Michael Keaton Shouts Out 'Fellow Actor President Zelenskyy' At the 2022 Critics' Choice Awards
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Dopesick's Michael Keaton won the award for best actor in a limited series or movie made for TV at the 2022 Critics' Choice Awards on Sunday night.
Also nominated in the category were Olly Alexander (It's a Sin), Paul Bettany (WandaVision), William Jackson Harper (Love Life), Joshua Jackson (Dr. Death) and Hamish Linklater (Midnight Mass).
"Man I have to go to the bathroom," Keaton, 70, joked when he took the stage, referencing his SAG Awards acceptance speech last month.
He continued, "Well, thanks very much. I'm going to make this quick. You know what I love this time of year? Because it's springtime and it's awards season and you know, you just can smell that fake humility out there. That fake sincerity. Thanks very much. This is awful, awful nice."
The father of one went on to call in "a little funny to be accepting awards on the backs" of characters struggling with opioid addiction.
Then he recalled chatting with a woman in her 70s who worked at a coffee shop near where Dopesick filmed in Virginia: "She told me how prevalent the addiction rate and problems is down there in Appalachia," he recalled.
"And I one thing I'm proud about regarding this series is I think we really treated all those folks down there and in the world with real dignity," he said. "And she told me ... she was taking care of her [grandchild] because the parents who are in their 20s couldn't because they are incapacitated because of addiction and I think of all those women like my mom and my sisters."
He pushed down emotion, adding, "They're tough."
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RELATED: Michael Keaton Stars in First Trailer for Hulu's Dopesick Drama About America's Opioid Epidemic
"They're tough," he continued, "and it seems to always fall to them. I mean look, dude, I'm a good dad. I do my best, you know? It seems to always fall to the women, and God bless them. Women like my sister and my mom, folks down there, those grandmothers who are raising those babies because people can't. So I made it through without being a big baby, I'm proud of that — without crying. I just want to say thanks. This is awfully nice."
Keaton wrapped by briefly discussing current events.
"The only thing I'll say about things in the world, which I've mentioned before, I'm going to say thank you to fellow actor, President [Volodomyr] Zelenskyy, and keep up the fight," he urged.
He continued, "And there's only one way to change things environmentally, socially and for some sort of racial justice and social justice, two words: voting rights. Voting rights and voter suppression."
RELATED VIDEO: Michael Keaton Dedicates Dopesick SAG Award Win to Late Nephew Who Died from Drug Addiction
In Hulu's series about the origins of the opioid crisis, Keaton plays Dr. Samuel Finnix, a small-town doctor who begins prescribing using the drug Oxycontin as a way to treat his and his patients' pain — only to discover how addictive the substance could be.
Keaton admitted he didn't know much about the opioid crisis before the series, but he has gotten deeply in touch with the subject matter. "The reaction [to Dopesick] is as strong as about as strong as anything I've ever been in," Keaton told Variety. "In terms of the appreciation for it as a really high quality piece of work, but also how grateful they are that it's out there."
The 27th annual Critics' Choice Awards are airing on The CW and TBS.