Anthony Hopkins has lived in Malibu for decades, but once he got fully vaccinated, he decided he wanted to return to Wales, his birthplace, for an extended visit. He was in Wales during the BAFTAs, when he won Best Actor (and The Father’s screenwriter accepted on his behalf), and he was still in Wales for the Oscars. The morning after the Oscars, Tony posted a video on his Instagram where he made a nice little speech and honored Chadwick Boseman, whom everyone thought would win the same Oscar posthumously. On Monday, the Guardian claimed that Olivia Colman was supposed to accept Tony’s Oscar on his behalf but something got screwed up, and Joaquin Phoenix abruptly ended the Oscars. But according to other sources, that was not the case:
The Academy Award producers weren’t joking around when they said Zooming into the ceremony wouldn’t be allowed. The 2021 Oscars ended on an anti-climactic note when Chadwick Boseman didn’t win like predicted and the award instead went to Anthony Hopkins in “The Father”.
Hopkins, who was not able to travel due to the pandemic, was instead at home asleep in Wales.
According to IndieWire, Hopkins’ reps “pleaded” with producers to allow the star to Zoom in but they wouldn’t make the exception. New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan also clarified that Hopkins was turned down.
NYT’s Kyle Buchanan confirmed the story in some tweets, saying that Oscar producers turned down Tony’s Zoom offer, but Buchanan also says that Colman wasn’t even there for the end of the Oscars, so she wasn’t going to make a speech on his behalf. I don’t know if that’s true, but whatever.
Steven Soderbergh f–ked up the Oscars and insulted Anthony Hopkins, who was eager to Zoom into the show in the middle of a f–king pandemic. This is just awful.
Traditionally, the Oscars don't allow you to deputize a colleague to accept the award on your behalf… the presenter collects it instead. (An exception of sorts would have been made for Chadwick Boseman's posthumous victory, but that didn't happen.)
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) April 26, 2021
Sir Anthony Hopkins pays tribute to Chadwick Boseman in his Oscar acceptance speech pic.twitter.com/UVTRA56hko
— Films to Films 📽️🎬 (@FilmstoFilms_) April 26, 2021
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I think that the Oscars, with their hubs and “please, take masks off for any photos” were really really really REALLY trying to push for a “everything is back to normal” vibe, which failed miserably. I’m just speculating, but that agenda might have a LOT to do with the film industry needing, to paraphrase Sister Act, butts in the seats at theaters again in order to survive.
I think that’s a good take, and I’d add that they wanted star power there in person to get people to tune in. That didn’t work, but can you imagine if it was just a parade of Zoom acceptances? I would have turned it off immediately. I get enough of that at work. Although peeking into famous people’s houses could have been the gown-watch of this season!
Yeah I can understand why they didn’t want a bunch of zoom acceptances, but you would think they could have made an exception for Sir Anthony Hopkins who was in WALES.
I don’t, it’s modern Oscar producers complete mishandling of the ceremonies thinking they’re the biggest shit around and fudging them up with stupid decisions because they think they’re historic just based on existing and don’t realize the historic moments of the Oscars had to be allowed to happen by giving artists the stage. It’s an agenda of power-hungriness. They aren’t historic anymore mostly because they make decisions like these which are so full of themselves and don’t just stick to their history and making natural feeling, reasonable decisions.
For the majority of their history the Oscars DID let nominees deputize people to accept their awards on their behalf and DID hand out awards remotely. Joan Crawford got her Oscar in bed while going through a mental health spell.
Today’s producers think they’re hotter shit than the people who produced those classic ceremonies. They think THEY are the Oscars themselves. So we get ridiculous scandals like not allowing vulnerable elderly industry icons accept remotely. (Which is an absolute insult to the man who is Hollywood history embodied and who we’re lucky enough to still have with us and working, it’s spitting in his face. The disrespect is enraging.) Or we get the ludicrous hubris fueled decisions like having Hathaway and the James Dean wannabe host the show. The Awards are just floundering under this leadership.
That ended when people started sending activists to make political speeches when accepting Oscars for them. I recall a Native American woman accepting for Marlon Brando. I do think you should be able to deputize, with limitations on why or who, aka spouse or child, director or producer of film, or at least a member of the Academy, to cut down on hijacking the ceremony.
“ So we get ridiculous scandals like not allowing vulnerable elderly industry icons accept remotely…”
Or that straight-up insulting “In Memoriam”-via-speed-dating-techniques. 🤮🤮 Olivia De Havilland was a major film-industry figure as well as a brilliant actress—she deserved a lot more than a quick-flip.
Poor Anthony, they were very rude.
They are so up their ass. The whole thing should have been online. Instead they forced people to come and it still looked cheap and budget and frankly, the opposite of celebratory. Forcing an old man to fly to another continent during the global pandemic for a statue is low, petty and irresponsible.
Good grief that’s a dumb rule. It’s insulting and impractical and pointless. This is like so many dumb rules I’ve come across at work. It makes no f’ing sense but some idiot thought it was a good idea so now it’s the rule. Apparently the Academy is also made up of a bunch of entitled know-nothing middle management types. Can’t wait to not watch again next year.
I’m glad sir Hopkins won and that messed up with whatever the producers had in mind. That just shows how disrespectful they are towards nominees and obviously, living legends like Hopkins himself. He’s a senior and obviously he’s in the covid risk group who didn’t want to travel back and forth during award season, but I guess that didn’t matter to the oscars. They had all the time in the world to learn from other award shows done virtually during these times and still, they effed up big time.
And then they wonder why they can’t catch a break with ratings.
I don’t know who these Oscars producers are, but they made one terrible decision after another. Forcing it to be in person, not allowing elderly people overseas to zoom in, telling everyone no masks, it’s insane. Are they trying to kill off the entire industry?
The Academy Awards was s***, Full of S*** and still s***. This was the stupidest Award Season in the history of the Oscars. The only good highlight that came out of it was Glenn Close “Da Butt from School Daze” segment and that was it. Everything was Abysmal Crap.
Therefore, Anthony Hopkins didn’t miss anything. Congratulation to him.
Yeah, can’t imagine why an 83 year old man whose likely aware he’s in his last years of enjoying life wouldn’t want to be around maskless people even vaccinated. Not like there’s a bunch of stronger variants going around. 🙄
Hollywood did a great job over the last year or so reminding us how useless most of the wealthy are. Art is important but not celebrity. People would do well to remember that lol.