Andrew Garfield Dedicates Tony Award Win To The LGBTQ Community, ‘We All Belong’
The Tony Awards may be over, but many fans can’t stop talking about Andrew Garfield’s powerful acceptance speech.
The actor earned the coveted award for “Lead Actor in a Play” for his role as Prior Walter in Angels In America. According to Variety, Garfield’s character in the play was a homosexual man who was living with AIDS. So it comes as no shock that his Tony Award win inspired him to dedicate the honor to the LGBTQ community.
“At a moment in time where maybe the most important thing that we remember right now is the sanctity of the human spirit, it is the profound privilege of my life to play Prior Walter in ‘Angels in America’ because he represents the purest spirit of humanity, and especially that of the LGBTQ communityIt is a spirit that says no to oppression. It is a spirit that says no to bigotry, no to shame, no to exclusion. It is a spirit that says we are all made perfectly,” he told the audience.
In the speech, he also references the famous Colorado case where a wedding cake baker refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple based on religious reasons. After the case was taken to court, the Supreme Court sided with the baker, voting 7-2.
"We are all sacred, and we all belong. So, let's just bake a cake for everyone who wants a cake to be baked." Andrew Garfield gave a passionate speech while accepting a Tony award for his work in "Angels in America." https://t.co/mf5F73qECW pic.twitter.com/lZhvgpqkfn
— CNN (@CNN) June 11, 2018
Garfield told the audience that we all belong and we should all just bake cakes for anyone who wants a cake!
“We all belong. So I dedicate this award to the countless LGBTQ people who have fought and died to protect that spirit, to protect that message for the right to live and love as we are created to.”
Before the Tony awards, Andrew sat down for an interview with Variety, where he dished on what it was like to be nominated for an Oscar versus what it’s like to be nominated for a Tony. As fans will recall, Garfield was nominated for “Best Actor in a Leading Role” for his role in Hacksaw Ridge last year.
He said that the awards are different because when the Oscars roll around, your role is already finished. But when you’re nominated for a Tony, you have to keep proving that your role and the show is good because you’re on stage every night.
“It makes me quite neurotic,” he said.
The Tony Award win marked the first for Garlfield, who was also nominated back in 2012, for his role in Death of a Salesman. We’re sure there will be plenty more of award nominations and wins for the talented actor.
