Five Things We Wish Ben Affleck Had Said in His Oscar Speech

Ben Affleck's heartfelt Academy Award speech will likely be remembered as one of the best of the night, highlighting most of tomorrow's news reports along with jokes about Best Actress winner Jennifer Lawrence falling on her way up the stairs. There are always a few things you'd like to hear, however, that don't get into the minute and twenty seconds or so that a winner has to speak their mind, especially when that person has family and producers and (in this case) real-world inspirations to thank. So here, without sounding like we're crazy people who thought he could actually get to them all, are some things we'd have liked to have seen Affleck mention: 5. Literally anything he said in the first fifteen seconds of his rattling off people he had to thank Geez, that boy can talk fast. 4. A bit more of a nod to his comeback He alluded to this nicely without getting into it, but the idea of Affleck being the director of the year's Best Picture after the fall from grace he had...that's remarkable. 3. Addressing the "reality" Affleck actually mentioned two things that kind of touch on this, but here's what he meant and didn't have time for: This isn't unique to Argo, nor is it really a criticism of Affleck or the film--but as happens whenever you do a movie based on the true story of people still alive, there are some criticisms about the way it's been presented. The role of the Canadian government in the film is downplayed to make the central character more...ahem...central, and that's been criticized by former Canadian officials who were involved (actually, Affleck changed one of the end title cards in response to this). Jimmy Carter, who was President during the time the film takes place, backed the Canadian version. As we said, he did thank Canada, and he did put some emphasis on thanking Tony Mendez for letting them tell "HIS story," as in, "hey, it's Tony, not me, who made him the lead!" And, of course, it would have been nice to hear about Jack Kirby and Roger Zelazny's contributions to the history but you only get that little bit of time...

This is something he forgot to do when he won for Best Original Screenplay in 1998. At the time, Affleck was working on the set of his third consecutive Kevin Smith film--Dogma--and Smith had arranged for the movie for which he won--Good Will Hunting--to be seen by the studio heads who eventually bought it. Apparently there was some good-natured ribbing that went on as a result, with Affleck coming back to the set mortified that he'd neglected to do so and Smith making fun of him for a while before admitting it was no big deal (this according to the movie's commentary track). At any rate, it would have been cool to see that come up in the speech. 1. "I'm Daredevil, bitches!" [Drops mike]