At the 2021 Oscars, one huge winner was conspicuously absent. Days after the ceremony, the world
finally knows why.
The ceremony actually shifted around the typical order of awards on the April 25 telecast,
placing the traditional closing award, Best Picture, before Best Actress and Best Actor.
That left Best Actor to close the night, likely because of the presumption that Chadwick Boseman,
who tragically passed away at the age of 43 in 2020 due to complications from stage IV
colon cancer, would win. Boseman was largely expected to take home the only Oscar of his
career for his bombastic performance in Netflix's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," which was the
last movie he filmed before his untimely passing.
But Anthony Hopkins ultimately won the award for his role in the family drama "The Father,"
in which the veteran actor plays a man suffering from severe dementia. And in a true anticlimax,
Hopkins wasn't present to accept the award.
Clearly, Oscars producer Steven Soderbergh and his team assumed Boseman's win would provide
an emotional moment to end the night. What happened instead was pretty jarring. Presenter
Joaquin Phoenix, clearly uncomfortable, muttered that the Academy would accept the award on
Hopkins' behalf, and the night ended abruptly with no speech on Hopkins or Boseman's behalf.
So where exactly was Hopkins during the ceremony? According to "People," the actor was simply
asleep in his home country of Wales and woke up to the news. Hopkins' collaborator and
agent of many years, Jeremy Barber, told the magazine,
"Tony was in Wales, where he grew up, and he was asleep at 4 in the morning when I woke
him up to tell him the news. He was so happy and so grateful. [...] After a year in quarantine,
and being double-vaccinated, he was finally able to return to Wales, and at age 83, it
was a great relief after such a difficult year. [...] But he loved the role in 'The
Father' – it's his proudest performance – and to be the oldest living actor to win
in the category means so much to him."
Hopkins himself posted an Instagram message early on the Monday morning after winning
the award, thanking his collaborators on "The Father" as well as his family and loved ones.
Acknowledging the elephant in the room, he also included a shout-out to Boseman, recognizing
that his win was a shock to many.
"I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who was taken from us far too early."
Hopkins added,
"I really did not expect this, so I feel very privileged and honored."
Hopkins' win for "The Father" is his second for Best Actor out for four nominations for
the award. His other win came in 1992 for "The Silence of the Lambs." He has also been
nominated twice for Best Supporting Actor. As Barber mentioned, Hopkins is now the oldest
living actor to ever win Best Actor.
The celebration of Hopkins' win has been overshadowed by frustration and confusion over Boseman's
loss, particularly because it was Boseman's last chance to ever win an Academy Award.
To further add to the furor, many felt as if the Academy capitalized on Boseman's death
to attract viewers by moving Best Actor to the end of the ceremony.
There was also upset over using the "Black Panther" star's likeness in an NFT, or non-fungible
token. Though some outlets reported that the NFT was in the gift bags given to Oscars attendees,
artist, Andre Oshea said there was only one piece that was meant to be auctioned off for
charity.
Causing further controversy is that Boseman and his "Ma Rainey" co-star Viola Davis, who
were both expected to win the leading acting awards on Oscar night. To date, only five
Black performers — Sidney Poitier, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Washington and
Halle Berry — have won leading acting awards at the Oscars. Davis and Boseman would have
been the sixth and seventh Black performers to win Best Actress and Best Actor.
Ultimately, Hopkins and Frances McDormand of "Nomadland" took home the 2021 awards.
Though this was the most diverse group of Oscar nominees in history, it's still disappointing
that performers of color, including Supporting Actor and Actress winners Daniel Kaluuya and
Youn Yuh-Jung, are often left out of the leading categories.
If you want to catch Boseman and Hopkins' performances, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" is
streaming on Netflix, and "The Father" is available to rent on major streaming platforms.
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