Let's face it: Acceptance speeches can be insanely boring.
Thanking your spouse?
Thanking God?
Thanking your mom?
Thanking your fans?
Thanks, but no thanks.
However, there have been occasions where a celebrity speech was so gloriously odd, you
just had to watch.
These celebrity speeches are all a bit much!
Who can forget this notorious moment from the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards?
Kanye West sauntered up the stage... just as Taylor Swift was giving her acceptance
speech.
Her song "You Belong with Me" had just won the award for Best Female Video, but any sense
of victory was cut short by West's wild ways.
As we all sat there and collectively cringed, West cried out:
"Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the
best videos of all time!"
Swift was mortified.
Beyonce was agog, but graciously let Swift finish her speech when she won the Video of
the Year for "Single Ladies."
Nevertheless, West unknowingly unleashed a decade-long feud with the "Bad Blood" singer.
During an appearance on The Ellen Show, West admitted his VMA outburst caused such an outpouring
of negative publicity, he went into isolation and decided to travel through Japan, Rome,
and Hawaii.
Sounds like a tough time for anyone.
As he explained,
"I literally left America, I stopped doing music altogether, I just took some time."
Of course, West stirs up controversy wherever he goes, seemingly as a matter of principle.
In 2005, he was giving a live televised speech for Hurricane Katrina relief alongside actor
Mike Myers.
He demonstrated that there's no telling what will come out of his mouth from one moment
to the next.
"George Bush doesn't care about black people."
"...Please call."
"In the past few days…"
Myers later praised West's ad-lib and said it made him "super proud."
Robert DeNiro doesn't grant many interviews.
He's known for his introverted nature off-camera.
But there's one subject he has absolutely no problem discussing.
As The Guardian puts it:
"[He] says as little as he can get away with.
That is, until we got on to the matter of a certain US president."
Taking the stage at the 2018 Tony Awards, the Raging Bull star delivered this succinct
message:
"I'm going to say one thing: F--k Trump."
Raising his fists in the air, he received a standing ovation from the crowd, going on
to say,
"It's no longer 'Down with Trump,' it's, 'F--k Trump.'"
The speech wasn't necessarily the biggest shock in the world, since De Niro has always
been rather vocal about this particular subject.
For example, in a 2016 voting campaign video, he had this to say about Trump:
"He's so blatantly stupid, he's a punk, he's a dog, he's a pig, he's a con."
Though you're probably starting to get the general gist, we must do our due diligence
and finish the quote.
De Niro goes on to say:
"[Trump] is a bulls--t artist [and] a mutt who doesn't know what he's talking about."]
According to The New Yorker, De Niro only met The Apprentice alum once, and the occasion
happened to be a baseball game.
We imagine that meet-cute didn't go particularly well.
Back in the early 2000s, Angelina Jolie was making headlines for some rather bizarre reasons.
Back then, her marriage with Billy Bob Thornton often took center stage because of the couple's
eccentric behavior.
They reportedly used to wear vials of each other's blood around their necks.
They also allegedly enjoyed trading underwear on occasion.
Meanwhile, they were known for some wild antics on the red carpet: It wasn't unusual for Jolie
to stop in the middle of interviews in order to passionately kiss her future Insignificant
Other.
Thornton seems to have a good attitude about it all now:
"You're always going to be the guy married to Angelina Jolie.
Does that bug you?"
"No, there are worse things."
"'Cuz you were married, eh???"
"Oh yes I was."
In 2000, Jolie won a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar for her work in Girl, Interrupted…
and she left the audience rather stunned.
Shortly after taking the stage, she announced,
"I'm so in love with my brother right now."
The sentiment sounds innocent enough at first blush.
But that night she was reportedly seen locking lips with her brother, James Haven.
Eyebrows raised accordingly.
The Mirror wrote that
"[The move] sparked incest rumors as the world questioned their close relationship."
A nanny reportedly cleared up any confusion by telling Radar Online:
"The day [Jolie] kissed Jamie at the Oscars, it was the first day [their mother] was treated
for cancer.
They left the hospital together and got ready together.
Nobody in the world knew that they spent the day in the hospital.
[..]. But the world saw something incestual.
It was meant to be, 'Here we are.'
They only ever had each other."
Puts a sad spin on this story, doesn't it?
Prior to his 2019 comeback in the acclaimed film Honey Boy, Shia LaBeouf had a few rough
years.
In 2014, the Transformers star was reportedly seen chasing a homeless man around Times Square
and demanding that he hand over his McDonald's bag.
As Page Six reports, he was allegedly escorted out of a Broadway production of Cabaret a
few hours later because he was acting mighty strange.
The tabloid alleges that
"The actor was smoking a joint and slapping star Alan Cumming on the bottom from his aisle
seat at the Studio 54 theater."
That same year, he was also banned from a restaurant for allegedly urinating on their
parking lot wall… and the fun doesn't stop there.
In 2015, a bizarre video was released online.
It featured LaBeouf screaming some sort of wild motivational speech in front of a green
screen.
In the memorable clip, he yells:
"Do it!
Just do it!
Don't let your dreams be dreams.
Nothing is impossible.
You should get to the point where anyone else would quit, and you're not gonna stop there.
No, what are you waiting for?"
The star then proceeds to scream at his fist.
This ultra-screamo speech is really something.
And if this seems like some sort of prankish performance art piece, you're definitely onto
something.
As ET Online reports,
"[It's for a] new project called #INTRODUCTIONS.
Art students submitted up to 30 seconds of text for Shia [...] to perform in front of
a green screen."
Sally Field's career has spanned multiple decades.
On top of her many remarkable performances, the Gidget star happens to have a rather unusual
Academy Awards acceptance speech under her belt… a speech that's become quite iconic
in its own right.
You may have heard her quote as:
"You like me!
You really like me!"
The moment quickly cemented a place in pop culture history.
It's been spoofed in several movies.
"Thank you.
You love me.
You really love me!"
The speech was also mocked by Madonna back in the day.
As it turns out, those aren't the exact words that came out of her mouth… although this
pesky fact doesn't make her speech any less memorable.
As she took the stage to accept an Oscar for her role in 1984's Places in the Heart, Field
dramatically told the crowd,
"I haven't had an orthodox career, and I've wanted more than anything to have your respect.
[...] I can't deny the fact that you like me.
Right now, you like me!"
In 2007, Field told Oprah Winfrey.
"I was trying to own that [...] this amazing thing was happening to me.
[...] That line has been interpreted in all sorts of ways.
[...] That speech was about accepting that I'd achieved what I'd always wanted, which
was to do good work and to have that work be recognized."
Is Joaquin Phoenix profoundly respected among his Hollywood peers?
Yes.
Is he also rather eccentric?
That would also be a yes.
A film producer who has allegedly worked with the actor once told Page Six
"Hiding is just a natural state for him.
You'll always be confused about him."
The actor gave quite the speech upon winning Best Actor at the 2020 Academy Awards for
his lead role in Joker.
As The New York Times writes,
"[Phoenix] gave an emotional speech and riffed on several topics, including oblique references
to meat-eating, past mistakes and forms of societal inequality."
Somewhere in there, Phoenix declared:
"What we're guilty of is an egocentric worldview, the belief that we're the center of the universe.
We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources.
We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and when she gives birth, we steal her
baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable [..]. I think we fear the idea
of personal change, because we think that we have to sacrifice something to give something
up."
According to The Guardian, Phoenix's speech was widely ridiculed… which isn't to say
he didn't make some good points.
He just went way against the grain here… and people were bound to have some feelings
about it.
"You just wanted to make fun of me.
You're just like the rest of them!"
Adam Sandler has always had his fair share of critics, and he's had to endure loads of
negative film reviews over the years.
How about this absolutely lacerating write-up from Las Vegas Weekly regarding his 2015 film
Pixels?
"Calling Pixels one of Sandler's better movies is like calling a particular strain of Ebola
somewhat less horrifically painful."
2019 turned out to be a very good year for Sandler: He starred in the widely praised
crime-thriller Uncut Gems.
"That's history right there, you understand?"
"How many carats is this?"
"Four, five-thousand carats?"
After the film's release, many fans and critics alike were certain Sandler would get an Oscar
nomination for his lead performance — but he didn't.
Sandler got his revenge when the role earned him a Film Independent Spirit Award for Best
Male Lead.
As the actor took the stage, he had some strong words to share with the Academy, yet delivered
them in his trademark goofball voice.
He began:
"A few weeks back, when I was quote-unquote snubbed by the Academy, it reminded me [of]
when I briefly attended high school and was overlooked for the coveted yearbook superlative
category Best Looking."
He went on to say his peers did eventually offer him something of a consolation prize…
by saying he had the "Best Personality."
And then came the kicker:
"Tonight, as I look around this room, I realize, the Independent Spirit Awards are the Best
Personality awards of Hollywood.
So let all those featherheads get their Oscars tomorrow night!"
The crowd ate it up, or at least they acted like they did.
Truth be told, the speech was really rather insufferable.
Dave Grohl is a rock icon.
He was the drummer for Nirvana.
Then he founded the Foo Fighters, serving as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and
primary songwriter.
Over the years, he's jammed with Tom Petty and even remixed a Puff Daddy song.
Needless to say, he's kind-of a big deal.
Well, when the time came for Foo Fighters to accept a Grammy for best rock performance
in 2012, Grohl ruffled some feathers with his speech.
At one point, he says:
"Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your
craft, that's the most important thing for people to do."
Audience members applauded, but some viewers weren't too happy.
They felt the speech was a snub at EDM artists, dance music, and electronic musicians in general.
Before you could so much as sing the chorus to "Best of You," think pieces sprung up online
following.
Eventually, Grohl released a rambling statement on Facebook:
"Never has a 33 second acceptance rant evoked such caps-lock postboard rage as my lil' ode
to analog recording has.
[...] I love music.
I love ALL kinds of music.
From Kyuss to Kraftwerk, Pinetop Perkins to Prodigy, Dead Kennedys to Deadmau5 .....I
love music."
Frankly, we believe him.
Jack Palance's career in Hollywood is truly legendary...and he finally won himself an
Oscar at the 1992 Academy Awards.
He won in the "Best Supporting Actor" category for his work in City Slickers, which starred
a certain Billy Crystal.
"Don't let it happen again."
Well.
Coming up to the microphone, the 73-year-old bizarrely opened with:
"Billy Crystal...
I crap bigger than him."
He then started talking about ageism in Hollywood, saying:
"There are times when you reach a certain age plateau where the producers say ... 'Well,
what do you think?
Can we risk it?'"
As if to prove his naysayers wrong, Palance dropped down to the ground and did a set of
one-armed push-ups.
Then he got back up to the mic and quipped,
"That's nothing, really."
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