Video roasted for subtitle blunder saying Anthony Hopkins is speaking from ‘whales’
A video has been roasted online for suggesting that Anthony Hopkins was speaking from his “homeland” in “whales”.
The video, which was shared by Los Angeles-based Filmatic, was of the Welshman’s reaction to becoming the oldest ever Oscar winner of the best actor award at the age of 83.
The subtitles confuses the nation that is Wales, or Cymru in Welsh, with the aquatic placental marine mammal known as the whale.
It echoes a mistake my former US President Donald Trump who suggested he had met not only the “Queen of England”, but the “Prince of Whales”, as well as a number of world leaders.
The error in the subtitles have been widely lampooned on social media and it has inspired a number of memes.
Social media expert Owen Williams joked: “I’m pretty certain the inhabitants of Whales are the Whelks.”
All true though, Ian. https://t.co/DDWK6VhsmF pic.twitter.com/V8T6ouGVnT
— Owen Williams 🏴 #SMCCymru24 (@OwsWills) April 26, 2021
Journalist Peter Gillibrand shared a version of the Welsh flag where a Red Whale replaces the usual dragon.
— Peter Gillibrand (@GillibrandPeter) April 26, 2021
In response to a social media user who pointed out the mistake in the subtitles Filmatic replied in a now deleted tweet with: “Thanks for wasting your time to prove your point over a typo.”
‘Masterful performance’
Anthony Hopkins, who hails from Port Talbot received the prestigious award for his masterful performance as a man suffering with dementia in The Father.
His victory, which came 29 years after he won his first Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs, was the biggest surprise of the night.
The award had been tipped by many to go to the late Chadwick Boseman, who died aged 43 last August, for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
In a video message following his win, Anthony Hopkins said: “Well good morning. Here I am in my homeland in Wales, and at 83 years of age I did not expect to get this award, I really didn’t.
“I’m very grateful to the Academy and thank you, and I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman who was taken from us far too early, and again thank you all very much.
“I really did not expect this, so I feel very privileged and honoured, thank you.”
The Father, which is due to be released in the UK on 11 June, also won best adapted screenplay for Christopher Hampton and director Florian Zeller, hailed Anthony Hopkins as “the greatest living actor”.
In The Father, he plays Anthony, a retired engineer who is struggling with the loss of his independence due to the onset of dementia.
The film uses trickery involving its set and editing to thrust the audience into the character’s disorientation and his increasing lack of trust in what his own mind is telling him.
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