People are looking at this differently now 22 years on.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]
Words by Sarah O’Byrne<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/02\/Adrien-Brody-e1740567422493.jpg” alt=”Adrien Brody” title_text=”Adrien Brody” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″] The 2025 Oscar competition is stacking up to be one of the toughest to call\u2014 will Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet take home the statue for A Complete Unknown, or will Adrien Brody\u2019s performance in The Brutalist earn him his second Academy Award?<\/p>\n The stiff competition between the pair has people revisiting Adrien Brody\u2019s first time accepting the award back all the way back in 2003, when he made a move that left many viewers uneasy.<\/p>\n At the 75th Academy Awards, Adrien Brody was nominated for his performance in The Pianist<\/em>, a biographical war film directed by the controversial Roman Polanski. At the time, he was the youngest of the nominees in his category, and he was up against some of the greats\u2014 Daniel Day Lewis was nominated for Gangs of New York<\/em>, Michael Caine for The Quiet American<\/em>, Jack Nicholson for About Schmidt<\/em> and Nicolas Cage for Adaptation<\/em>. Despite Daniel Day Lewis being widely regarded as the favourite to win at the time, Adrien came out on top, and he took to the stage to accept his very first Oscar.<\/p>\n Presenting the award was Halle Berry, who had earned her own golden statuette the previous year for her performance in Monster\u2019s Ball<\/em>. As Adrien took the award, he swept the actress into his arms and planted a passionate kiss on her mouth. The crowd erupted in thunderous applause and laughter and eventually took their seats to hear the actor\u2019s acceptance speech. As he began addressing the audience, he turned to Berry and as she was wiping her mouth said, \u2018I bet they didn\u2019t tell you that was in the gift bag.\u2019<\/p>\n Years later on Watch What Happens Live!<\/em>, a caller asked the actress whether the incident was planned, to which she quickly responded, \u2018No. It was not planned, I knew nothing about it.\u2019<\/p>\n She then turned to host Andy Cohen and asked, \u2018Can I say it for real?\u2019 When he agreed, urging her to be honest, she continued, \u2018I was like, \u201cWhat the f*ck is happening right now?\u201d That is what was going through my mind. And because I was there the year before and I know the feeling of being out of your body, I just f*cking went with it. But I was like, \u201cWhat the f*ck is going on right now?\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n When pushed for details on how the kiss was, she responded, \u2018I don\u2019t know, I was too focused on, \u201cWhat the fuck is going on?\u201d I don\u2019t even know.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”] In 2015, Adrien also commented on the kiss in an interview with Vanity Fair, but in a stark contrast he spoke about it fondly. He said, \u2018That was probably one of the most memorable moments. If ever you could say time slow down, that was that moment where I really felt it slow down. In fact, it must have because by the time I got finished kissing her and people settled in, they were already flashing the sign to say, \u201cGet off the stage, your time is up.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n However, this year he had slightly more to say about the controversial moment. \u2018We live in a very conscious time, which is a wonderful thing,’ he said when asked about it by Variety. ‘And nothing that I ever do or have done or would\u2019ve done is ever done with the intention of making anyone feel bad.\u2019<\/p>\n Recently, a clip of the kiss has been circulating online, with comments showing people\u2019s discomfort with it. One TikTok user commented, \u2018Back then I always wondered if she was okay with it or just didn\u2019t want to be seen negatively if she pushed him away,\u2019 with another writing that the kiss was \u2018disrespectful to her husband at the time.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-563605439.jpg” alt=”Adrien Brody Halle Berry” title_text=”Adrien Brody and Halle Berry” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″] One woman told Grazia, \u2018If Halle had been in on the joke, then it would have been another story, but the fact is it\u2019s really unclear from a public perspective. What was she meant to do in front of a live audience and hundreds of thousands of viewers at home? Push him off? We all know that wouldn\u2019t have been received well at the time.\u2019<\/p>\n While Adrien has changed his attitude to the viral moment in recent years, incidents like this are far from a thing of the past. Earlier this month, former Spanish football official Luis Rubiales was found guilty of sexual assault and fined \u20ac10,800 for kissing player Jenni Hermoso without her consent during the 2023 World Cup. At the time, many called for her to forget the incident and branded it simply a moment of celebration, but beneath the action lay a deeper disrespect, and one that he was justly punished for.<\/p>\n Whatever their feelings on the matter today, Halle Berry managed to put the controversy aside and recently commented her support beneath Adrien Brody\u2019s post about winning a Golden Globe. The actress wrote, \u2018Congratulations my friend. You are truly one of one!\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”] Photo: Imago, Getty<\/b><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many are still not sure how to feel about this moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":7471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7443"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7472,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7443\/revisions\/7472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘I just f*cking went with it. But I was like, \u201cWhat the f*ck is going on right now?\u201d’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]