Black Panther star wins hero award, and honors a real hero
Chadwick Boseman won MTV's best hero award, and celebrated James Shaw Jr., who saved lives in the Waffle House shooting.
Monday was a good night for sci-fi, fantasy and superheroes at the MTV Movie & TV Awards. Marvel's blockbuster hit Black Panther won the highest honor of the night, best movie. Star Chadwick Boseman won for best hero and best movie performance, and Michael B. Jordan won the honor for best villain for playing Erik Killmonger.
Boseman, who plays King T'Challa of Wakanda, the Black Panther , won the best hero award, and then gave it to someone he called a real hero: James Shaw Jr., who Boseman invited on stage with him.
Shaw wrestled an AR-15 style rifle away from a gunman at a Tennessee Waffle House restaurant in April. Four people died in the attack, but Shaw's actions likely prevented more injuries and deaths.
"Receiving an award for playing a superhero is amazing," Boseman said. "But it's even greater to acknowledge the heroes that we have in real life. I just want to acknowledge somebody that's here today: James Shaw Jr."
Jordan also referenced recent events during his acceptance speech, but in a comedic fashion.
"I'm shocked that I won this award for best villain," he said. "You know, I thought for sure Roseanne had that in the bag, you know." Comedian Roseanne Barr's revived 1990s comedy was canceled in late May after the star sent a racist tweet.
Roseanne wasn't on the ticket, but the other nominees for best villain were impressive indeed, including Thanos (Josh Brolin) from Avengers: Infinity War, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) from The Last Jedi, and creepy clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) from It.
The young stars of It also won for best onscreen team, beating out the casts of Black Panther and Stranger Things, among others.
One of the more unusual awards, best fight, went to Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) taking on World War I German soldiers in her namesake movie.
Actor Chris Pratt won the Generation award, a sort of lifetime achievement award. In his acceptance speech, he delivered nine rules for life, both humorous and serious. They involved everything from pooping etiquette to how best to give medicine to a dog to learning to pray and taking time to breathe.
On the television side of things, Netflix hit Stranger Things claimed the award for best show, actor Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) won for best show performance, and Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) won for best frightened performance.
Brown could not attend the ceremony, which was taped Saturday, due to a split kneecap, but accepted via video, making an impassioned anti-bullying speech.
"There should be no space in this world for bullying, and I'm not going to tolerate it and neither should any of you," she said. Brown, just 14, made headlines recently for quitting Twitter after her image and name were repeatedly used in homophobic memes.
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