Simone Ledward Boseman would’ve paid tribute to “a spirit that refused to surrender to despair” if her husband had won a posthumous Best Actor Oscar in 2021.

Chadwick Boseman’s widow reveals the Oscars speech she didn’t get to give

Simone Ledward Boseman would've paid tribute to "a spirit that refused to surrender to despair" if her husband had won a posthumous Best Actor Oscar in 2021.

By Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

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on March 13, 2026 3:42 p.m. ET

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Simone Ledward Boseman and Chadwick Boseman in 2019. Credit:

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Chadwick Boseman's widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, has shared the speech that she would have given if her late husband had won the Oscar for Best Actor in 2021.

The *Black Panther* star died in Aug. 2020 after a long battle with colon cancer — a diagnosis that he had kept private over the years. Months after his passing, Boseman's portrayal of brashly confident trumpeter Levee Green in *Ma Rainey's Black Bottom *had made him the apparent Best Actor frontrunner at the COVID-19-delayed, socially distanced 93rd Academy Awards. But when the envelope was opened, it was Anthony Hopkins' name, not Boseman's, that was read, leaving the crowd stunned.

Five years later, as part of an oral history of that night, Ledward Boseman revealed to *The Hollywood Reporter* the words that she intended to say while accepting the award on Boseman's behalf:

"I will never stop thanking God for you. Thank you to the most high God. Thank you, [Chadwick’s parents] Carolyn and Leroy Boseman, and your mothers, and your mothers’ mothers. What purity. What honesty. What pain. What a role. What work. 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.”

Chadwick Boseman and Colman Domingo in 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.'. David Lee/Netflix

Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh produced the 2021 ceremony, and under the impression that Boseman would win, he changed the usual order of the show: Rather than ending on Best Picture, these Oscars would end with Best Actor. "The thinking was that if Chadwick won and his widow came up onstage and spoke, there was nowhere to go after," Soderbergh shared with *THR*.

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Glenn Close told the outlet that "there was this audible gasp in the room" when Hopkins was announced as the winner. Only adding to the shock was that Hopkins wasn't there to accept, meaning the ceremony then just ended.

"I was disappointed," added Regina King, who says that she voted for Boseman. "To think that man gave that performance while knowing he was dying was mind-blowing to me. It was just impossible that he was not going to win."

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But, for Ledward Boseman, a message from *Ma Rainey* producer Denzel Washington is what sticks with her. "Denzel gave as his cast gift a dog tag with a cross on it that's engraved and says, 'Man gives the award, God gives the reward,'" she shared. "And I think that summed it up really perfectly."

The 2026 Oscars air Sunday on ABC.

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Source: “EW Academy”