Adrien Brody Revealed That He Was Asked To Boycott The 2003 Oscars, And He Explained Why He Went Anyway

If you're an Oscars nerd — or if you just have a really good memory — then you probably remember when Adrien Brody won Best Actor for The Pianist back in 2003.

Brody's acceptance speech is one of the most notorious Oscars moments of all time. Upon accepting the award, he kissed presenter Halle Berry in a manner that didn't appear to be consensual.

The actor recently revealed that, if things had gone a little differently, there's a chance he wouldn't have been there to accept the Oscar at all.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Brody claims that legendary actor Jack Nicholson invited him and the other Best Actor nominees to his house — and tried to convince them to boycott the ceremony to protest the Iraq War.

Ultimately, Brody decided to attend. “I said, ‘I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going,’” he recalled saying.

“I said, ‘I kind of have to show up. My parents are coming. This doesn’t come around too often.'"

"'You can sit it out. But I can’t.’”

Brody did end up mentioning Iraq in some way during his acceptance speech, saying that his involvement in The Pianist "made me very aware of the sadness and the dehumanization of people at the times of war, and the repercussions of war.”

Read the entire interview here.