Christoph Waltz, Best Supporting Actor winner for Django Unchained
Speech: “Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. De Niro, Mr. Arkin, Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Jones, my respect. My… my unlimited gratitude goes to Dr. King Schultz. That is, of course, to the creator and the creator of his awe-inspiring world – Quentin Tarentino.
And I thank Jamie Foxx and Leo DiCaprio. Sam Jackson and Kerry Washington. I thank Harvey Weinstein and Amy Pascal. Stacey Sher. Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone. I thank Adam Schweitzer and Lisa Kasteler. And I thank my friends Jeff Dashnaw and Bill Clark who saved my neck.
We participated in a hero’s journey – the hero here being Quentin. And you scale the mountain because you’re not afraid of it. You slay the dragon because you’re not afraid of it and you cross through fire because it’s worth it. I borrowed my character’s words so sorry… couldn’t resist. Thank you.”
Snippets of the best of his backstage interview:
On how it feels to win his second Oscar in 3 years:
“Guess. It was, I think, like five minutes ago, I got this, or seven. I was on a list with greatest actors around, with Robert De Niro, with Alan Arkin, with Tommy Lee Jones with Philip Seymour Hoffman. How do you think someone feels when all of a sudden his name is called in that context? I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.”
What does a second award me to him?
“This well, it really has so much to do with the other actors who were nominated with me, or rather, and I insist on that difference, the fact that I was nominated with them. It means actually, I don’t know what it can mean more, but if it can, then that’s what it does.”
Django Unchained was the highest grossing western in history. How does that make him feel?
“I’m just an actor, I am not an accountant. I love this movie, not for being the highest grossing one. I love this movie because it’s a fabulous, exciting piece of entertainment with a really deep message. So, I’m glad that it’s popular because this is what the box office reflects. But the money, sorry, I do something else.”
What about Quentin Tarantino brings out the best in him?
“Quentin writes poetry, and I like poetry.”
Did he prepare a speech?
“Well, I thought about what one could say in case because, you know, as Seth MacFarlane said in the beginning about a million people are watching. You don’t want to be you know, you’re nominated, there is an off chance that you might have to, you know I didn’t prepare speech, but I thought of something.”
When did he realize the film would be something special?
“When I read the script for the first time, I realized that there was something special about this film. I know Quentin, and I read the pages more or less as they came out of the printer. Page by page I realized that something special is in the making.”
