Chadwick Boseman Didn’t Win Best Actor at the Oscars 2021, and Twitter Is Livid

Chadwick Boseman was the favorite to win best actor at the Oscars 2021 for his performance in Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He was such the favorite, in fact, that the broadcast was rearranged presumably for this reason. Best actor was the last award presented during April 25th’s show—if Boseman won, things would’ve ended with a poignant tribute to him.

But that didn’t happen. Instead, Anthony Hopkins—who wasn’t present—won the award, and the show ended abruptly. Twitter, naturally, lit up with reactions. 

Chadwick Boseman, who passed away in August 2020 from cancer, has won virtually every award this season for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—from the Screen Actors Guild Award to the Golden Globe. His widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, accepted on his behalf at every turn. And her words have been powerful. “If you see the world unbalanced, be a crusader that pushes heavily on the seesaw of the mind. That’s a quote by Chadwick Boseman,” she said at the SAGs. 

And at the Gotham Awards in January, she said, “He is the most honest person I’d ever met. He actively searched for it, in himself, those around him, and the moment. The truth can be a very easy thing for the self to avoid. But if one does not live in truth, then it’s impossible to live life…. He was blessed to live many lives within his concentrated one. He developed his understanding of what it meant to be the one, the none, and the all. ‘A vessel to be poured into and out of.’  He harnessed the power of letting go and letting God’s love shine through. He realized that when one is able to recognize that when their strength does not come from themself, they rarely mess up. That’s what he was doing when he was acting. Modeling for us a path to true fulfillment.”