Ben Whishaw dedicates 2019 Golden Globe win to 'queer hero' Norman Scott
No scandal at the Golden Globes in the best actor category tonight.
Ben Whishaw has been announced as the recipient of the 2019 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.
Whishaw, 38, starred in the Amazon Prime Video limited series A Very English Scandal opposite Hugh Grant, a fellow Golden Globe nominee.
“I had such a wonderful time making this…I want to thank the BBC for continuing to make idiosyncratic and powerful work and for employing me again and again,” Whishaw said. “I have to thank Hugh Grant above all for such an exquisite performance. It was amazing to watch you do that.”
He went on to dedicate the award to the man he portrayed in the series, Norman Scott, saying, “There’s one person I want to really, really dedicate this award to, and it’s the man who I had the privilege to portray in the show, Norman Scott, who took on the establishment with a courage and a defiance that I find completely inspiring. He’s a true queer hero and icon and Norman this is for you.”
Backstage, Whishaw used his win to advocate for more diverse casting in Hollywood.”I’d like to see more gay actors playing straight roles. That would be my ideal,” he told reporters. “That’s where we should be aiming.”
The three-episode miniseries is based on a true story and tells the tale of Jeremy Thorpe (Grant), a respected member of Parliament, whose career comes crashing down when he’s accused of conspiracy to murder his ex-lover, Norman Scott (Whishaw), in 1979. The series traces the early days of their relationship beginning in the 1960s and continues on through the decades as their paths cross in a series of events involving blackmail and more, and culminating in the attempt on Norman Scott’s life and Thorpe’s exoneration.
“What makes it very typically English is that it’s about a central character who is unable to speak the truth, express his feelings, [and] be frank about what’s really going on for him,” Whishaw previously told EW about English Scandal. “There’s something a bit squashed about his emotional life, and that can be a very typical English thing. People struggle to say what they really mean here, particularly in that class and in that time. There’s also something about the absurdity of it and the line it treads between something really awful/sad and something hilarious. That quality seems quite English to me.”
Whishaw previously was nominated for four BAFTA awards, winning one in 2009 for his work on the series Criminal Justice.
The actor was up for his 2019 Golden Globe against The Kominsky Method’s Alan Arkin, Succession‘s Kieran Culkin, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story‘s Edgar Ramirez, and Barry‘s Henry Winkler.
See the full list of Golden Globes winners, updating live throughout the night.
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