Micheal Ward’s mum reveals Laura Dern and Olivia Colman’s adorable support at the Baftas

Top Boy actor Ward won the EE Rising Star accolade 
BBC
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Laura Dern and Olivia Colman offered the mother of EE Bafta Rising Star winner Micheal Ward a shoulder to cry on when she was overcome with emotion at last night’s Bafta ceremony.

The Hollywood stars were sitting near Ward’s mother Keisha, who burst into tears when her 22-year-old son, the star of Top Boy and Blue Story, claimed the prize at the Royal Albert Hall.

She told the Evening Standard she was stunned to be comforted by US star Dern, who won the best supporting actress Bafta for her role in Marriage Story, and The Crown’s Colman.

Keisha said: “They were like, ‘It is OK to cry.’ I was offered a hankie.” Dern said she had felt privileged to experience the touching moment with Ward’s mother.

BAFTAs 2020: Behind the scenes - In pictures

1/25

The five-time Golden Globe-winning star said: “She happened to be right behind me and I had the privilege of congratulating her and giving her a hug as we celebrated her son.”

Keisha, who lives in Romford, said she had been confident Ward would beat Awkwafina, Jack Lowden, Kaitlyn Dever and Kelvin Harrison Jr to take the prize, which was voted for by the public and presented by former winner Daniel Kaluuya. James McAvoy, Kristen Stewart and Letitia Wright are also previous winners.

Emotional: Ward's mum fought back tears when he won
BBC

“I told him [Ward], ‘We’re winning’,” Keisha said. “I told him, ‘I am coming for the win.’ I have been campaigning all week. Proud is not even enough of a word.”

Last night Ward, whose next project is Sir Steve McQueen’s six-part series Small Axe with Wright, Lowden and John Boyega, said: “I was a bit shocked. I feel blessed, overwhelmed. I walked up [on to the stage] and everyone started screaming, that was insane. The support was brilliant and I loved it.”

Ward thanked his mother and paid tribute to his late father as he broke down on stage.

On seeing his mother’s reaction, he said: “She made my mascara run, I’m kidding I don’t wear mascara. Maybe a bit of foundation. I knew I was going to be emotional because we’re a very emotional family.”

Backstage, Ward met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The royal couple congratulated him, before he told them: “You’re making me nervous.”

William admitted to Ward: “You come to these awards and you have so many films to watch,” with Kate adding: “Having children is so bad for watching films.”

Triumphant: Ward joins a long line of hugely successful Rising Star winners
Getty Images

Last night, the Duke — who is president of Bafta — spoke about the lack of diversity among the nominees.

There were no women on the shortlist for best director, and no black or ethnic minority acting stars were nominated in the main categories.

William said: “We find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to ensure diversity in the sector and in the awards process — that simply cannot be right in this day and age.”

Joaquin Phoenix, who was named best actor for Joker, used his speech to tackle the issue. He said: “I think that we have to do the hard work to truly understand systemic racism.

“I think it is the obligation of the people that have created and perpetuated and benefited from a system of oppression to dismantle it, so that’s on us.”

Florence Pugh, Pixie Lott, Maya Jama, Andrew Scott and Gemma Arterton were among the stars celebrating the biggest night in British film.

War epic 1917 was the biggest winner, taking home seven awards including best film and best director for Sir Sam Mendes.

The ceremony, hosted by Graham Norton, attracted three million viewers — a drop from last year, when the average viewing figure was 3.5 million.

Listen to today's episode of The Leader for more!

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in