On Sunday, March 10, George Santos won the Academy Award for Best Actor for starring in U.S. Congress’ genre-bending hit, “11 Months and 23 Charges: Yikes.” This victory makes him the first politician to win Best Actor in the 96-year history of the Academy Awards.
Shortly after his win was announced, he took to the stage to make an acceptance speech that went several minutes past the allotted time. Cue the music, please!
“I’d like to thank the CNN journalists and Robert Zimmerman for making me a better performer; I couldn’t have done it without you. I’d like to thank Mark Chiusano, the Dems, and the people who can’t stop talking about me—haters are my motivators,” beamed Santos.
This was his first Oscar nomination and win after a venerated, decade-long career in which he has taken on a variety of roles such as “Baruch Alum,” “Responsible Campaign Spender,” “Animal Charity Founder,” “Brazilian Drag Queen,” “Hannah Montana Feature” and “Son of 9/11 Victim.”
While the distinction of winning an Oscar is rare for a politician, it is not unprecedented. In 2016, former U.S. president Donald J. Trump won ‘Best Original Screenplay’ for (according to the Academy) having the most “horrifying, impressive and original” presidential campaign.
Throughout this award season, Santos has worked hard to advocate for the normalization of political figures being nominated for acting awards, avidly countering actors who have argued he’s “unqualified” or “isn’t a real actor.” Academy Award-decorated actor Tom Hanks took to the red carpet to address this debate.
“While George Santos does not have any technical acting experience, I’d say him being a politician makes him a thousand times more qualified than any of us. Think about it—I filmed Forrest Gump for two years, right? For months at a time, I’d get up, get ready, film, but then I’d go home to Rita. Santos wakes up and bam, his life is a performance. He’s my hero.”
Hanks does not stand alone. Since Santos’ win on Sunday, #SantosIsMyHero has been trending on Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, Reddit, YouTube Shorts, Pinterest, and Linkedin, and was used nearly 28 million times across all platforms.
While the internet’s support towards Santos generally hasn’t wavered, some mention of Santos’ criminal history has resurfaced. An Instagram user under the name @berniesanders commented, “Lmfao…are we all going to ignore the nearly two dozen federal charges in conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft?? Y’all trippin…”
Last night, Santos took to Twitter to combat these allegations.
“To everyone who saw ‘Booboo Whiny Baby Sanders’ comment, I hope you know these claims are only backed up by the law. To all the little boys and girls out there who saw me win on Sunday; if you think truth, morality and success all go hand in hand—they don’t! Keep being your most inauthentic self.”
