Like many of us, Michael B. Jordan was surprised when Chadwick Boseman was robbed of the 2021 Academy Award for Best Actor, with voters snubbing his powerhouse performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in favor of Anthony Hopkins. But via The Hollywood Reporter, Jordan is confident that his Black Panther co-star’s body of work is more substantial than any award.
“But you know, this is how I honestly and truly really feel about it: There’s like, there’s no award that can validate his legacy,” Jordan said on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show. “There’s no win that can take anything away from the lives around the world that he impacted. So you’ve got to look at the things that we can control and the gifts and the blessings that he left us, and that’s this incredible body of work and what he represents for as a person and as the biggest one we could really ask for.”
Boseman died last summer after a secret battle with colon cancer, leaving behind Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom as his final performance. In a candid moment, Jordan admitted that he delayed viewing that film because his feelings were too raw. “I held off from watching it for a while, to be perfectly honest,” he said. “And when I did it, you know, it’s like, you want to savor it. It was an incredible performance, man. I mean, it’s like, you can see it, you know, him giving everything he had.”
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When Hopkins was awarded the statue for Best Actor, perhaps no one was more surprised than Hopkins himself. He was so sure he wouldn’t win that he slept through the ceremony and didn’t find out until the next morning. Upon learning the news, he released a short video thanking the Academy and honoring Boseman. “I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who was taken from us far too early,” he said. “I really did not expect this, so I feel very privileged and honored.”
