Oscar winner Graham Moore: 'Stay weird, stay different'

Graham Moore.
(Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images.)

In a powerful acceptance speech for the Best Adapted Screenplay trophy, The Imitation Game writer Graham Moore dedicated his Oscar to teenagers who are struggling to fit in.

"[Imitation Game subject] Alan Turing never got to stand on a stage like this and look out at all these disconcertingly attractive faces," said Moore. "And I do. And that's the most unfair thing I think I've ever heard."

"So in this brief time here, what I want to use it to do is to 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."

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"And now I'm standing here, and 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 that same message to the next person who comes along."

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.