To My Fellow Nominees, Whoever They Are

I Was In A Restaurant, And It Just Struck Me, Something I'd Never Thought Of Before. And It's Menus In The Restaurant Just Hit Me. I Was Ordering And I Thought, "god, Think Of All The People Who Handle These Meals Day In And Day Out" And They, I Mean You're Going To A Restaurant, You Can Be Pretty - You Can Feel Secure That They Wash The Silverware In The Kitchen And The Linens And All That Stuff, But They Don't Wash Their Menus, Who Washes Menus? Now, I've Got To Worry About That For The Rest Of My Life.

I'm From A Lebanese-american Family. And I've Been Had Lot Of Contacts And - With Arab-american Community, Especially Arab-american Filmmakers And Actors And So Forth. It's A Community That, A Minority That Really Hasn't Been Heard From Enough. And So Many Of The Stories That Are Told About Arab-americans These Days Are Just Negative Portrayals In The News, But Also In Television And Film. So We're - We Set Out To Try And Offset Some Of Those Stereotypes.

My Ritual It's Kind Of An Involuntary Ritual. I Lie Awake The Night Before, Worrying About Award Ceremony. Try And Think Of Something To Write In Case I Actually Get Up There. I Write It At The Very Last Minute Like Either In The Car On The Way To The Ceremony Or, You Know, In The Bathroom Before The Show Starts. It's All Of Jumbled Mess Written On A Napkin Or A Piece Of Toilet Paper. That's My Good Luck Ritual. It's Just Like Being In College Waiting For The Last Minute To Do Everything.

I Shot Barton Fink In July And Moved Out To La That Fall. The Movie Came Out In The Spring And It Was A Year Before I Got Wings.

This Business Can Be Very Frustrating But There Is Success Story After Success Story Of People Who Take The Bull By The Horns. Actors Who Are Frustrated ... [should] Do Your Own Project. Find A Writer, Shoot A Movie. It Can Be Done.