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    Anthony Hopkins Salutes Chadwick Boseman When Accepting His Surprise Oscar Win

    WENN/Avalon/Sheri Determan

    Though he was not available to give a live acceptance speech on April 25 night, ‘The Father’ star has since expressed his gratitude for the Best Actor honor through a recorded video.

    Apr 27, 2021

    AceShowbiz –
    Anthony Hopkins has broken his silence following his shock Oscar win to heap praise on fellow nominee Chadwick Boseman.

    “The Silence of the Lambs” star was asleep in his native Wales when he was named Best Actor for his role in “The Father” in the final category of Sunday, April 25’s hybrid prizegiving from Union Station in Los Angeles and was not available to give a live acceptance speech.

    His publicist thanked the Academy on his famous client’s behalf on Monday, and now Hopkins has responded in a video posted to his Instagram page.

    “Here I am in my homeland in Wales,” he began. “At 83 years of age, I did not expect to get this award, I really didn’t. I’m very grateful to the Academy. Thank you.”

    “I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who was taken from us far too early. Again, thank you all very much. I really did not expect this, I feel very privileged and honored, thank you.”

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    In his Instagram post, he also thanked Sony Pictures Classics, director Florian Zeller, and “my wife and family,” among others.

    It was Hopkins’ second Oscar win – he also won gold for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in 1992’s “The Silence of the Lambs”.

    Upon waking to discover he was a 2021 Oscar winner, Hopkins also called “The Father” director Florian Zeller while he was appearing on BBC Radio 4 to discuss the film’s success at the Academy Awards – the filmmaker took home the Best Adapted Screenplay gong for the script he co-wrote with Christopher Hampton.

    Meanwhile, his win put Hopkins into the record books by becoming the oldest actor to win the Oscar, passing the late Christopher Plummer, who was 82 when he won gold for “Beginners” in 2011.

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    “At 83 years of age I did not expect to get this award,” Hopkins said of his best actor win in a video posted early on Monday morning.About four hours after he won best actor at the 93rd Academy Awards in an upset, Anthony Hopkins delivered his acceptance in a video from Wales, taking a moment to acknowledge the actor who had been widely expected to win posthumously, Chadwick Boseman.“At 83 years of age I did not expect to get this award — I really didn’t,” said Hopkins, who won for his role as a patriarch struggling with dementia in “The Father.”On Sunday night, Hopkins became the oldest actor to win the award, almost three decades after his first Oscar win in the category, for “The Silence of the Lambs.”The award provided a strange ending to the ceremony. When Boseman was awarded a Golden Globe for best actor earlier this year, the emotional acceptance speech given by his widow, Taylor Simone Ledward, was the emotional highlight of the night. Perhaps with that in mind, the Oscars switched the traditional order of categories this year so that the best actor award came last, after the best picture had already been awarded.Boseman, who had been widely expected to win, did not — and Hopkins was not present to accept the award in person or virtually, resulting in a stilted, anticlimactic ending.Chadwick Boseman, in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”David Lee/Netflix, via Associated PressSocial media erupted with indignation at the win, with many saying the award should have gone to Boseman for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Boseman died of colon cancer at age 43 in August, months before “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” was released.“I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman who was taken from us far too early,” Hopkins said in his video, which was posted to social media.Posted in the morning in Wales, the video was short and sweet, with Hopkins thanking the typical cast of characters in the caption to his Instagram post: the film’s production company, his talent agency, his family.“Thank you all very much,” Hopkins said. “I really did not expect this.” More