Chadwick Boseman's Widow Simone Ledward-Boseman Shares the Speech She Would Have Given Had He Won the Posthumous Oscar
Chadwick Boseman‘s widow Simone Ledward-Boseman is sharing something special.
During The Hollywood Reporter‘s oral history of the 2021 Oscar’s, a night that was almost canceled due to COVID, Simone shared the speech she would have given had Chadwick received the posthumous Best Actor award for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
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Many believed he was going to get the Oscar, but it instead went to Anthony Hopkins.
“It says: I will never stop thanking God for you. Thank you to the most high God. Thank you, Carolyn and Leroy Boseman [Chadwick’s parents], and your mothers, and your mothers’ mothers. What purity. What honesty. What pain. What a role. What work,” her speech read. “What beautiful, intricate humanity. What courage, bravery, fearlessness, honesty, commitment, humanity, strength. A spirit that refused to surrender to despair. What an actor. What an artist. What a cast. What a team. What a vision. Glory be to the most high God. Long live the King.”
According to that year’s producers, Steven Soderbergh and Stacey Sher, they chose to put “Best Actor” at the end of the show because they were trying to be kind to Simone.
Stacey explained, “I’m going to just spill all secrets. Everything we did was about kindness. Chadwick Boseman’s widow was coming in. She didn’t go to any other shows. We had a special camper for her that she could be in so that she didn’t have to sit in the room. The idea was that if it was before best picture, and Chadwick lost, she’d have to sit through to the end, and we didn’t want to put her in that position. It was actually done to be as kind to her as possible and keep her in the room for the least amount of time that she had to be because it was a brave and intense thing for her to be dealing with her grief publicly.”
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