Green Book Won Mahershala Ali an Oscar. Don Shirley's Family Criticised the Film.
Mahershala Ali's second Oscar, for Green Book, brought complications. He played Don Shirley, a Black pianist touring the segregated American South with his white driver, Tony Lip. Shirley's family criticised the film for misrepresenting his relationship with his relatives and Lip. Ali recalled going from feeling like a “golden boy for a moment” to questioning what had happened.
He has also said he needed to put his Oscars out of sight to get back to work and avoid patting himself on the back.
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The out-of-sight Oscars are the more revealing detail: he has said he needed to put them away to get back to work, lest he start patting himself on the back.
That discipline is easier when the trophy is already won. The harder case is the family's objection: Shirley's relatives said the film misrepresented his relationship with them and Lip, and Ali described going from “golden boy” to questioning what happened.