Winning The Audience Over

 

In accepting his Best Actor award as Lincoln at the 2013 Academy Awards, Daniel Day Lewis offered laughs and lessons in being Ready to win.

Instead of merely thanking his presenter Meryl Streep and director Steven Spielberg, he joked that “three years ago, before we decided to do a straight swap, I had actually been committed to play Margaret Thatcher, um…

“Meryl was Steven’s first choice for ‘Lincoln.’ And I’d like to see that version.

“Steven didn’t have to persuade me to play Lincoln, but I had to persuade him that, perhaps, if I was going to do it, that Lincoln shouldn’t be a musical!”

By capturing the audience’s attention with his humor and their hearts with his Lincoln-like humility, Daniel Day Lewis won over his audience as he won his Oscar for Best Actor.