TV Fans Slam ‘Queen’s Gambit’ Creator Scott Frank For Wildly Douchey Emmy’s Acceptance Speech

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Part of me wishes I had zero social awareness, otherwise known as the basic ability to read the room. It seems like it would be quite freeing, to be honest. After all, ignorance is bliss, and not being able to sense the mood of those around you is arguably the ultimate form of ignorance. Scott Frank — co-creator, writer, and director of Netflix’s smash hit The Queen’s Gambit — is apparently and unfortunately one of those people.

During his acceptance speech for Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at the 2021 Emmy Awards, Frank not only gave the longest speech of the night — rivaled only by the speech given by Debbie Allen after she won a lifetime achievement (and even still, Frank’s speech was somehow longer) — but did so in remarkably pompous fashion, whipping out a two-page diatribe and refusing to adhere to the infamous play-off music three separate times. To make matters worse, the speech wasn’t even intellectual, inspiring, or revealing — it was simply an example of Scott taking as much time as he felt he deserved.

Not only were those in the crowd obviously uncomfortable — Anya Taylor-Joy deserves an acting award just for how she responded to the portion of Frank’s speech about her eyes — but television fans watching at home took to Twitter to slam the self-important screenwriter.

Despite Frank’s exceptionally douchey speech, the fates remained in his favor nonetheless, as The Queen’s Gambit closed out the night by winning the Emmy award for Outstanding Limited Series, beating out the likes of I May Destroy You, Mare of Easttown, WandaVision, and The Underground Railroad. Luckily, though, Scott did not speak during that acceptance speech. Let’s hope it’s because he checked Twitter and saw what everyone was saying about him.

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