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Jared Harris for Chernobyl- Winner’s Acceptance Speech, Leading Actor, Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards in 2020

31 July 2020

Winner's acceptance speech by Jared Harris for Chernobyl in the Leading Actor category

JARED HARRIS: Wow. That's a surprise. BAFTA, you’ve ruined my losing streak, I'm annoyed at you.

You know, the show’s won a lot of accolades, and I think that's testament to Craig Mazin and Carolyn Strauss and Jane Featherstone’s stewardship. I’d say the best decision they made was to put every single episode in Johan Renck’s hand. He’s a badass, and I’d do it again with him in a heartbeat.

There's a couple of people who are on a similar streak that I was on, and I want to just give them a shout-out. Nina Gold and Robert Sterne, the casting department, and the amazing swivel hip Daniel Parker.

Also, I want to say a quick shout-out to [unclear 00:00:53], he was at HBO, and I think he was the first person who said yes to Chernobyl, and he was actually the first person that I met after I’d been cast, and about ten minutes into our meeting he looked at me and he said, ‘Jared, I hope you don’t mind me telling me this, but you weren’t our first choice,’ and then he said, ‘Would you like to know who was?’ and I said, ‘Oh, I would, yes, very much.’ ‘Daniel Day Lewis, but he retired from acting.’ And I’d just like to say a quick – to Daniel – don’t stay away too long, you know, I miss seeing you up there.

And finally, to my best friend and to my wife, Allegra, she’s always got my back, I share everything with her, and I share this with her. Bless you, I love you with all my heart.

Thank you, guys. Thank you to BAFTA. Bless you.