The brightest stars in film shined at the 2025 Oscars, with first-time and returning winners celebrating backstage and sharing how it felt to hear their name and accept an Academy Award.
Adrien Brody took home his second Academy Award for best actor in "The Brutalist" on Sunday night. Mikey Madison earned her inaugural Oscar, winning best actress for "Anora," which also won best picture. Zoe Saldaña became the first American of Dominican origin to win best supporting actress for "Emilia Pérez." Kieran Culkin, meanwhile, took home his first Oscars statuette for best supporting actor for his role in "A Real Pain."
All four stars stopped by backstage on Sunday to chat with "Good Morning America" about the accomplishment and what the winning moment meant to each of them.
Culkin, whose film debut came at age 7 in "Home Alone" alongside his older brother Macaulay Culkin, told "GMA" that without "taking it the wrong way," the notion of winning an Oscar was never on his radar.
"Because it's something I've always been doing -- it was never a pursuit of mine. It's just a part of what my life has always been. I have always been acting," Kieran Culkin, 42, said. "So this was never, like, on the horizon."
"I act ... just like I shower at night [or] eat -- it was never like a decision to go, 'I'm going to go after this thing,'" he continued. "It's just always been a part of my life -- I think that's why it just means so much more to me."
Saldaña made history at the Oscars when she won best supporting actress for her role as Mexican lawyer Rita Castro, becoming the third Latina and the first American of Dominican origin to win the category.
She told "GMA" having her husband by her side to share the moment and give her a boost was essential.
"I'm happy he was there beside me. He has been prepping me all night and all morning before this -- 'You've got this,' and 'You're wonderful,' and 'Take your Theraflu,'" she said, adding, "I woke up a little sick."
Saldaña explained "it was just like my body just like giving up on me -- it's been 10 months of this wonderful journey."
During Brody's powerful acceptance speech for best actor -- which even stopped the orchestra from playing him off the stage -- he said, "Acting is a very fragile profession. It looks very glamorous, and at certain moments, it is. But the one thing that I've gained having the privilege to come back here is to have some perspective."
More than two decades after his first best actor Oscar win for the 2002 war drama "The Pianist," Brody told "GMA" that the second time "is sweeter, because it's, again, the perspective of a life of work and of love, knowing it's precarious."
"I think first go-around I was somewhat of a complete unknown," he said of his historic first Academy Award that made him the youngest ever best actor winner. "I got here and people viewed me as an overnight success in many ways -- but I had already been working for 17 years."
With that in mind, Brody said 25-year-old Madison taking home the Oscar for best actress was an "amazing moment for her."
Madison called her best actress win for her role in "Anora" a "dream come true" while accepting her award on Sunday night, joking, "I'm probably going to wake up tomorrow."
The small but mighty independent film with just 40 people on the crew took home five Academy Awards this weekend, which Madison said is all thanks to Sean Baker, who wrote, edited and directed "Anora."
"I think that Sean is such an incredible filmmaker and has been making beautiful work for decades now," Madison told "GMA" backstage. "So, for this film to be the one that really puts him out there in this really special position is so wonderful, and I feel so lucky that I'm a little piece of that."
