by Nathaniel R
Pierre Png, who has a lot of scenes in CRAZY RICH ASIANS, was snubbed while his "replacement" for Gemma Chan's affection, who has about 2 seconds of screen time, was nominated!
We'll keep doing these posts each year until the Screen Actors Guild does something about their most unfortunate awards rule. For those who are new to the awards game, please note: If you are a working actor lucky enough to wind up in a film nominated for "Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture," that doesn't mean you are included in the nomination; you have to have your own title card for that! What this means each year is that actors who aren't really famous yet, or don't have an aggressive agent, wind up left out of the official nomination even if they contributed immeasurably to the success of the film or were highly memorable in some small but defining way.
Read on for the specific exclusions this year and the history of most embarrassing omissions from the past due this ruling...
Recent embarrassing omissions due to this ruling include but are not limited to:
2017 - Lil' Rel Howery and Betty Gabriel (both superb/crucial) to Get Out
2016 - Alex R Hibbert (so touching) as "Lil" in Moonlight
2015 - Dean O' Gorman's spot on "Kirk Douglas" in Trumbo
2014 - Lindsay Duncan as the feared critic in Birdman
2013 - Yaya Alafia in The Butler and Colleen Camp in American Hustle
2012 - Sheila Vand in Argo and Gloria Reuben & Lee Pace in Lincoln,
2011 - Corey Stoll's career breakthrough as Ernest Hemingway in Midnight in Paris.
2010 - Rooney Mara in The Social Network
2009 - Matthew Beard in An Education
etc...
So who got the stealth snub in 2018, who otherwise had every reason to celebrate this morning's nomination?
Florence Kasumba and John Kani in "Black Panther"
BLACK PANTHER
12 "cast" nominees: Angela Bassett, Chadwick Boseman, Sterling K Brown, Winston Duke, Martin Freeman, Danai Gurira, Michael B Jordan, Daniel Kaluuya, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Forest Whitaker, and Letitia Wright.
who was excluded: Florence Kasumba as Ayo and John Kani as T'Chaka are the only cast members included before the main credit scrawl who aren't nominated. The Ayo role was originally larger as Marvel axed the lesbian suggestive portion of the movie (she and Danai Gurira's Okoye were to be involved in some way). King T'Chaka died in Captain America: Civil War but reappears here in vision sequences. Other cast members, further down the list who get named roles in the credits (i.e. not one of the "elders" or "dora milaje" or random military personnel) are David S Lee as Limbani, Nabiyah Be as Linda, and all the actors playing younger versions of the main characters, mostly in the film's prologue: Atandwa Kani as Young T'Chaka, Ashton Tyler as Young T'Challa, Denzel Whitaker as James/Young Zuri, and Seth Carr as Young Killmonger.
Felix and Walter, far right, the two biggest villain roles (outside of Topher Grace's) in "BlacKkKlansman" were amongst the excluded cast members
BLACKKKLANSMAN
6 "cast" nominees: Harry Belafonte, Adam Driver, Topher Grace, Laura Harrier, Corey Hawkins and John David Washington
who was excluded: We'd argue that the most egregious exclusions are Jasper Pääkkönen as "Felix" the most violent of the KKK members, and Ryan Eggold as "Walter" the more scarily measured local leader of the KKK (scary because he seems sane and obviously the KKK are anything but).
Other exclusions include Frederick Weller as the racist cop Andy Landers (and he's been working in Hollywood pictures long enough that his agent really should get him his own title card, what the hell?), Paul Walter Hauser as the buffoonish "Ivanhoe", and Ashlie Atkinson as the bomb planting "Connie". Now, some of those actors are going quite cartoonish but still... they are fairly major roles in the movie and the actors (who are not KKK members, so dont hold it against them) should thus be recognized if you're saying "outstanding cast". One actor in the film who has a fairly large role who doesn't even get a shared title card, unlike the others just listed, is Michael Buscemi (Yes, he's Steve's brother) as "Jimmy Creek," the other main cop who is working with Ron and Flip.
Aaron McCusker as the real life "Jim Hutton" (pictured with the real Freddie Mercury left)
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
9 "cast" nominees: Lucy Boynton, Aiden Gillen, Ben Hardy, Tom Hollander, Gwilym Lee, Allen Leech, Rami Malek, Joe Mazello, and Mike Myers
who was excluded: No one but those nine cast members, who compromise the band and its managers and Freddie's first two (onscreen) sexual partners received a title card, not even a shared card. The most obvious exclusion in the list is Aaron McCusker as "Jim Hutton," Freddie's longtime partner who only gets two scenes in the movie as he 'rescues' Freddie from his awful gay lifestyle (ugh this movie) but gets a lot of camera time in those scenes. There are also no nominations for Freddie's parents and sister played by Meneka Das, Ace Bhatti, and Priya Blackburn.
Many of "Crazy Rich Asians" most memorable players weren't included
CRAZY RICH ASIANS
8 "cast" nominees: Awkawfina, Gemma Chan, Henry Golding, Ken Jeong, Lisa Lu, Harry Shum Jr, Constance Wu, and Michelle Yeoh
who was excluded: SO MANY! But here are the six most egregious exclusions, pictured above from left to right: Sonoya Mizuno as "Arimanta Lee" the bride (who thrilled in Ex-Machina a few years ago... but apparently is still not famous enough to command her own title card), Tan Kheng Hua who is touching as "Kerry Chu," Constance Wu's single mother, Chris Pang as "Colin Khoo," who is Golding's best friend in the movie and the groom of the big wedding, Jimmy O Yang as "Bernard Tai" the messy movie director friend of Golding's, Pierre Png in the very large role of "Michael Teo," Gemma Chan's philandering husband within the movie, and Nico Santos as "Oliver T'Sien" the second cousin who is in several scenes with Wu, Awkwafina, and Yeoh. ALL of them have much much larger roles than Harry Shum Jr (don't read this wrong - we LOVE him) who just has a split second cameo at the end to hint at the sequel but is famous enough already (and a former SAG winner for the ensemble of Glee) for his own title card.
Incredibly not all of them even get a shared title card. Mizuno, Pang, Santos, and Yang are included in the title cards (shared) but Tan Kheng Hua and Pierre Png, both crucial to the movie's narrative arcs, don't even get that honor. Other cast members who do come before the credits scrawl but have to share a card are Ronnie Chieng and Remi Hii (as the "Cheng" cousins) and Jing Lusi who plays "Amanda Ling," Goldin's bitchy ex who is out to get Constance Wu.
ALL of A Star is Born's most adorable characters were left on SAG's cutting room floor
A STAR IS BORN
7 "cast" nominees: Dave Chappelle, Andrew Dice Clay, Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliott, Lady Gaga, Rafi Gavron, and Anthony Ramos.
who was excluded: JUSTICE FOR GAIL! Rebecca Field, everyone's favorite backstage tourguide "Gail" had to share a title card with other adorables. So did Gaga's daddy's co-workers, Barry Shabaka Henley as "Little Feet" and Michael Harney as "Wolfie". The final name on that first shared title card is Michael D Roberts as "Matty". The second shared title card is for Ron Rifkin who plays Jackson's sponsor "Carl" in the rehab center, Greg Grunberg as Jackson's patient chee-to's loving driver "Phil" and Eddie Griffin as the Pastor who marries Jackson and Ally. No other actors get title cards, but the rest of them are in bit roles so it doesnt feel that egregious. EXCEPT...
P.S. you know that the SAG awards rules have serious problems when people like Willam Belli as "Emerald" and Shangela Pierce as "Drag Bar Emcee" aren't included when they made the first half hour of that movie so freaking funny, Immediately engaging, and suggested that the movie was taking place in a full world outside of just Jackson and Ally (which other scenes rarely do)
RELATED: ALL THE SAG NOMINATIONS