Congratulations to the SAG Cast Nominees... but please raise a glass to those who were left out!
Thursday, February 4, 2021 at 7:39PM by Nathaniel R
Taylour Paige and Dusan Brown aren't included in "Ma Rainey's" nomination
Each year when the SAG nominations for Outstanding Cast is named, we bemoan the rules which cause unneccessary exclusions. To be an official nominee you need to have your own title card. Having your own title card generally requires that you either already have a degree of fame, a strong agent if you don't, or a large role... so sometimes it excludes really crucial contributions to a movie. Everyone who doesn't get their own title card gets a certificate but they aren't officially "nominees" based on SAG's rules. This year, only Trial of the Chicago 7 (which has a giant cast) and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (which has a very intimate cast) have really unfortunate exclusions...
DA 5 BLOODS
15 Cast Members: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkonen, Johnny Trí Nguyên, Lê Y Lan, Nguyên Ngõc Lâm, Sandy Hu'o'ng Pham, "with" Jean Reno, "and" Chadwick Boseman, Van Veronica Ngo
Who was excluded: No key players are missing given the generous amount of title cards. Just several soldiers in flashbacks and in present time, plus workers like street vendors and hotel personnel and family members without dialogue in flash forwards.
Fun trivia: Veronica Ngo who plays "Hanoi Hannah" who wee see on the mic a few times and da Bloods tour guide all throughout the movie Jonny Nguyen as "Vinh Tran" are both famous stars in Vietnam and used to be a couple!
MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM
6 Cast Members: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts, and Johnny Coyne.
Jeremy Shamos as "Irvin"
Who was excluded: The shared title cards went to the other four speaking roles. Taylour Paige as "Dussie Mae" and Jeremy Shamos as "Irvin" share a title card and so do Dusan Brown as "Sylvester" and Joshua Harto as "Policeman". It's a pity they were all excluded, particular Taylour Paige with her Ma & Levee rousing sauciness (we nominated her here in "Breakthrough of the Year") and Shamos with his memorable middle management flop sweat.
MINARI
7 Cast Members: Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Scott Haze "with" Youn Yuh-Jung, "and" Will Patton.
Who was excluded: This is a fairly inclusive list given the intimacy of the movie, though the most obvious missing actor is little Jacob Wade who plays Johnnie, David's friend at church, even though you get his dad (Scott Haze). But no other actors other than the 7 listed even get a shared title card. They're playing the townspeople, doctors, groceery store owners and the like. They're all relegated to the end credits crawl.
ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
10 Cast Members: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr, Joaquina Kalukango, Nicolette Robinson, Michael Imperioli, Lawrence Gilliard Jr, "with" Beau Bridges "and" Lance Reddick.
Who was excluded: Another semi-inclusive credits listing given how intimate the movie actually feels. You even get the family members who are barely in the movie. That said, there are a three omissions with a shared title card: Christian Magby, who plays Jamaal (the young excitable security man), Jeremy Pope (as Jackie Wilson) and a cameo from Christopher Gorham (as Johnny Carson).
TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
10 Cast Members: (alpha order in credits) Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon -Levit, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, Jeremy Strong
Who was excluded: Eleven actors with ample dialogue are missing with shared title cards going to Noah Robbins and Danny Flaherty (the only titular characters missing from the main cast nomination). The other people missing are a combo of policemen, FBI agents, government officials, and legal team members. They are Ben Shenkham (legal team), Kelvin Harrison Jr (Fred Hampton from the Black Panthers), Caitlin Fitzgerald (Agent Daphne O'Connor, the plant) and Alice Kremelberg (Bernardine, who works in the legal office), JC Mackenzie (Thomas Foran), and John Doman (John Mitchell), Wayne Duvall (Detective Deluca), Damian Young (Howard Ackerman), and CJ Wilson (Sergeant Scott Scibelli).
Reader Comments (18)
Ugh.
Loved Jeremy Shamos in Ma Raney. His exclusion invalidates this whole category.
Ellen Burstyn missing all the big awards, could it be that the voters think it's too short?
Another very inclusive credits listing given how intimate the movie actually feels. You even get the family members who are barely in the movie.
Small disagreements here.
Christian Magby, who plays Jamaal the younger security man, is absent from the One Night in Miami list. I estimate that he ranks about sixth in screen time, and indeed, he is sixth in the IMDb credits. He has one significant scene of front-and-center dialogue, plus a few more lines during several scenes in the background.
No complaints about including Beau Bridges, but it's interesting that he is there for his one scene and Jeremy Pope (as Jackie Wilson) is not. Pope is the driving force of what I consider to be the film's best scene. Christopher Gorham (as Johnny Carson) has one scene and is also missing from the list, which is the right call. I only mention it because he's a familiar face playing a famous person.
As I said, small disagreements, especially given the weird history of SAG ensemble exclusions.
That's unfortunate for Ma Rainey.
Ugh is Trial of Chicago 7 taking Picture? It's the only SAG ensemble nominee that' also a GG Best Picture nominee. I get the sentiment for voting for it but film wise, there are way more interesting cinematic projects. Chicago 7 coulda been a TV movie back in the day.
This “single title card” thing is ridiculous. Taylour Paige’s omission for Ma Rainey’s hurts me the same way as Betty Gabriel for Get Out! a few years ago.
How did the title card rule work when Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris was nominated for the award? Allen’s films traditionally employ a simple card in the credits that lists all cast members alphabetically.
James -- for woody allen films they allow everyone on the first title card (since it's shared) but if there's a second title card, they are not included... which is how Corey Stoll got stiffed that year because he wasn't famous enough yet to be on the first title card.
Brevity -- thanks i will add them. I had forgotten who played who in that one.
just worth mentioning... I love Sasha Stone but this has become beyond ridiculous... every year they refuse in AD to acknowledge some contender(s) in their tracking list. This year "star" of this constant snub, pretending she doesn't exist... Maria Bakalova. They have updated the tracker with the SAG noms and the Globe noms and yes... nowhere to be found. One of the reasons I stopped participating in that site (but there are more).
... not to mention the obsessie inclusion of panned films (Spree) or continuously ignored films and performers and directors that are locked up in the tracker, giving me the feeling they might be either playing favorites with hope someone will read them, or there may be any kind of contractual obligation to have them there. A quick check...
Picture:
Let them all talk
Spree
Actor
Ben Affleck, The Way Back
Joe Keery, Spree
Actress
Robin Wright, Land
Meryl Streep, Let them all talk (they have her as NOMINEE for the Globe for The Prom, when that nomination went to Bakalova!!!)
Clare Dune, Herself
Supporting Actor
... this list is actually quite spot on, including the still unrewarded names
Supporting Actress
they don't include Bakalova DESPITE all her wins, the nominations for the Globe and the SAG (arguably the most difficult for her to get) and the shortlist nomination for the BAFTA (in which she may be the frontrunner for the win, thanks to Sacha Baron Cohen's influence in UK), but they include Candice Bergen AND Dianne Wiest for Let them all talk and both Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander for The Glorias. Puzzling. It's OK if they don't think Bakalova can be nominated by the AMPAS despite everything, but in all fairness, and out of professionalism, there is no defense to actually not only ignore her run in the awards season, but what is even worse, "give her Golden Globe nomination" to Meryl Streep. Embarrassing.
What can we do to stop the Baron Cohen thing from happening?
Caitlin Fitzgerald is the only one that truly should have been included among "The Trial of Chicago 7" actors.
The Dr Mistery --so you dont think two ot the the title characters should be honored?!?
From Trial of the Chicago 7, Shenkman really felt like part of the narrative, even more than the two members of the seven, but it's a shame all three were left off. Similarly, Paige and Shamos are so central to the events of Ma Rainey.
Thanks as always for this breakdown! An unfortunate necessity.
Everyone who has a line should get in. Those one line people need this more than Movie Stars.
Jesus, I can't see Maria being the frontrunner at Bafta. The Borat film is definitively American in its outlook and themes and given Bafta's tendency to ignore films heavily US centric films, the film just doesn't translate that well. Also Sacha is not that beloved in the UK, at least in my own estimation.
Which may also be a problem for Glenn Close in her movie.
I agree about AD's sidebar rankings though - I remember Florence Kasumba was ranked high up for Supporting Actress for Black Panther even after Globe and SAG nominations.
It's ridiculous. Well done to MIAMI, BLOODS and MINARI doing what needed to be done. I remember the moment those credits apeared in CHICAGO 7 that i'd be annoyed at who missed out. Crazy.
Actually, Kelvin Harrison, Jr. was listed among the official Best Cast SAG award recipients. Did they make an exception?