Jonathan Majors thanks Will Smith, God, and more while picking up Perseverance Award

Perseverance is, we note in passing, fairly “morality-neutral” when it comes to the major virtues. Lots of people have persevered, over the course of human history, and not always at things the rest of us would have appreciated the additional effort being put toward; you can persevere at anything from collecting your clipped-off toenails in a big jar up to [insert extremely hyperbolic, frankly tasteless example here], and while the amount of stick-to-it-iveness on display might be the same, the impact surely won’t be. (What if someone was planning on putting tomato sauce in that jar, huh?)

Anyway, actor Jonathan Majors was presented with the Perseverance Award at Hollywood Unlocked’s Impact Awards in Beverly Hills last night, acknowledging Majors’, we guess, continued existence after basically his entire career imploded over the last two years, after he was arrested and ultimately convicted on charges of reckless assault and harassment in relation to an incident with a former girlfriend. Majors, reportedly holding back tears (per Variety), took the stage in Beverly Hills to deliver a lengthy speech, admitting that, “I’m imperfect. I have shortcomings. I acknowledge them.”

Majors went on to talk about the definition of perseverance—“persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay,” which, thanks!—discussed his view on a modern society where “Men, Black men in particular, are propped up as either superheroes or supervillains,” and namechecked both God, and a bunch of other famous people who have lent him support during his times of trouble, including Will Smith, Tyler Perry, Whoopi Goldberg, Courtney B. Vance, and David Oyelowo. (We are not so heroic, ourselves, as to not be really curious what the mentioned “midnight texts” between Smith and Majors have looked like over the last two years.) Majors also thanked his family, as well as girlfriend Meagan Good, who was in attendance at the event, before ending his remarks by addressing his daughter with a “Your father loves you.”

Majors recently booked his first new job since his conviction (and subsequent, immediate firing by Marvel), starring in Merciless, a new thriller from Martin Villeneuve.