The 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards
Megan Mullally served as host for the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards with a droll, endearingly casual approach, often making Lady Gaga the brunt of good natured jokes. But as with most awards show she got out of the way very early. SAG is all awards and no frills. They even shortened the "I am an actor" intro this year, limiting it to just three people. There's no awards show that's faster than SAG but the continually nervous Oscar producers might want to consider, when trying to shorten their own ceremony, that SAG is not even a fraction as popular as the Globes or Oscars, both of which are considerably longer!
The winners and notes...
BEST ACTOR IN A TV COMEDY Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
Tony Shalhoub has prepared nothing because, he suggests, his category was too great to think he'd win. This seems naive since he is an awards magnet. He probably has to wear protective gear whenever entering a ceremony, lest he be pummelled with statuettes of all kinds...
To date he's won 4 SAG Awards (from 9 nominations), 3 Emmys (from 9 nominations), 1 Golden Globe (from 5 nominations), 1 Tony (from 4 nominations), and an NSFC. He names fellow nominee Alan Arkin as a reason he wanted to be an actor. Sweet, but Arkin looks as confused / annoyed as he always does at awards shows.
BEST ACTRESS IN A TV COMEDY Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
If you're going to thank a list of names this is how to do it. Brosnahan makes that list of names a story, from her fellow lead actors to the background actors (!), and concludes with the casting directors that took a chance on all of them. Beautifully done, Rachel!
BEST ENSEMBLE TV COMEDY The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
BEST "SUPPORTING" ACTRESS Emily Blunt, A Quiet Place
Looks like Amy Adams just lost the Oscar. Blunt shares our surprise but wings it beautifully making her husband the focus of her speech, since he was both co-star and director, including making a funny about what would have happened if her husband hadn't given her the role.
BEST "SUPPORTING" ACTOR Mahershala Ali, Green Book
He speaks of the "fraternity" of actors 'wrestling with the human condition' and thanks Timothée, Adam, Sam, and Richard by name. We're confused that he's a steamroll winner but these things happen in awards season, even sometimes when there's no obvious narrative (Ali having just won two years ago, and not any more gloriously reviewed than his fellow nominees. But leading roles do have an advantage when nominated against supporting roles).
BEST ACTOR TV MINISERIES/MOVIE Darren Criss, The Assassination of Gianni Versace
Why have so many awards shows if you're just going to award the same people at each one of them? We ask this each year and we've yet to receive an answer. Criss makes a case that there should be an Outstanding Cast prize for TV miniseries, which, yes. SAG is weirdly stingy with TV actors. There's not even supporting categories, though in a way this is more honest than having supporting categories and just giving the wins to leading actors instead.
BEST ACTRESS TV MINISERIES/MOVIE Patricia Arquette, Escape to Dannemora
A cute reference to fellow nominee Patty Clarkson, who she thought had won when she heard her first name called. Her speech gets political telling actors to take pictures to prevent cheating on pay such as skipping meal penalties and lack of overtime. Closing the speech by thanking Robert Mueller is fun. Actors sure love Patricia Arquette, don't they?
LIFETIME TRIBUTE Alan Alda
Tom Hanks is really good at presenting such things. "To my friend, our friend, Alan Alda." This clip reel reminds us that, in addition to M*A*S*H, Alan Alda once regularly worked in the movies: Sweet Liberty with Michelle Pfeiffer, The Seduction of Joe Tynan with Meryl Streep, The Aviator with Leo DiCaprio, The Four Seasons with Carol Burnett, etcetera
BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES Jason Bateman, Ozark
Bateman seems quite surprised. Sterling K Brown looks thrilled for him. Beautiful encouraging speech about actors being "just one job away" from the career they want.
BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES Sandra Oh, Killing Eve
Great speech -- it's a night of great speeches -- in which after thanking the cast of Killing Eve tells wonderful tiny little anecdotes about other actors encouraging her: Alfre Woodard, Jamie Foxx, and Lena Waithe.
BEST ENSEMBLE, DRAMA SERIES This is Us
They're very excited about this win.
BEST LEADING ACTOR Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
John David Washington looks very pissed off about something. Did something go wrong at his table? Of Freddie Mercury, Rami Malek claims he gets "some power from him". He says the award is for Freddie Mercury. Which is true.
BEST LEADING ACTRESS Glenn Close, The Wife
Nothing like the emotional shock of the Golden Globes.
BEST CAST, MOTION PICTURE Black Panther
(Chadwick Boseman is crazy thin all of a sudden. Is this for a new role?) The speech is terrific. Like many fine speeches it tells a story. It's about the two questions the cast were asked repeatedly on the press tour. Did they know this would be special? Did they know they'd be around in award season? We'll share the video or the transcript once we have it but it was a beauty, and a fine capper to a show celebrating actors creating stories and realities for audiences.
Reader Comments (95)
Emily Blunt getting Oscar vindication tonight!
Blunt winning is good news for Regina King
But both supporting winners are for lead roles eugh!!!
How long before Hollywood gives Tony Shaloub an Oscar? I still can’t he won a stony over Harry Hadden-Paton. Or all those Emmys over Steve Carell. Or ... ugh. At least he’s very good on Mrs. Maisel.
Blunt and Ali’s SAG wins are laughable.
What a truly odd season.
I love Amy Adams, but her only win so far has been Kansas City critics. Think it's about time to put her campaign to bed.
Emily Blunt winning for....may God have mercy on us all
Amy Adams!!! WTF is wrong with these people? I CANNOT EVEN!
Rachel Weisz wins BAFTA (she has swept both BIFA and London Critics’) and Regina wins Oscar!
Omg no hosts and no banter for awards show ever anymore. #awardsshowfstiqueanditsonlyhalfover
They've got to stop nominating these lead roles in supporting categories. It's clearly an advantage and it's more or less cheating.
I just hope to one day have a husband/partner like John Krasinski that looks at me teary in the eye whenever I win something in life. That was truly precious. Yay for Emily! I think she will get the Oscar the very first chance she gets to be nominated one day.
King isn’t getting the Oscar. For Best Supporting Actress this year, whoever wins the BAFTA will win the Oscar. This is 2015 Best Supporting Actor all over again. The parallels are undeniable. King = Stallone (wins both BFCA & GG, but no SAG nom & BAFTA nom). Blunt = Elba (wins SAG, but not nominated at Oscars). And ???? = Rylance (wins the BAFTA, goes on to win the Oscar). So who will take the BAFTA? A lot of people are predicting Weisz currently, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Adams took it either. We shall see. Of course there is also still the possibility that Foy or Robbie will take it, especially in a year as screwy as this one haha.
I love listening to Hugh Grant. Lol he's so breezily funny.
People used to get overly critical of Billy Crystal when he would host the Oscars, but it's a skill and he almost always nailed it.
Megan Mulally not so good.
Emily Blunt winning is so weird! (All by itself but especially because it's a horror film!)
That said, I'm so glad this wasn't the start of Amy Adams stealing Regina King's Oscar. Amy should win for something amazing, not something totally devoid of personality.
I don't begrudge Malek, because he's very good in a mess. He does too nuch early in the film, all those affectations, but he works into the role and really inhabits it, creating a unique character. The fact that it's such a good impersonation (along with how genuinely bad the movie is), had led to some discarding his performance.
That said, I wouldn't nominate him and think he's probably #5 of these nominees, but it's all in all a shame. Imagine they made anything close to a decent movie?
Thank the good Dog above, Glenn won.
What was shouted right before Glenn Closes name was announced?
Happy for the Black Panther win (BP for BP)? It wasn't the year's best picture but a true ensemble cast doing great work all around.
Following Glenn Close’s homophobic acceptance speech (“You can’t have a wife without a husband”... wtf Glenn?), Jodie Foster immediately takes the stage. #awkwaaaaard #sagawards #heteronormativityhasgottogo #givetheoscartogaga
Just spent time looking thru some of this blog’s past posts, and I must say I am SO glad to read that I’m not the only one completely baffled by Ali’s sweep for Green Book. The performance was okay. But I never felt like he fully inhabited the character, or truly understood the character’s motives. During every single scene it’s like you could almost see the wheels turning inside his head. Several of his line readings throughout the film were very inconsistent and/or uneven, as well. I just don’t get the hype. At all.
I hope Doug is being genuinely funny
It did was ankward.
@Doug Glenn Close won an Emmy for playing a lesbian in Serving in Silence way back in 1995. Colman made out with a woman in her movie. Gaga ain't winnin' the Oscar.
Angela Bassett won her first SAG Award as part of the Ensemble of Black Panther.
So, so happy for the Black Panther cast. And it appears 2 of the 4 acting winners are near locks now (Close and Ali).
Alan Alda for Lifetime Achievement is so appropriate. Also happy for Rami Malek. He did deliver a great performance. I think he may win the Oscar now.
@/3rtful Wow, that's crazy. She's done some great work in her career. I lover her in "What's Love..." and Marie Laveux in AHS.
So happy that BP won best ensemble. I rewatched it last night, and it is, across the board, a great cast.
Patricia Arquette is not the easiest actress to cast, but when she is in the right project she is gangbusters. (They should have nominated and awarded Benecio as well.) She's going to play the mother to Dakota Fanning in Kirsten Dunst's version of The Bell Jar, and that could be great.
Rami Malek... I just can't even.
So it looks like 3/4 of the acting winners will be POC. Regina King (most likely), Mahershala Ali, and Rami Malek. Best Actress of course will go to a white actress tho.
Not sure which was duller, this or Rent Live. Though the last 3 minutes of Rent was pretty great.
Im tired of giiving awards to Glenn Close just because shes been around for a while. Rami Malek, the 2nd Egyptian nominated for Oscar would b great vinidication forOmar Shariff losing for Lawrence of Arabia and being snubbed for Dr Zhivago
I wanted BlacKkKlansman to win ensemble so I could nurture the hope it might win picture or director at the Oscars. (I can't see Black Panther winning best picture without acting, writing or directing noms.)
I'd say it's all Roma all the way from here. Netflix is to Oscar campaigning what Miramax was in the 90s.
@Orrin She's not just getting awards for that reason. She's getting awards because she's great in the film and she's overdue.
I have a strange idea floating in my head... Rachel Weisz is almost sure to win BAFTA for Supporting, and the Oscar somehow goes to Yalitza Aparicio who sails in on the "Roma' tide in the lack of a clear frontrunner!!! :P :)
Close has GG and SAG, some critics (including Broadcast). Obvious frontrunner.
@Tintin You mean Marina de Tavira? :) How exciting would it be if she could pull a Marcia Gay Harden & shock everyone with a unexpected Supporting Actress win? I wouldn't be opposed to that. IMO she's gives the strongest performance out of all the nominees (Marina > Rachel > Regina > Amy > Emma). So it would be well-deserved.
Yes! am so sorry.... I meant Marina De Tavira... she might really be the 'dark horse' on Oscar night... let's wait for the BAFTAs though :)
Sticking with Regina King. Blunt winning was probably the best thing that could've happened for her tonight. Though I can definitely see Tavira pulling a fast one (a deserved one, yes).
Glenn Close is finally winning her Oscar! It’s a shame that one of the 3 greatest actress of her generation ( Streep, Lange and Close ) hasn’t won an Oscar, this is going to finally put to rest the Deborah Kerr cruse that Glennie has in her shoulders...
and I’m so happy because all those respectable critics like Tom O’Neil who has been doing live videos predicting the winners with other critics, every time her Oscar chances and momentum where mention he was laughing at her calling Glenn chances idiotic and he will call everyone crazy for saying that Gaga was not wining tonight at the SAGs or at the Oscars ( I wonder how much money WB has put on the pockets of this person) I’m so happy because now he has to eat his words !!! GO GLENN !!
About best supporting actress.. I think the award is going to Marina de Tavira, they loved Roma, is going to win director, picture, cinematography and maybe best production design, so Marina is going to be carry by that wave .. and think about it, the only reason why she was not nominated for the SAG is because she’s not a guild member, if nominated Marina would have won tonight, Amy is clearly not backed by the actors branch and her campaign was not good, Rachel and Emma are splitting the vote ( this wouldn’t have happened if Olivia was here in the category where she belongs ) and Regina was not nominated to either SAG or BAFTA because her movie was not loved, her movie is not nominated for best picture or director, she probably got the nomination in 5th place and just because Emily Blunt split the vote with herself, and if Marina was nominated is because they loveeeeee ROMA and everything about it, I mean it sounds crazy, but I think she’s the Marcia Gay Harden of this decade.. so if you go by the numbers 7 out of the last 9 winners from this decade has been in one of the best picture nominated films plus the diversity that the academy wants to show, she will be the first truly Mexican actress to win an Oscar and the 2nd Latina in history to have an Oscar for acting, that is historic as Roma winning best picture is going to be!
It looks like Bradley’s campaign ends here.
I suspect it will be tight between Rami and Bale, but Bale will prevail. Rami’s film has bad buzz that will (eventually) stop his campaign, along with his youth.
I’m excited for Glenn, even though she gave a so-so speech. The eyes and camera thing felt very specific. However, she’s had a great run at the televised awards, and even if she loses the BAFTA a Gaga/Coleman win would seem like an upset at this point. She basically has to say the right thing and continue to make her case - that she worked hard to get the wife made and to give a good performance, that this film is a feminist endeavor that’s relevant in the me too era, and that she has been a working actress - and she may win. She’s basically in “dont Fuck it up” territory now.
People still listen to Tom O'Neill? I only know him because when I was younger he was on TV before award shows so, like anyone watching, I knew him.
I only paid attention to laugh. Given his career as a prognosticator and nothing more, he's a tool.
I've seen Vice..... Amy Adams didn't deserved even to be nominated
Glenn Close is in rare territory with a Globe & a BAFTA (& BFCA to boot). There's a slight chance she could be Lauren Bacall part 2 and lose BAFTA & the Oscar. But her performance is stronger than Bacall's was in her film. I don't think anyone's won both a Globe and the SAG in Best Actress and lost the Oscar, though it's happened in the other 3 acting categories a couple times each. I don't think Gaga has any realistic shot now, she needed the picture to be universally loved, but its musical blockbuster thunder got stolen by Bohemian Rhapsody.
Corrrection: my first "BAFTA" in my previous comment should say "SAG."
Happy for Black Panther as that ensemble was awesome and I'm glad it's a big win for Marvel. It's proof that superhero films based on comic books can mean something.
Bruno - Zellweger won Globe + SAG for CHICAGO and lost the Oscar.
Go Glenn! There is nothing homophobic about her comments. Lady Gaga gave a spectacular performance, but like other female singers giving an incredible screen debut (Diana Ross, Bette Midler, Cher), her reward is the acclaim and across the board recognition by the Academy. Glenn deserves the Oscar hands down, not only because she is overdue (Julianne Moore, Jessica Lange), but because she gives a great performance AND she is way, way overdue (Geraldine Page, Shirley MacLaine).
All these hissy remarks must makeLady Gaga cringe.
I have seen all 5 performances nominated for Lead Actor at SAG and how anyone could vote for someone other than Cooper is beyond me.
Washington look pissed like his father is everytime he lose a prize
I find it extraordinary when people refer Rami Malek as a young actor. Would the same people refer Carrie Coon or Natalie Portman as young actresses? After all they were all born in the same year...