Adrien Brody Finally Spoke About His Controversial Kiss With Halle Berry at the 2003 Oscars

Actor Adrien Brody suprises presenter Halle Berry with a kiss after he won the Oscar for best actor for his work in "The Pianist" at the 75th annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., Sunday, March 23, 2003. LOS ANGELES TIMES PHOTO BY ^^^

Chances are you remember the 2003 Oscars, and how Adrien Brody grabbed Halle Berry and kissed her without her consent after he won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in The Piano. Well, ahead of the 2025 Oscars, where Brody was nominated for his role in The Brutalist, everyone is talking about it again, including Brody.

 

Adrien Brody (Ermenegildo Zegna suit) kisses Halle Berry (Elie Saab Couture dress) as he receives his Best Actor award at the 75th Academy Awards, LA, CA 3/23/2003. ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection

Adrien Brody, Halle BerryCourtesy Everett Collection

In an interview with Variety, Brody talked about that kiss, and how, after 20 years, it’s been seen as a very inappropriate act compared to then.

“We live in a very conscious time, which is a wonderful thing,” he said. “And nothing that I ever do or have done or would’ve done is ever done with the intention of making anyone feel bad.”

BEVERLY HILLS, UNITED STATES: Oscar winning actor Adrien Brody (L) applies breath spray as a joke, referring to the kiss he gave to Oscar Winner for Best Actress Halle Berry two years ago, as he presents the 2005 Oscars Nominees along with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' President Frank Pierson in Beverly Hills, California 25 January 2005. The 77th Academy Awards will be held 27 February at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. AFP PHOTO/HECTOR MATA (Photo credit should read HECTOR MATA/AFP via Getty Images)

Oscar winning actor Adrien Brody (L) applies breath spray as a joke, referring to the kiss he gave to Oscar Winner for Best Actress Halle Berry two years ago, as he presents the 2005 Oscars Nominees.AFP via Getty Images

Since the 2003 incident, he joked about it in 2005, applying breath spray as a joke to refer to the kiss, when he was presenting the 2005 Oscars Nominees.

And while people have been asking about this kiss for years, he’s only briefly discussed it. In fact, during a previous 2017 interview with Vanity Fair, when asked if he’s seen Berry lately, he briefly talked about the moment of kissing her, winning the Oscar, and how “time slowed.” However, he didn’t actually address the non-consensual kiss, and more so brushed over it.

Adrien Brody Subtly Addresses That 2003 Oscars Kiss with Halle Berry

He hasn’t publicly apologized for the incident, despite Berry even saying how wild it all was. As we said, Berry talked about the incident, confessing in 2017 on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen that the kiss wasn’t planned at all. “No! That was not planned! I knew nothing about it. I was like, what the f— is happening, right now? And because I was there the year before and I know the feeling of being outta your body, I just f– went with it.”