats. I'm inspired by the greats. I'm inspired by the greats here tonight. I'm as inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis and Marlon Brando and Viola Davis as I am by Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps, and I want to be up there. So I'm deeply grateful to that. This doesn't signify that, but it's a little more fuel, it's a little more ammo to keep going. Thank you so much.
To be in this room is a true honor. This is my community. This is my circus. Thank you to SAG and AFTRA. Thank you to my fellow nominees, Arianna, Danielle, Jamie. You're right, it is very heavy. To Monica. It was an honor to watch your performances this year. I was deeply moved. I got my first SAG card in 1998, and I didn't even know what SAG was. And I am grateful that my mother, my father, and my sisters looked it up and helped me educate myself on what it means to be a part of a union that protects me so that I can make a living out of this crazy, crazy industry. I want to thank my working family, my agents at CAA, Kevin Huvane, Ida, Ali, my manager, Rick Yorn, Amy Cava, the lead company. I want to thank my lawyers, Kevin Yorn, David Krintzman, and my business manager, Harley Newman, who educate me every day on how I can make a living and support my family doing what I love. I think it's so important for us actors to financially educate ourselves. I want to also thank my family for just being beautiful and always supporting me. I am proud to be a part of a union that allows me to be who I am. And I've never been questioned about where I come from and judged by how I speak or what my pronouns are. I believe that everybody has the right to be who they are. And Emilia Perez is about truth and it's about love. And I think that us as actors, now more than ever before, we really have to tell stories that are beautiful and thought-provoking, and live within the spectrum of artistic freedom. Thank you so much. I'm so honored.
Oh my gosh. Wow, that is, wow. Thank you, SAG-AFTRA, for this incredibly heavy award. That's why they put the thing here, I guess, right? I don't think there's any way anyone can hold this for 45 seconds. Which is the allotted time, Adrian Brody. 45 seconds. There was no reason to take that shot. I love you. It's a joke. You take your time. Lord knows I will, because I didn't think of anything. It is funny that the heaviest of all awards is the one that's given by actors. It's like, you know, us, what we do. It means so much. You can see, like, the meeting of actors. There's like, like, it needs more weight. Anyway. All right, moving on. I see the clock ticking. Moving on. There's one actor in the back that raises his hand and uses the word 'heft' just to, like, be seen. All right. I've got to say something here. Believe it or not, this actually means a lot to me. It does. It's hard to be sincere after that, or in general. But, yeah, thanks. It actually is a huge honor. I haven't said anything. I do want to talk about one actor, five seconds. Jesse Eisenberg, who's a great actor, great director, brilliant scene partner. And please wrap it up, but I'm going to just say something really quick about Jesse. For those of you who don't know, he cast me in this movie without auditioning me or seeing my work in anything ever, which he thinks is normal, and I can't even get into how annoyingly wrong he is. But he cast me because his sister told him to, and he puts a lot of faith in her, which is really sweet, but dumb. So, yes, thank you, Jesse, for putting me in this movie, but I want to take a moment to thank your sister, Hallie. Thank you, Hallie, for thinking of me and putting my name in your stupid brother's ear. The quickest of thanks, and then I'm going to piss off, I swear. Watch how fast this is going to be. Thank you, Searchlight, Fruit Tree, Topic, Nicole Caruso, James and TJ, WME, my manager, Emily Gerson Sainz, of 30 years, you rule, you're the king. My wonderful, gorgeous, funny wife, Jazz, I love you. Thank you for giving me my favorite people in the world. And that's it. Look, that was fast. I told you. Love you, Mom. Bye.
