Green Book Writer Wins Best Original Screenplay, Thanks Father and Film Inspiration Tony Lip
And the Oscar goes to Green Book.
The film, about a black man and a white man finding common ground that was inspired by a true story, won Best Original Screenplay at the 2019 Oscars. The movie was written by Brian Currie, director Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga, whose father was the true life inspiration for the character Viggo Mortensen portrays (and for which he was nominated for an Oscar).
“Embrace ourselves and love each other. Dad, we did it,” Vallelonga said during his speech.
Green Book beat The Favourite, First Reformed, Roma and Vice for the Original Screenplay top honors.
The film is based on the true story of Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a world-class African-American pianist who embarked on a concert tour of the Deep South in 1962 along with his driver and bodyguard Tony Lip (played by Mortensen).
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Vallelonga put the script together based on interviews with his father and Shirley, as well as letters Shirley helped his father write to his mother during the time.
The movie took home best drama movie at the Golden Globe Awards, where Farrelly gave a touching speech.
“This story, when I heard it, it gave me hope and I wanted to share that hope with you because we’re still living in divided times, maybe more so [now] than ever,” he said as he accepted his trophy. “All we have to do, all we have to do is talk and to not judge people by their differences but look for what we have in common. And we have a lot in common. We all want the same thing, we want love and happiness. We want to be treated equally, and that’s not such a bad thing.”
But following their win, Vallelonga was embroiled in controversy after an old tweet resurfaced in which he supported a debunked anti-Muslim claim spread by President Donald Trump. The tweet in question was posted by Vallelonga in November 2015, according to screenshots. Vallelonga has since deleted his entire Twitter account amid stinging criticism.
“This is all just too disgusting,” La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz tweeted with a screenshot of Vallelonga’s original post.
Vallelonga had replied to Trump, then running for president, to support Trump’s false claim about Muslims in America cheering on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“Muslims in Jersey City cheering when towers went down. I saw it, as you did, possibly on local CBS news,” Vallelonga tweeted at the time. Trump was “100 percent correct,” he claimed.
In a statement to PEOPLE, Vallelonga apologized for the remark.
“I spent my life trying to bring this story of overcoming differences and finding common ground to the screen, and I am incredibly sorry to everyone associated with Green Book,” he said. (The film’s studio, Universal, had no comment.)
The 91st Academy Awards are broadcasting live from Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT on ABC.
