Academy Awards Acceptance Speech Database

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS:
That's the closest I'll ever come to getting a knighthood, so thank you. My deepest thanks to the members of the Academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town.

I'm looking at this gorgeous thing that you've given me and I'm thinking back to the first devilish whisper of an idea that came to him and everything since and it seems to me that this sprang like a golden sapling out of the mad, beautiful head of Paul Thomas Anderson. I wish my son and my partner, HW Plainview, were up here with me, the mighty Dillon Freasier. So many people to thank. One amongst them would be Mrs. Plainview, down there, the enchantingly optimistic, open-minded and beautiful Rebecca Miller. I hope that all those to whom I owe and to whom I feel the deepest gratitude will forgive me if I say just simply: Thank you, Paul.

I've been thinking a lot about fathers and sons in the course of this, and I'd like to accept this in the memory of my grandfather, Michael Balcon; my father, Cecil Day Lewis; and my three fine boys, Gabriel, Ronan and Cashel. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.

[Ed. note: Presenter Helen Mirren, Best Actress winner the previous year for "The Queen," mimed knighting Mr. Day-Lewis with the Oscar statuette when he came on stage.]