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“I love Anthony Hopkins and his performance,” the Oscar voter said. Ultimately, it left a foul taste with everybody. Otherwise, they would not have changed the freakin’ order of the awards. It certainly proved one thing: The accountant-held ballot count really is secret. Still, the rotten production choice of placing a category right at the end of the evening when there was a solid chance the winner - or even a proxy - might not even be in attendance was a boneheaded one.
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“And I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who was taken from us far too early,” he said. I am grateful to the academy, and thank you. “At 83 years of age, I did not expect to get this award,” he said. The Welshman gave a kind speech the next day on Instagram, and paid tribute to Boseman. He won only once before, for “The Silence of the Lambs” almost 30 years ago. “They just knew what they were doing,” Eng added of Sony.Īlso, let’s make something clear: Like Boseman in “Ma Rainey’s,” Hopkins gives a triumphant and very deserving performance in “The Father.” He’s not some Oscar hog like Meryl Streep or, now, Frances McDormand. Oscars 2021 tortured viewers for more than 3 unbearable hours “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” on the other hand, dropped on Netflix back in November, during a tricky year with ample distractions. Sony Pictures Classics held off releasing the film ’til literally the last minute in theaters. “But I think there was something in play that general fans were not aware of, and that’s the fact that ‘The Father’ was peaking at exactly the right time. “On paper, Chadwick Boseman appeared to be the favorite because he won most of the precursor awards and Anthony Hopkins only had the BAFTA,” Eng told The Post, noting that the “Ma Rainey’s” actor won the SAG Award and the Golden Globe. Joyce Eng, senior editor of the award season punditry website GoldDerby, said the win came down, in part, to good old-fashioned Hollywood strategy - something Netflix has yet to master. However, similar to when a silent majority opted for Olivia Colman instead of Glenn Close or Lady Gaga in 2019, most people checked Hopkins’ box this year. I figured most were doing similar, and if I’d heard any murmurs about voting for another nominee, it was for Riz Ahmed.” Chadwick Boseman received rave reviews for his final role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” AP
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I voted for Chadwick, even if I found the movie itself to be a bit too theatrical for me to be really passionate about it. “What the hell was that? I was totally unaware of any sort of movement towards Anthony Hopkins within the Academy. “My jaw dropped,” a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences told The Post.
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Viewers were surprised when Anthony Hopkins (left) won the Best Actor Oscar over the late Chadwick Boseman (right). It was the fizzle heard around the world. But he didn’t win for his role in “ Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Hopkins did for playing a man ailing from dementia in “ The Father.” Even more anticlimactic, the 83-year-old - the oldest Best Actor winner ever - was far away in Wales, and didn’t deliver a speech. So viewers then assumed that move was to honor Boseman, who died in August of colon cancer at age 43. The final award of the evening, which had heretofore been Best Picture, was changed to Best Actor for the bizarre occasion. Remember when the controversial “Green Book” beat the favored “Roma” for Best Picture in 2019? Or when “La La Land” was mistakenly called to the stage instead of actual victor “Moonlight” in 2017? Or way back in 1997, when li’l “Shakespeare in Love” took down big honkin’ “Saving Private Ryan”? Usually that’s all part of the fun.īut to casual film fans, Sunday night’s big upset packed a particularly emotional wallop: The late Chadwick Boseman lost the Best Actor prize to Anthony Hopkins. How Cara Delevingne became Hollywood’s biggest heartbreaker The biggest red-carpet jewelry from the 2021 Oscars and Golden Globes