Evidence of Moonlight's immense
cultural impact, the revolutionary queer film can officially add MTV Movie
Award winner to its Oscar Award-winning legacy.
During last
night's event, actors Ashton Sanders and Jharrel Jerome picked up the award for
"Best Kiss," beating out fellow nominees Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling
(La La Land), Emma Watson and Dan Stevens (Beauty and the Beast),
Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard (Empire), and Zac Efron and Anna
Kendrick (Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates).
"I think
it is safe to say that it is okay for us young performers, especially us
minority performers, to step out of the box," Jerome said during their
acceptance speech. "I think it is okay to step out of the box and do
whatever it takes to tell the story, and do whatever it takes to make a
change."
Sanders
underlined Jerome's statement, adding that their award is much bigger than them
both. "This represents more than a kiss, it represents those who feel like
the others, the misfits, this represents us," he said.
This is the
fifth time a same-sex kiss has been awarded in the show's history. Previous
winners include Sarah Michelle Gellar and Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions),
Jason Biggs and Seann William Scott (American Pie 2), Will Ferrell and
Sacha Baron Cohen (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby), and
Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain).
While many
responded to Moonlight's win last night with praise, others
criticized how the MTV Movie Awards' "Best Kiss" has never been
awarded to actors who identify as queer off-camera.
"Two Black
gay men did not win best kiss," Francisco-Luis White wrote on Twitter.
"Two cishet Black men won an award for playing gay." He continued,
"Wake me up when we're beyond two Black cishet men playing gay being a
brave and rewarded spectacle, when gay Black men get these roles."
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