Megan Mullaly showing one of her dad's residual checks from SAGMegan 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.