Remembering Dustin Hoffman’s inspiring speech at the Academy Awards
Known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters, Dustin Hoffman is an American actor and filmmaker who has earned numerous accolades during his 62 years of acting. His most notable roles include Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, for which he received his first Oscar nomination in 1968, and John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy, where he received another nomination.
If consecutive Oscar nominations were not enough proof of his skills, fellow screen legend Robert De Niro described him as “an actor with the everyman’s face who embodied the heartbreakingly human”, and he received the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.
One of Hoffman’s most iconic performances was Ted Kramer in the 1979 family drama Kramer vs Kramer, where he acted under Robert Benton’s direction and starred alongside the legendary Meryl Streep. Based on Avery Corman’s 1977 novel, the film follows a couple’s divorce, how it impacts their son and their own views on parenting.
Due to its quality performances, film style and commentary on emerging social issues, Kramer vs Kramer was a huge success. This is evident in it becoming the highest-grossing film of 1979 in the United States and receiving a leading nine nominations at the 52nd Academy Awards. It won five, which topped the other nominations. These wins included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Hoffman received his award on April 14, 1980, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where film icon and trailblazing activist Jane Fonda presented him the Oscar. The actor then gave a speech built on the utmost gratitude for being recognised in such an honour and paying tribute to his fellow actors and profession as a whole.
Hoffman begins his speech with a simple “thank you” and his sense of humour, commenting on how his trophy “has no genitalia and he’s holding a sword”. He also took the time to “thank my parents for not practising birth control.”
After this comical introduction, the actor expressed his “mixed feelings” due to being “critical of the Academy”. However, he shares, “I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to be able to work. I am greatly honoured for being chosen”. This gratitude stems from how working on a film set for so long opened his eyes to how there are “people who are giving that artistic part of themself that goes beyond a paycheck, and they are never up here. And many of them are not members of the Academy, and we never hear of them.”
Despite this, Hoffman takes his speech as an opportunity to highlight these workers: “This Oscar is a symbol, I think, and it is given for appreciation from those people whom we never see. They are part of our life”. This acknowledgement is then passed to his fellow nominees in a rather bashful tone: “I refuse to believe that I beat Jack Lemmon, that I beat Al Pacino, that I beat Peter Sellers. I refuse to believe that Robert Duvall lost. We are a part of an artistic family.”
The actor also voices how “most actors don’t work, and a few of us are so lucky to have a chance to work with writing and to work with directing, ” thus showing his awareness of others in his field and re-assuring his immense gratitude.
To conclude this acceptance speech, Hoffman draws attention to the sacrifices struggling artists make to combat everyday struggles that negotiate their dreams. “Because when you’re a broke actor, you can’t write; you can’t paint; you have to practice accents while driving a taxi cab”, the actor shares. He follows this with a collective expression of praise: “To that artistic family that strives for excellence, none of you has ever lost, and I am proud to share this with you. And I thank you”.
Watch this inspirational speech below
