Sunday’s Oscars were full of few surprises but many heartfelt, emotional speeches. One of the most emotional speeches came from Graham Moore, the young screenwriter of the adapted script for The Imitation Game. Graham is only 33 years old and TIG was his first full-length feature screenplay that had ever been produced. He was beyond thrilled, of course, and this is part of what Moore said in his speech:
Alan Turing never got to stand on a stage like this and look out at all of these disconcertingly attractive faces. I do! And that’s the most unfair thing I’ve ever heard. So in this brief time here, what I wanted to do was say this: When I was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself. Because I felt weird and I felt different and I felt like I did not belong. And now I’m standing here. And so I would like for this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like she’s weird or she’s different or she doesn’t fit in anywhere. Yes, you do! I promise, you do! Stay weird. Stay different, and then when it’s your turn and you are standing on this stage, please pass the same message along.
[From Moore’s Oscar speech]
Many instinctually felt – as I did – that Moore was talking about being gay and struggling with that in his teenage years. Moore seemed to be referencing the It Gets Better Campaign, and I was also reminded of Dustin Lance Black, the out-and-proud screenwriter who won an Oscar for Milk in 2009 and who is also active in LGBT suicide prevention. As it turns out, Graham Moore wasn’t coming out at the Oscars at all. He was just “coming out” as a “weirdo”. For real. He said backstage at the Oscars:
“I’m not gay, but I’ve never talked publicly about depression before or any of that and that was so much of what the movie was about and it was one of the things that drew me to Alan Turing so much,” Moore said. “I think we all feel like weirdos for different reasons. Alan had his share of them and I had my own and that’s what always moved me so much about his story.”
That’s true, we all feel like weirdos at some point in our lives, and that’s especially true for young people. So, Graham Moore just liked the story of Alan Turing and he wasn’t trying to make any kind of statement on LGBT issues. If anything, maybe he was trying to raise awareness about depression.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Suicide and depression are so rarely talked about – I’m glad he got people talking about this. Same with Dana Perry in her speech.
Being considered weird and not fitting in is not always about sexuality. It can just be not being part or thinking like those around you.
i still cant believe the imitation game won for the screenplay while gone girl and wild were snubbed completely. imitation game was so generic and completely left out the actual struggle of turing living in a time where being gay was illegal and reduced alan to an asocial genius much like in any cbs procedural, it was so completely off base imo
I agree completely about TIG being generic. I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn’t. The fim had no subtlety at all.
Truly. And really interesting parts of the story were left out in favor of TV movie tropes and a hackneyed yet distracting structure (the hopping back and forth in time).
This so much. Good for this boy and I hope the best for his career but that screenplay was as trite as trite can be.
absolutely agree with you. I found the screenplay borderline offensive, the bad writing was salvaged by actors, but how this pile of s…t could receive the Oscar is beyond me.
Completely agree with you. The screenplay was like a television movie at best, completely lacking any cleverness. It would have been more interesting if they had just focused on his later Manchester years: his prosecution for homosexuality in 1952 and his conviction for indecency. That is what I really wanted to see instead of breaking the Enigma Code.
I felt the same way about the movie, but I don’t think it was the script’s fault – a lot of it looked like bad editing to me, and the movie was changed to suit Harvey Weinsten’s taste.
I thought he was referring to that. Anyhow, it was a touching speech.
He’s a cutie!
Yeah, he kind of reminds me of the writer, John Green. Cute and little nerdy (a little nerdy is always great).
Wow! He’s young.
I thought he was talking about his sexuality simply because he started with Alan Turing, and the TIG oscar campaign has focused primarily on Alan Turing’s sexuality and how he was wronged.
That said, objectively, his speech covers all sorts of malaise especially for teens. All those hormones raging and feeling isolated especially if they don’t fit with the in-crowd, if they like non popular teen culture or stray from the herd by a smidge and thus labelled wierd, if they *are* gay and facing opposition directly or indirectly whether from strangers or family, all that can lead to depression and suicide.
Therefore I’m not disappointed that he wasn’t talking about sexuality per se, but I feel his speech is relevant to all of it, sexuality included.
HIs speech was moving and inspirational regardless his sexual orientation.
I really don’t know why people have always to dig deep in something that doesn’t need digging.
What difference would it make if he was gay? Would the speech be more inspirational? or less? c just because he’s allegedly gay?
I agree, his speech really struck a chord with me, even though I’m not too happy about TIG winning in this particular category.
What he said was really moving, and it didn’t even cross my mind to ponder what his sexuality might be. I was really surprised to see headlines today shouting OMG The TIG screenwriter NOT gay!!!!!11!!1!
Come on, world.
I just read his speech and it didn’t cross my mind at all that he was referring to his sexuality.
I read it too and didn’t think he was coming out or saying anything about his sexuality. But it did make me tear up a bit as a fellow “weirdo” who has now accepted being “different”.
Yeah right.
His voice was very high. When he used female pronouns for the kids he wanted to reach, I thought he was perhaps transgender.
Lovely speech, but it is a little confounding for him to be vague on what “weirdness” he was talking about. Did he not fit in because he came off as feminine? Because he wasn’t a jock in a football town? It feels like he came out and then went back into the closet in whatever personal issue drove him to suicide. That’s unfortunate,
Just bc he didn’t go in depth does not make it any less inspirational. His life is his life he doesn’t have to tell everything. I can relate to him. I was bullied in school bc I thought differently. good for him.
Here here.
I don’t think the reasons he felt like he was different have to be so cut and dried. Some people just don’t fit in. Maybe they’re gay, maybe they’re too intellectual for the place they live, maybe they’re being bullied because they’re small or unattractive or overweight or for no discernible reason. The point is that when you’re a teenager, you don’t have the life experiences that teach you that it WILL get better. You think you will always be this miserable and you can’t see a way out of the pain. That’s why so many teenagers commit suicide. Once you’ve been knocked to your back a few times, or had your heart broken, and time passes, and it gets better, you learn ways to cope and you know this isn’t going to be your life forever. I think that’s the important message. His reasons are his business.
“Weirdness” or inability to fit in don’t necessarily have to or can be labeled or explained in a few short sentences. As a person who is depressed and considered suicide before, I can tell you that it’s not that simple and I understand him completely. I’m straight and comfortable with my gender, I don’t think I’m particularly ugly or stupid, I wasn’t abused and I’m not suffering from any physical pain but yet I feel that I’m weird and I feel that I’m not fitting in and in the moments when I’m at my lowest I feel that this world is simply not the place for me. If I was to explain the reasoning behind it, that odd minute he had on stage would not be enough to even try to begin putting my thoughts in order. You don’t have to be that something from the list that allows you to be reasonably depressed. When someone says he or she is depressed, people expect them to follow it with I’m gay, I’m terminally ill, I lost someone I loved etc etc. When there is no explanation like that, it is usually followed by “eh, just cheer up” or “get over it, others have it much worse”. Yes, I wish I could, yes, they are but it’s just making things worse. I’m glad people like him openly talk about this issue.
Yes! Norman Bates’ Mother. You just described exactly how I feel at my worst moments. Sometimes it doesn’t have a reasonable explanation, it just is what it is, but people always have a problem with that. They want reasons, they want solutions, they want you to be strong and deal and get it out, and most of the time that is just not posible. I’m glad he used his speach for this.
NormanBates’Mother
You said that so perfectly. I have struggled with depression my entire life, and I think that in itself can make you feel that you don’t fit in. Mainly because you have to present such a fake version of yourself to the world, and very few people truly know and accept you for who you really are because you hide it from them. At least, I do, because 99% of people either bail – who wants to be around a depressed person – or just can’t understand – well, WHY are you depressed, you have this and that, blah blah cheer up, think positive, I read about this woman who ate tarot root and her depression went away – it’s just not worth it. Anyway, I send you all my best wishes and comforting thoughts. Thanks for saying what you did.
YEP!
I thought possibly transgender too.
i dont think it matters what it actually is about. if you are feeling hopeless for whatever reason, there still is hope. if you are gay, trans, bullied, failed at school, broken hearted, depressed, “ugly”, burned out, lost someone etc. it doesnt matter to be able to identify with what he said.
Amen. He does not owe anyone further details. His speech was honest, emotional and inspiring, and easy to identify with as a teen or frankly as an adult who feels weird or out of place. Whether that reason is sexual orientation or anything else… Not the issue.
Oh sorry, I said the same thing before I read down to yours.
Some men just have that way of speaking. Matthew Weiner of Mad Men is like that, but he has a wife and four kids, so? Not always what it seems.
He did write such an inspirational speech, I’ll give him that. But sorry, the fact that the entire world thought he was gay is no coincidence. It doesn’t make a difference, but obviously to him it does or he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to deny it.
Well, the “entire world” didn’t think he was gay; and other people’s opinions of you don’t define you. Just because other people think/thought he’s gay, doesn’t mean he’s actually gay.
I don’t think he “went out of his way to deny it”. I think he just wanted to be more inclusive. Frankly, there are a lot of organizations out there getting out the “it gets better” message to the young LGBT kids, but there aren’t a lot of famous people calling attention to the feelings of kids who are just a little different and don’t quite fit in. He was one of those kids, and wanted them included.
It’s also a simple factual issue. If somebody puts out information about you that is not correct, it’s ok to correct it. Doesn’t mean you’re ashamed, just that it isn’t accurate.
I loved what he said. Just loved it.
I was depressed when I was teen because of bullying so all the It Get’s Better things annoyed me because they felt like they were talking to me but they were not. So it is nice somebody talks about being different in a general level.
I didn’t originally think that his speech had to do with his sexuality but with depression and feeling alone or weird. It wasn’t until I saw his speech reposted by the Advocate that I thought maybe he meant he was gay. Even so, it doesn’t change the essence of his speech and I loved that he was addressing something that I’ve felt in my own life. I try very hard as a mother to reinforce my son’s unique qualities too. Personally, I love weird folks, they are some of my very best friends.
He’s really cute!
Keep Earth Weird.
Maybe he should have included the I’m not gay just a weirdo part in his televised speech so people wouldn’t assume he is gay cus that’s what he we’re all thinking.