Brendan Fraser’s emotional speech after Oscars win

Brendan Fraser has given an emotional speech after winning an Oscar, referencing how he went from a top-tier actor to struggling for roles.

US actor Brendan Fraser accepts the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for The Whale. Picture: AFP

The 95th Oscars has been a history-making event with Everything Everywhere All At Once taking seven gongs including the big one, Best Picture.

The film also won in Directing, Original Screenplay, Actress for Michelle Yeoh, Supporting Actor for Ke Huy Quan, Supporting Actress for Jamie Lee Curtis and Editing. It was the leading contender going in with 11 nominations.

German war epic All Quiet on the Western Front picked up four awards, including Best International Feature.

Brendan Fraser capped off his comeback with a win in Actor for his work on The Whale, which also picked up an award for Make-up and Hairstyling.

Fraser accepted his Oscar with an emotional speech, referencing the challenges he’s faced in the past few years when he went from a top-tier blockbuster star to having fewer opportunities.

He said, “I’m grateful to Darren [Aronofsky] for throwing me a creative lifeline and hauling me aboard the good ship The Whale. It was written by Samuel D Hunter who was our lighthouse.

“Gentlemen, you laid your whale-sized hearts bare so that we could see into your souls, like no one else could. It is my honour to be named alongside you in this category. I want to tell you that only whales can swim at the depth of the talent of Hong Chau.

“I started in this business 30 years ago, and things didn’t come easily to me but there was a facility that I had that I didn’t appreciate at the time. Until it stopped. And I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgement because it couldn’t be done without my cast.

“It’s been like I’ve been on a diving expedition on the bottom of the ocean and the air on the line to the surface is on a launch being watched over by some of the people in my life.

“I’m so grateful to you.”

Other winners included Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio in Animated Feature, Women Talking in Adapted Screenplay, Top Gun: Maverick in Sound, Avatar: The Way of Water in Visual Effects, Navalny in Documentary Feature and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in Costume.

The teams behind Banshees of Inisherin and Elvis will be disappointed at going home empty handed despite being nominated nine and eight times, respectively.

Everything Everywhere All At Once has dominated all the precursor awards, taking home the top prize at the trifecta of the Producers Guild, Directors Guild and the Screen Actors Guild. The only movie in history to have won all three and gone on to lose the Oscars best picture race is Apollo 13, which lost to Braveheart.

If another film had won, it would’ve been one of the biggest Oscars upsets of this century.

Picture

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: The Way of Water

The Banshees of Inisherin

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All at Once - WINNER

The Fabelmans

Tár

Top Gun: Maverick

Triangle of Sadness

Women Talking

Director

Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once - WINNER

Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans

Todd Field, Tár

Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

Actress in a Leading Role

Cate Blanchett, Tár

Ana de Armas, Blonde

Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie

Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans

Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once - WINNER

Actor in a Leading Role

Austin Butler, Elvis

Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin

Brendan Fraser, The Whale - WINNER

Paul Mescal, Aftersun

Bill Nighy, Living

Actress in a Supporting Role

Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Hong Chau, The Whale

Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin

Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once - WINNER

Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Actor in a Supporting Role

Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin

Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway

Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans

Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin

Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once - WINNER

Adapted Screenplay

Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ian Stokell, All Quiet on the Western Front

Rian Johnson, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Kazuo Ishiguro, Living

Peter Craig, Ehren Kruger, Justin Marks, Christopher McQuarrie & Eric Warren Singer, Top Gun: Maverick

Sarah Polley, Women Talking - WINNER

Original Screenplay

Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once - WINNER

Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner, The Fabelmans

Todd Field, Tár

Ruben Ostlund, Triangle of Sadness

International Feature Film

Argentina, 1985, Argentina

Close, Belgium

All Quiet on the Western Front, Germany - WINNER

The Quiet Girl, Ireland

EO, Poland

Animated Feature Film

Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio -WINNER

Dean Fleischer Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan and Paul Mezey, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Joel Crawford and Mark Swift, Puss in Boots: Last Wish

Chris Wiliams and Jed Schlanger, The Sea Beast

Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins, Turning Red

Film Editing

Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, The Banshees of Inisherin

Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond, Elvis

Paul Rogers, Everything Everywhere All at Once - WINNER

Monika Willi, Tár

Eddie Hamiton, Top Gun: Maverick

Cinematography

James Friend, All Quiet on the Western Front - WINNER

Darius Khondji, Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

Mandy Walker, Elvis

Roger Deakins, Empire of Light

Florian Hoffmeister, Tár

Production Design

Christian M. Goldbeck and Ernestine Hipper, All Quiet on the Western Front — WINNER

Dylan Cle, Ben Procter, Vanessa Cole, Avatar: The Way of Water

Florencia Martin, Anthony Carlino, Babylon

Catherine Martin, Karen Murphy, Bev Dunn, Elvis

Rick Carter, Karen O’Hara, The Fabelmans

Costume Design

Mary Zophres, Babylon

Ruth Carter, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - WINNER

Catherine Martin, Elvis

Shirley Kurata, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Jenny Bevan, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris

Sound

Viktor Prasil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte, All Quiet on the Western Front

Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges, Avatar: The Way of Water

Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson, The Batman

David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller, Elvis

Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor, Top Gun: Maverick - WINNER

Best Visual Effects

Frank Petzold, Viktor Muller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar, All Quiet on the Western Front

Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett, Avatar: The Way of Water - WINNER

Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy, The Batman

Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christophe White and Dan Sudick, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Ryan Tudehope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher, Top Gun: Maverick

Makeup and Hairstyling

Heike Merker and Linsa Eisenhamerova, All Quiet on the Western Front

Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine, The Batman

Camille Friend and Joel Harlow, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti, Elvis

Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley, The Whale - WINNER

Original Score

Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front — WINNER

Justin Hurwitz, Babylon

Carter Burwell, The Banshees of Inisherin

Son Lux, Everything Everywhere All at Once

John Williams, The Fabelmans

Original Song

“Applause” by Diane Warren, Tell It like a Woman

“Hold My Hand” by Lady Gaga and BloodPop, Top Gun: Maverick

“Lift Me Up” by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

“Naatu Naatu” by M.M. Keeravaani and Chandrabose, RRR — WINNER

“This Is A Life” by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Documentary Feature

Shaunak Sen, Amann Mann and Teddy Leifer, All that Breathes

Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman, Fire of Love

Simon Lereng Wilmont and Monica Hellstrom, A House Made of Splinters

Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris, Navalny - WINNER

Live Action Short Film

An Irish Goodbye

Ivalu

Le Pupille

Night Ride

The Red Suitcase

Animated Short Film

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse - WINNER

The Flying Sailor

Ice Merchants

My Year of Dicks

An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It

Documentary Short

The Elephant Whisperers - WINNER

Haulout

How Do You Measure a Year?

The Martha Mitchell Effect

Stranger at the Gate

Originally published as Brendan Fraser’s emotional speech after Oscars win