Oscar Winners Reflect on the Big Moment

Feb. 26, 2007 — -- It was a night of dreams come true and long-awaited victories for newcomers and old favorites on the Oscar stage. "Good Morning America's" Robin Roberts and Chris Cuomo got exclusive access to this year's Academy Award winners. Read on to hear what the stars had to say after winning Hollywood's highest honor.

Robin Roberts caught up with Forest Whitaker at the governor's ball, where he was named king of the evening after winning a best actor award for his performance as Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland."

In his acceptance speech, Whitaker remembered his humble roots in East Texas and how far he has come because he held on to his dreams.

Whitaker told Roberts that his goal in the speech was to provide perspective on his journey.

"I wanted to say something about the journey," Whitaker told Roberts. "This is the whole point of what I do. What I do for ... this whole point of my art and also I think that is the wrong word. It's the whole point of my life."

Roberts congratulated Helen Mirren on her win for best actress for "The Queen." Mirren told "GMA" that despite her long and successful career, she never thought she'd have a chance at winning the coveted gold statuette.

"I never thought I'd ever win an Oscar. I never thought that, but I was happy with that. I kind of let go of that -- you know 'it's not going to happen to you, Helen. And it's fine. It's fine. You've had a great life and a great career. Um and it's absolutely fine. You don't need to win an Oscar,'" Mirren said she'd told herself.

But she added, "I did!"

He had eight nominations for some of Hollywood's most memorable movies, but it was "The Departed" -- a slick, fast and thrilling crime drama -- that brought one of Hollywood's favorite directors a long-awaited Oscar.