FORMER SPIDERMAN TURNED musical guy Andrew Garfield got emotional at the Tony Awards last night.
Garfield won the first award of the night for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance as AIDS patient Prior Walter in Angels in America.
He dedicated the award to the “countless LGBTQ people who have fought and died for the right to live and love as we are created to.”
We are all sacred and we all belong, so let’s just bake a cake for everyone who wants a cake to be bake.”
The latter was in reference to the recent Supreme Court ruling on Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
This was the second nomination for Garfield and first win. He was previously nominated in 2012, for his featured role opposite the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in Mike Nichols’ revival of Death of a Salesman.
Speaking later in the press room, Garfield had his own dig at President Donald Trump after Robert DeNiro’s censored jab, calling him “the antithesis” of Angels In America.
We happen to be in a political time when the LGBTQ community are having to fight for their rights in a more intense way than in the past 25 years, perhaps since the AIDS crisis.”
Earlier this year, Garfield spoke to Entertainment Weekly about performing in a play that feels so relevant to society now.
“It doesn’t get any better as an actor; to feel purposeful as an actor is a rare thing, I find,” Garfield said. “To find a story that is so in tune with the cultural moment, what the universe and the world seems to be crying out for, what humanity and the culture seems to be crying out for. … It’s a time where we need community, it’s a time where we need to remember the things that make us human and all of our commonalities.”
So, it does feel like going on a march every night. It feels like we’re on a march every night for seven-and-a-half hours. Even though it’s very costly for us and for an audience, I think it’s one of those things that’s very worthwhile to do because I think if we weren’t doing this we would be struggling to find something that was as meaningful to do as performers. And if we weren’t doing that, we would be going on marches. It’s the time to march.”
