Anthony Hopkins Was Asleep When He Won Best Actor

Anthony Hopkins was apparently among the many people who expected Chadwick Boseman to win Best Actor. When Hopkins' win was announced at the Oscars Sunday night, it was 4am in Wales—and he was fast asleep. Agent Jeremy Barber tells People that he woke up Hopkins to tell him the news. "After a year in quarantine, and being double-vaccinated, he was finally able to return to Wales, and age 83, it was a great relief after such a difficult year," Barber says. Hopkins, who won for his role in The Father, is the oldest-ever Best Actor winner. Reps tell IndieWire that he had "no desire to travel to hubs in Dublin or London" to travel to the US, and they had asked for an exception to the no Zoom rule.

Hopkins' award was the last of the night, and many felt that with no speech from the winner, the ending was anticlimactic. Boseman, nominated for his role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, died last year at age 43. His widow, Taylor Simone Ledward, delivered the acceptance speech when he won a Golden Globe earlier this year. Deadline reports that Hopkins paid tribute to Boseman in a video posted on Instagram Monday morning. "At 83 years of age, I did not expect to get this award, I really didn’t," Hopkins said. "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." (Click for a full list of winners.)