Baftas 2025: Mikey Madison reveals advice Robert De Niro gave her for acceptance speech: “I probably shouldn’t have listened”
Mikey Madison, who won the Bafta for ‘Best Leading Actress’ for Anora, has revealed she chose not to write a speech due to advice from Robert De Niro.
Notably, De Niro and Madison both recently appeared together on The Graham Norton Show earlier this month. Over the course of his glittering career, De Niro has stepped up to the stage to accept awards on countless occasions. Therefore, he’s well-placed to offer words of advice to younger stars.
“I was on a talk show, and Robert De Niro told me not to write a speech, but I probably shouldn’t have listened to him,” she said in a press conference following her victory. Madison was also nominated for the EE Rising Star Award but missed out to David Jonsson.
The Anora star continued: “I keep using the word surreal, but I don’t know if I’ll ever grasp the magnitude of being in a room like that. That room is full of my idols and incredible creatives and people who made me fall in love with acting and filmmaking.”
Madison concluded: “I’ve been acting for what feels like forever or trying to act and he really gave me a chance to play a leading role and a really complex character, and someone really different from myself and to stretch myself as an artist”.
In her victory speech, Madison acknowledged her failure to write a script ahead of the ceremony. Instead, she chose to speak from the heart and delivered a monologue packed with gratitude after winning ‘Best Leading Actress‘.
Madison said in her acceptance speech: “Wow, I really wasn’t expecting this, I probably should have listened to my publicist and wrote a speech or something. Thank you so much, Sean Baker; I just adore you. You are such an incredible person. I know you hate it when i praise you but i just have to, you made my dreams come true…. I want to thank my mom. She has driven me to hundreds of auditions, helped me put so many on tape and helped me memorise my lines. She’s my favourite scene partner. I love you, Mom.”
She beat fellow nominees Cynthia Erivo from Wicked, Demi Moore from The Substance, Emilia Pérez’s Karla Sofía Gascón, Marianne Jean-Baptiste from Hard Truths and Saoirse Ronan from The Outrun to the award.
In addition to winning ‘Best Leading Actress’, Anora, which was nominated in seven categories, also won the Bafta for ‘Best Editing’.
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