Mark Rylance - 2008 Tony Awards acceptance speech

Mark Rylance offers some advice when he wins the 2008 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Boeing-Boeing.
He's actually reciting "The Back Country" by prose poet Louis Jenkins.

[@ArianaGrande]

in love.

[@MacIntoshMann]

bizarrely this is a comment by the actual musician ariana grande - who now of course has worked with sir mark on the film “don’t look up”! who would have thought their connection goes back this far?

[@JPLEYONKO4]

i respect that you kept your original youtube channel.

[@Ryan07_20]

I’m surprised this comment isn’t well known

[@imlabks]

I want to learn to walk thru walls now... Thanx Mr Rylance, for what was in my opinion, the highlight of the 2011 Tony's!

[@rare6499]

Total hero.

[@koikoiboi]

I 've watched a lot of award shows in my life and I think that was the single best acceptance speech I've ever heard. Astute, entertaining..... downright informative!

[@Crittenberger]

Rylance is brilliant. He did this at the Drama Desk (with Louis Jenkins's 'Confessional Poem'), so I was hoping fervently he'd win again and do this again. I love the anticipatory laughter before he starts speaking, obviously from those who knew what to expect! Thank you so much for putting this online! :D

[@farrog]

Rylance is a complete legend

[@patrickbyrne5070]

I’d never seen this… the man is something special

[@wundurra24]

Legend.

[@Luftmensch067]

Having just seen Rylance do this very same poem in the play Nice Fish at the ART in Cambridge this week (coming soon to NYC!) I did quite a double take at seeing this! I remember now watching him do this acceptance speech in 2008 and being entirely baffled so it's pretty funny to finally get the joke 8 years later!!!

[@Xiaolongbaokid16]

In the Oscar’s it’s DDL who is your tough competition, but in the Tony’s, it’s Mark Rylance.

[@GabyGibson]

See, this is why he's fantastic!

[@DA1055]

I just can't handle it....he slays me!

[@OnlyFairWeather]

They should just keep giving him Tony's just so he can make speeches!

[@flippetskater]

Oh yay for posting this! I had been to see the play the night before, and completely fell in love with Mark--I'm so glad he won! The speech was wicked awesome, too!

[@TimothyJonSarris]

I so hope that this happens again and that the next time it's during the Oscars when he wins for best actor in the film version of Jerusalem.

[@Miko-jo1ui]

And it happened but for a different film

[@TimothyJonSarris]

@@Miko-jo1ui My predictions were slightly off, but not by much😉

[@OzymandiasWasRight]

It's funny the strange things you read on IMDBs trivia pages. I was watching Ready Player One, got curious and ended up here. High caliber actors have a way of standing out, doesn't seem to matter what role this guy plays, he's always brilliant.

[@cv1293]

Don't look up.

[@Retrostar619]

Love this.

[@flannerymonaghan-morrs4740]

Gotta love him.....he's so sweet.

[@ROUBA33]

The man is a genius!

[@lampreysteve]

Mary McCormack's reaction to his speech is priceless. and until i typed his name into youtube, i didn't make the connection that he was in Angels and Insects. BRILL MOVIE, BRILL ACTOR!!!!! see this movie, but not with a sibling (like i did).

[@opossum765]

lol.. this speech just cracks me up. so hilarious and senseless!! in a good way, of course. and mary's face expression is just so priceless! :D

[@brainsareus]

kicks arse..!

[@bradhorner]

Feels good to be here. Want to comment on the comments of his comments. thank you *holds up sandwich*

[@willohteltv]

Man, that's my kind of humor!

[@kyledr]

agreed. brilliant.

[@kylewit924]

That poem is brilliant

[@ddd8170]

"thanks very much for...this" *holds up award* lmfao xD

[@brianlove8353]

I met this man recently he is so down to earth I talk to him for 20 minutes . I told him about this speech

[@spacegirl92]

One of the best acceptance speeches I've ever heard lol

[@parismcpirate]

Louis Jenkins' Back Country

[@spacedog7]

brilliant.

[@kakyajun]

And a cell phone.

[@TDCMonctonCigareandWhiskey]

I DEFINITELY agree! ROFLOL!

[@Npapas417]

The voice over lady calls him MIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@SiLlyGoOse4321]

I think its so funny ppl think he is crazy but he knows EXACTLY what hes doing LOl. He couldnt just get up and say thank you, this left them mystified! haha. Btw, I think at the end Gina Gershon says "what the fuck?" lol she didnt get it.

[@emhrnndz9]

Not mundane, simple, but anything from mundane.

[@miralabualjadail4206]

“Now what was that all about Alec?” Al Pacino.

[@GabyGibson]

What is the poem he recites?

[@santigarciarosa]

It's from Louis Jenkins

[@flannerymonaghan-morrs4740]

It’s called the back country.

[@1dhughes]

how come he has an american accent when in america and a british one when he's here? I chatted him in my park the other day when walking my dog

[@flannerymonaghan-morrs4740]

dav well he grew up in the states from age 2 to 18, so the accent is actually genuine. He only does the accent when reciting poems or starring in an American role otherwise in interviews he keeps his accent....I like that it’s not posh sounding though.

[@patrickbyrne5070]

@@flannerymonaghan-morrs4740you can hear both… accents rub off…. Many years of being raised by American tv/film and having American GFs I find myself sounding bit American occasionally. All that time, the formative years so to speak, def will have an effect. But it’s almost an American accent inside a British one… it’s interesting

[@bey492]

Mark Rylance was pretty useless in the other bolyn girl,to the point of being annoying.