Salma Hayek and Anthony Hopkins Celebrate His Oscar Win With a Dance Party

Anthony Hopkins made history Sunday night when he became the oldest person to receive an acting Oscar when he took home the award in the Best Actor category during the 93rd Academy Awards. While The Father actor was not in attendance at the ceremony to accept the award himself, he got a little help celebrating the accolade thanks to Salma Hayek.

On Tuesday, the actress gave fans a glimpse into the celebrations in a new video shared to her Instagram account. Captioned, “Celebrating with the king [Anthony Hopkins [his 2nd Oscar for his extraordinary performance in The Father,” the short clip showed the duo dancing to a track by the late Leonard Cohen. The video ended with them embracing in a hug. The marked just the latest instance of Hayek celebrating Hopkins’ major accolades. The pair have a close friendship, and she was by his side as was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003, Hola! Reports.

Hopkins took home the Oscar, his second Academy Award for his portrayal of Anthony, an ageing man struggling with memory loss whose daughter tries to help him, in the Florian Zeller-directed film The Father. Hopkins had been nominated in the category alongside the late Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), Gary Oldman (Mank), and Steven Yeun (Minari). His win was largely viewed as a major upset and sparked backlash online due to the fact that the ceremony had, unlike past years, saved the Best Actor category for last, leading many to believe that Boseman, who died in August following a battle with cancer, would take home the award.

The award was accepted on his behalf by the category presenter Joaquin Phoenix, as Hopkins was in Wales at the time, something that further upset viewers as the ceremony ended abruptly and awkwardly. According to both IndieWire and The New York Times, Hopkins had offered to participate via Zoom, “but the Oscars nixed that plan.” The actor’s representatives reportedly “pleaded” for him to be allowed to join through Zoom, though there was said to be a “no Zoom” policy. Hopkins eventually delivered a belated acceptance speech in a Monday Instagram video, explaining that he “did not expect to get this award” and also paying tribute to Boseman when stating, “I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman who was taken from us far too early.”