Anthony Hopkins thanks the Academy, pays tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman
As I was getting ready to hop into bed, I saw the outrage online about Anthony Hopkins winning the Best Actor Oscar instead of the late, great Chadwick Boseman. A lot of people wanted Boseman to win a posthumous Oscar, especially since he never won an Oscar during his lifetime (despite doing several Oscar-worthy roles). I get that, I really do! It would have been an emotional moment, a final moment for Chadwick’s widow and his family. But despite the pandemic year, the Best Actor category was stacked, and I honestly feel like the Oscar could have easily gone to Chadwick, Anthony Hopkins or Riz Ahmed. In fact, I think those three men split the vote and that’s how Hopkins got the win. His performance in The Father was brutal and sad and a master class in acting, as always when it comes to Hopkins. I think that’s why Hopkins won – because this is likely the last time the Academy will have to honor Hopkins, who is 83 years old.
So why wasn’t Anthony at the Oscars? Well, as soon as he got fully vaxxed, he traveled to Wales to see visit friends and family. Tony lives full-time in Malibu but he missed seeing his old stomping ground in the pandemic, so he traveled to Wales several weeks ago. And he was asleep when he won his second Oscar.
Anthony Hopkins made history when he won the Best Actor honor at Sunday’s 93rd Academy Awards for his starring role in The Father. The only hitch? The celebrated star, 83, was asleep in bed at the time and had no idea he’d won what was the final award of the evening or that he had become a record holder as the oldest star to win an Oscar in the category.
“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,” Hopkins’ long-time agent Jeremy Barber tells PEOPLE. “He was so happy and so grateful.”
The two-time Oscar winner, who beat out fellow nominees Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Gary Oldman (Mank), and Steven Yeun (Minari), had recently returned to his native Wales.
“After a year in quarantine, and being double-vaccinated, he was finally able to return to Wales, and age 83, it was a great relief after such a difficult year,” says Barber. “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.” This was Hopkins’ sixth Oscar nomination.
I’m glad he was asleep, he didn’t miss anything and he was able to make his speech on Instagram, because Anthony Hopkins loves social media and he’s always posting cat photos and cat videos. In the video, Hopkins paid tribute to Chadwick Boseman, saying: “And I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who was taken from us far too early. And again, thank you all very much. I really did not expect this. So I feel very privileged and honored. Thank you.”
Photos, video courtesy of Instagram.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmcGliZ4Rye8Cnq6Gnnq6sqbvPpKCnq4%2BptaK6yqyWraCVlK6krcOepLKXoJbGtKvTq6CbraSarLW7vq2fnpeclsGmq8KhmJ2vmZi4oK7OrJymmZ5k