Great Acceptance Speeches: Allison Janney, "I, Tonya"
Friday, February 22, 2019 at 3:33PM
Denny in Acceptance Speeches, Allison Janney, Great Moments In..., I Tonya, Oscar Ceremonies, Oscars (17)

We asked Team Experience to share their favourite Oscar acceptance speeches as we countdown to Hollywood's High Holy Night. Here's Dancin' Dan...

PERFECTION.

Look, I was rooting for Laurie Metcalf, too, but how can you deny this moment?

It's not just that it's funny. It's that ONLY Janney could get away with saying it. It takes an actor with her insouciant persona to say something everyone imagines is what actors really want to say and have it come across as genuinely funny and not at all serious. She didn't need to follow it up with thanks to all the people who brought her to Oscar glory for everyone to know how grateful she was, but she did, and in wonderful fashion.

After gracefully acknowledging her fellow nominees as "everything that is good and right and human about this profession", she first thanks her good friend Steven Rogers for "the gift of LaVonna", fully acknowledging that the first step to winning an award for acting is a great part. In just under 90 seconds, she manages to thank her parents, her teachers, her co-stars (including the most important, that damn bird), her team, the producers and distributors of I, Tonya, and (most importantly, to the actressexuals of the world) her inspiration Joanne Woodward.

All due respect to Steven Soderbergh, but THIS is the speech this year's Oscar producers should have shown to this year's nominees as a guide for how to do it. Janney manages to be funny, heartfelt, and thoughtful, and thanks everyone she needs to while not overstaying her welcome AND holding for applause and laughter twice. And most importantly, even while going through a list of people, she doesn't feel like she's reading a list of names. She remains her inimitable self, injecting her trademark wit at just the right moments to keep her speech watchable. It's this perfect threading of the acceptance speech needle that makes this one an all-timer in my book, even if she wasn't my pick for the win.

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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