Actor Andrew Garfield has won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a play for his critically acclaimed performance in Angels in America, dedicating the award to members of the LGBTIQ+ community.
Having embodied the role of Prior Walter - a closeted gay Mormon - in the Broadway revival of Tony Kushner’s famous play, Garfield said he was constantly inspired by the human spirit of the LGBTIQ+ 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,” Garfield said after accepting his award.
He added: “And especially that of the LGBTQ community.”
“It 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 and we all belong,” he continued.
“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.”
Described as a "complex examination of AIDS and homosexuality in America in the 1980s", Angels in America first played in 1991 and opened on Broadway in 1993.
It previously won both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play.
