Winners' acceptance speech by Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea in the Leading Actor category
CASEY AFFLECK: Oh man. The room looks very different from here. My heart is beating. What an exciting moment. These clips that we see or play of the actors are always such moments of heightened emotion and I think that's so often celebrated. I think it's because they are the hardest to understand in our lives. The reason that I act is because when I was a young kid, my mother would take me to the Alma meetings for children of alcoholics and there would be lots of kids there and they would reenact the person at their home who they were trying to understand. And it was therapy, but it was acting, and acting has sort of been that for me ever since, and it is a privilege to get to do it for a living. So if you were wondering, that's why I act. That said, if I had an ounce of the talent that the had or these composers or animators or the acrobats that we saw earlier have, I would probably be doing that. But the reason I'm here right now tonight is because of Kenneth Lonergan and his sublime screenplay that really dignifies everyday lives and their struggles with great compassion, and I will never be able to express my gratitude to him. And I accept this as a representative of the entire cast, Michelle and Lucas and Kyle, because that's really how it works. We are all together. This is an honour I will never forget. Thank you to the Academy. Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone else. Thank you so much.
