Adrien Brody became choked up as he addressed the Los Angeles wildfire crisis during his speech at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards on Wednesday night.
The 51-year-old struggled to contain his emotions as he took to the stage in New York to accept the Best Actor award for The Brutalist.
"I would be remiss to not mention the weight of what's on all of our mind and in our hearts tonight," he began, reports People. "It's been a heavy day for me."
Brody's voice quivered and he fought back tears as he took a brief pause. After apologising, he continued, "It's hard to accept something like this when there's so much suffering in the world. And um, you know, my heart goes out to all of the families and the animals and our colleagues."
The Pianist star then expressed his gratitude to the hundreds of firefighters who have been deployed to the LA area to try and contain the multiple blazes, which began in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood on Tuesday.
"I just want to thank and commend the bravery of the first responders and sacrifices and their meaningful work that deserves our recognition tonight," he added. "I just want to share that my thoughts are with everyone affected by this horrific event. They're in my prayers and I know that we're all praying for their safety."
While the NYFCC gala went ahead as scheduled, a number of Hollywood events and productions have been postponed or cancelled as a result of the raging fires. Premieres of films such as Wolf Man, Unstoppable, Better Man and Back in Action were axed and the upcoming Critics Choice Awards were rescheduled from Sunday to 26 January.
In addition, the Oscar nominations have been postponed by two days to Sunday 15 January and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Awards nominations have been delayed until Monday 13 January.
Hacks actress Jean Smart, who won a Golden Globe on Sunday, took to Instagram to urge TV network executives to drop their awards show broadcasts and donate money to those affected by the emergency.
"Attention! With ALL due respect, during Hollywood's season of celebration, I hope any of the networks televising the upcoming awards will seriously consider NOT televising them and donating the revenue they would have garnered to victims of the fires and the firefighters," she wrote.
