Chadwick Boseman’s family recently spoke out about the upset at the 93rd Academy Awards Sunday night when the late actor did not win the award for Best Actor, losing to Sir Anthony Hopkins.
Boseman’s brother, Derrick Boseman, told TMZ that the actor’s family was not upset that the award didn’t go to Boseman and said that he doesn’t see it as a snub due to the fact that all of the nominated actors were excellent and deserved to win. Derrick told the outlet that the family wishes Hopkins and his family all the best because, as he said, “I”m sure [Anthony] would if Chad won.”
Derrick added that his brother did not put too much value on the Oscars awards, saying that Chadwick “always described them to me as a campaign.” Regardless, Derrick said that an Oscar would have been an accomplishment, but was not an obsession.
At age 83, Hopkins bested actor Christopher Plummer’s 2010 win for “Beginners” by just one year (Plummer was 82 at the time of his win). Despite the record win, Hopkins was not present Sunday night to accept the award and delivered his acceptance speech from his home in Wales the following morning where he honored the late-actor Chadwick Boseman, who was the expected winner for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
Hopkins posted an acceptance speech on social media, saying, “Good morning. Here I am in my homeland in Wales and at 83-years-of-age I did not expect to get this award. I really didn’t. Very grateful to the Academy and thank you.”
“I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman who was taken from us far too early,” Hopkins added. “Again, thank you all very much. I really did not expect this, so I feel very privileged and honored. Thank you.”
Many celebrities and commentators were not happy about the outcome, feeling that Boseman was slighted and should have won for the last role he played before he passed away. Some even said it was a “racist” ending to the show.
The Oscars award show aired Sunday night and hit a new record for fewest viewers to tune into the program. The show included various speeches by Hollywood elite that referenced the highly anticipated trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and criticized members of law enforcement.
Travon Free, writer of the Oscar-Winning Best Live Action Short Film, said, “Today, the police will kill three people. And tomorrow the police will kill three people. And the day after that the police will kill three people because on average every day in America the police will kill three people, which amounts to about 1,000 people a year. And those people happen to be disproportionately black people. And, y’know, James Baldwin once said, ‘The most despicable thing a person can be is indifferent to other people’s pain.’ And so I just ask that you please not be indifferent, please, don’t be indifferent to our pain.”
“It has been quite a year,” actress Regina King said. “And we are smack dab in the middle of it. We are mourning the loss of so many, and I have to be honest: If things had gone differently this past week in Minneapolis, I may have traded in my heels for marching boots. Now, I know that a lot of you people at home would reach for your remote when you feel like Hollywood is preaching to you, but as a mother of a black son, I know the fear that so many live with and no amount of fame and fortune changes that.”
The show has become increasingly less popular in recent years. As The Daily Wire reported, “The number of total viewers dropped roughly 58% year-over-year from the then-record low in 2020, according to The Wrap. The number of total viewers plummeted from 23.6 million total viewers in 2020 to just 9.85 million total viewers on Sunday night.”
Deadline reported Tuesday that the final viewership numbers for the 2021 Oscars were 10.4 million, still a significant drop from the previous year.