Ali Louis Bourzgui’s Tony Speech Called for Compassion in the Most Brilliant Way

This year’s Tony Awards had some surprising wins. Like The Lost Boys star Ali Louis Bourzgui’s win for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. A deserving win that lead to one of the best speeches of the night.

Bourzgui, who plays David in the musical, started his speech by saying that he would let the people he wanted to thank know publicly on his Instagram after. Instead, he wanted to take his time on stage to make a plea for humanity.

“Sometimes humanity needs a fantastical lens outside of ourselves to look at and explore questions about our own nature,” he said. “Vampires represent those who have shunned their own humanity in order to achieve a nonexistent sense of superiority. The billionaires will never find happiness from their money. The colonizers will never find fulfillment from the land and lives they steal. The fascists will never find meaning from their conformity, not in this lifetime or eternity.”

It set the tone for his speech which praised theatre, calling it “one of the last places where people can come and worship the power of true collective human presence.” But also pointed out how it can make us look at a strangers story and learn how to “carry that sentiment out into the world that needs us to ask that more than ever.”

A beautiful speech

Bourzgui, who is a Moroccan-Italian-Irish American, then went on to dedicate his award to “the beautiful tapestry of immigrant families who make this country really special. May you one day not have to audition for the empathy that should be freely given by this country that benefits from your beauty.”

As Bourzgui continued, he gave his love for the “queer and trans communities who have and always will exist no matter what people in power try to take away from them.” He also shared his time with “the people of Palestine who deserve a free life, a full life, without occupation.”

“For Arab theater makers and artists,” he went on, “may we continue to tell our stories and show our faces so our humanity becomes undeniable and our families can no longer be written off as merely collateral damage. May they know the beauty of our kisses upon each cheek and the romance of a language rooted in passion for love and life itself.”

Ali Louis Bourzgui speaks the truth about vampire stories

Often, we romanticize the idea of vampirism. A life eternal can be enticing. David from The Lost Boys prays on the lonely to join his rock band vampires in Santa Clara. Bourzgui’s favorite vampire, as he has spoken about, is Lestat de Lioncourt who Sam Reid plays on Interview With the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat. He is someone struggling with the immortal life he was forced into.

These two stories explain Bourzgui’s speech perfect. “If theres one thing we can learn from vampires, it’s that life is short but that’s it’s gift. Find beauty in the ephemeral and gratitude in what is not promised. And always invest in the people that want to see you blossom into your truest self, and hold that space for them in return.”

Vampires take life and think nothing of it, their victims are necessary to their lives. But it reminds us that, as humans, we don’t have forever. Our compassion is what keeps our humanity and I hope that Bourzgui’s speech reminds those who need it of said compassion.

(featured image: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)

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