Daniel Day-Lewis' Screen Actors Guild Acceptance Speech

A worthy tribute to Ledger

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Monday, January 28th 2008 at 7:35 PM

Daniel Day-Lewis took home the Actor for his performance in There Will be Blood and out of the night's group of acceptance speeches I really thought his was the best.

I was going to try and share more of them, but none of them really seemed to work as much as this one.

Here's the video, and the transcript follows:

Thank you. I'm very, very proud of this. Thank you so much for giving it to me. And I'm very proud to be included in that group of wonderful actors this year.

You know, for as long as I can remember, the thing that gave me a sense of wonderment, of renewal, the thing that teased me with the question, how is such a thing possible, and then dare you to go back into the arena of one more time, with longing and self-doubt, jostling in the balance. It's always been the work of other actors, and there are many actors in this room tonight, including my fellow nominees who have given that sense of regeneration and…

Heath Ledger gave it to me. [applause] In Monster's Ball, that character that he created, it seemed to be almost like an unformed being, retreating from themselves, retreating from his father, from his life, even retreating from us, and yet we wanted to follow him, and yet we're scared to follow him almost. It was unique. And then, of course, in Brokeback Mountain, he was unique, he was perfect. [applause] And that scene in the trailer at the end of the film is as moving as anything that I think I've ever seen. And I'd like to dedicate this to Heath Ledger. So, thank you very much. Thank you so much. [applause]

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