At this year's Academy Awards ceremony, held on April 25, the Best Actor category was held
until the very end of the show — a spot normally reserved for Best Picture. Viewers
were quite shocked to see the Best Picture category put before both Best Actress and
Best Actor, and since this Oscars ceremony was so different than every other before it,
it seemed the rulebook was thrown out the window in this regard.
When it was time to announce Best Actor, JoaquinPhoenix, last year's winner for "Joker," came out on
stage to present. He gave a short speech and recognized the night's five nominees: Anthony
Hopkins for "The Father", Riz Ahmed for the "The Sound of Metal", the late Chadwick Boseman
for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", Steven Yeun for "Minari", and Gary Oldman for "Mank".
In a matter of seconds, Phoenix quickly announced that Hopkins — who wasn't in attendance
at the event — had won and that the Academy accepted the award on his behalf. The ceremony
then promptly ended, leaving viewers confused as to what happened and outraged over the
result. Just as quickly as the show concluded, fans raced to Twitter to take out their frustrations.
Acting superstar Chadwick Boseman died in August 2020 at the age of 43, but the actor
was given a posthumous nod in the Best Actor category for his performance as the ambitious
trumpet player Levee Green in Netflix's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Boseman was one of
the favorites to win Best Actor, and it looked like that was going to be the case, especially
after the category was moved to the last one of the night.
When an absent Hopkins was announced as the winner, thousands of fans lit up Twitter to
express their issues with the outcome. Spencer Althouse of Buzzfeed tweeted, to overwhelming
support,
"The Oscars were so sure that Chadwick Boseman was going to win that they REARRANGED THE
ENTIRE CEREMONY so his category could be last, and then they gave the award to Anthony Hopkins
instead...the most chaotic and unhinged thing I've ever seen,"
Likely speaking for many who feel the same, another fan added,
"Oscar or not, nobody can take away Chadwick Boseman's legacy. #WakandaForever."
After having some time to process what just happened, many shared a similar feeling: This
year's Best Actors upset was even more surprising than the infamous Best Picture mixup involving
"La La Land" and "Moonlight," which shocked the world back in 2017. Writer and critic
Jeffrey Zhang wrote in part on Twitter,
"Moonlight/La La Land was an #Oscars disaster in 2017, but it was an honest mistake. This
year? ... This was self-sabotage borne of ignorance and incompetence."
TV Source's Alan Sarapa argued that the upset was down to the event's organizers' poor planning:
"They clearly expected Chadwick Boseman to win, so they could end on a touching moment.
Instead they got the worst ending to the Oscars ever. At least Moonlight/La La Land was exciting
and memorable. This was just poor planning."
To the confusion of many viewers at home, though Anthony Hopkins wasn't in attendance
at the 2021 Oscars ceremony, he didn't pre-record an acceptance speech to be played at the event
if he won. That's usually standard practice if you're unable to make it to the event;
alternatively, the nominee can select someone else who can attend to accept the award on
their behalf if they end up winning. Hopkins did neither — but he did film an acceptance
speech the morning after the 93rd annual Academy Awards, and shared it on Instagram.
Standing in front of a stunning field in his home country of Wales, Hopkins admitted that
he didn't expect to win Best Actor for his work as a man struggling with dementia in
Florian Zeller's directorial debut "The Father."
"At 83 years of age, I did not expect to get this award. I really didn't. [I'm] very grateful
to the Academy, and thank you."
He took time to honor Chadwick Boseman, express his gratitude to the Academy, and reaffirm
that this win took him by complete surprise.
"And I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who was taken from us far too early. And again,
thank you all very much."
With this latest Academy Award added to his collection of accolades, Hopkins is now the
oldest person to ever win an Oscar — a record that the late Christopher Plummer previously
held when he won Best Supporting Actor at the age of 82.
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