Samuel L. Jackson and his wife LaTanya Richardson Jackson are front and center at the 2023 Tony Awards.
On Sunday, Jackson, 74, and his wife attended the 76th annual Tonys, at which the actor was nominated for best performance by an actor in a featured role in a play for August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, which LaTanya, 73, directed him in.
The actor did not win the award — Brandon Uranowitz received the Tony for his performance in Leopoldstadt — but Samuel and LaTanya were seated in the front row for this year’s unscripted awards show, hosted by Ariana DeBose.
Samuel and LaTanya, who have been married since 1980, were seen briefly standing up to dance with DeBose, 32, as the host performed the production’s opening dance number and made her way to the stage at New York City’s United Palace Theatre.
Jackson was nominated for his role in The Piano Lesson among a group of nominees that also included Jordan E. Cooper (Ain’t No Mo’), Arian Moayed, (A Doll’s House) and David Zayas (Cost of Living).
The pair appeared on stage later during Sunday’s awards ceremony to present the award for Best Play to Leopoldstadt, with Samuel jokingly referring to himself as “Samuel L. ‘it’s an honor to be nominated’ Jackson.’ ”
Richardson told PEOPLE during a press conference with The Piano Lesson’s cast back in September that she finds it “easier” to offer her husband notes on his performance while they eat dinner together.
“Let me just say: Do know that when I leave the theater — as late as it is, after they leave — I go home and cook, and then I do the dishes, just so we’re all on that page,” she said at the time.
“Then, over dinner, of course we discuss what has transpired during the day because I find that sometimes it’s easier to offer suggestions at that time — of what could be, you know, lifted,” LaTanya added. “And maybe we want to look at this a different way. That’s an easier time to do it because that’s the time that we usually spend together.”
LaTanya and Samuel attended the 2022 Tony Awards as well; at last year’s ceremony, the couple presented award for best revival of a play, which went to Take Me Out. Jackson noted during last year’s awards show that LaTanya would be “the first woman to direct an August Wilson play on Broadway.”
Th movie star and Tony-nominated actress are parents to daughter Zoe, 41, who is an Emmy-winning reality TV producer.
“In the beginning, we always said the most revolutionary thing that Black people could do was stay together, raise their children with the nucleus of having a father and a mother, since everybody likes to pretend that that’s not the dynamic of the African American family. That it’s just children out here being raised by women, which we know is false,” LaTanya told PEOPLE of her marriage to Samuel in March 2022. “In order to change that narrative, we made a decision to say, ‘We are going to stay together no matter what. We’ll figure it out.’ ”
In April, Deadline reported that The Piano Lesson will be adapted into a movie for Netflix starring Jackson, plus John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Danielle Deadwyler, Michael Potts and Corey Hawkins. It’ll be the directorial debut for Denzel Washington’s son Malcolm Washington.
The 2023 Tony Awards are airing live on CBS and Paramount+.
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