#MeToo on stage at SAG awards
THREE Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri continued its steady march towards Oscar glory at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, winning the best ensemble, best actress and best supporting actor prizes. Following a muted start, talk of women’s empowerment came to dominate the night, and potentially awkward moments were averted after two nominees recently accused of misconduct – Aziz Ansari, who was a no-show, and James Franco, who wore a pained look whenever the camera swung his way – were bested by the competition.
“Truth is power and women are stepping into their power,” Gabrielle Carteris, president of SAG-AFTRA, the union behind the ceremony, said onstage. “We are in the midst of a cultural shift.”
The Screen Actors Guild Awards often forecast Oscar winners, and after matching the Golden Globes in four key categories, the prizes on Sunday revealed an increasingly calcifying race. The front-runners are Three Billboards for best picture, Frances McDormand for best actress and Gary Oldman ( Darkest Hour) for best actor. Allison Janney ( I, Tonya) is in the lead for best supporting actress, while Sam Rockwell, of Three Billboards, is the favourite for best supporting actor.
Before the ceremony, the spotlight was focused less on the awards than on controversies swirling around two nominees. BigLittleLies
Franco, who was up for best lead actor for his performance in The Disaster Artist, was recently accused of sexually inappropriate behaviour by five women. And Ansari, who was a best actor nominee for his comedy series Master of None, joined the ranks of alleged abusers last week after a young woman, speaking anonymously to a reporter from Babe.net, said he had been sexually coercive on a date.
Ansari said in a statement that he believed his interaction with the woman had been “completely consensual”.
Franco, who has denied any wrongdoing, sat in the SAG audience looking exceedingly uncomfortable, but managed to pull off a pained smile when his name was announced (he was in the same category as Oldman).
And when Ansari’s category was announced, only a photo of Ansari was shown. Though Ansari nabbed the Golden Globe for best television comedy actor, William H Macy ended up winning the SAG, for his performance in Shameless, no doubt a relief for most everyone there.
In the early moments of the show, the host Kristen Bell referred to the #MeToo movement only obliquely, describing this time as a “a watershed moment”, and urging “empathy and diligence because fear and anger never win the race”.
But as the night wore on, more women, and at least one man, brought up the scandals that have shaken Hollywood and other industries to the core, with more accusations emerging and an increasingly urgent push for gender equality.
“How wonderful it is that our careers today can go beyond 40 years old,” said Nicole Kidman, who won best actress in a television movie or limited series for her Big Little Lies performance. “Twenty years ago we were pretty washed up by this stage in our lives. That’s not the case now. We’ve proven that we’re potent and powerful and viable. I just beg that the industry stays behind us.”
In his acceptance speech, Rockwell said he welcomed the #MeToo moment, saying, “It’s long overdue.” Moments earlier, presenting an award, Marisa Tomei lauded her fellow presenter, Patricia Arquette, for breaking her silence, and Arquette listed a number of women who have spoken out against disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein. Another presenter, Brie Larson, said that the Time’s Up initiative was working with SAG-AFTRA to hammer out a new code of conduct to ensure safety from harassment on movie sets.
Bell, the SAG Awards’ first ever host, faced the unenviable choice of directly addressing what Ansari and Franco stand accused of or making it the elephant in the room. That she opted for the latter was arguably a startling move, though in an interview last month with the Times, Bell said, “An awards show is not as serious as the conversation deserves to be.” (She did wear black at the ceremony, a nod of support for Time’s Up.) And the majority of presenters were women, a deliberate decision made by the producers in the wake of last January’s Women’s March and the #MeToo movement.
At the Golden Globes on January 7, Seth Meyers won praise for threading the needle, referencing Hollywood’s sexual harassment scandals while ginning up genuine belly laughs. But that was before women began making claims against Franco and Ansari, who both collected Golden Globes that night. Indeed the accusers said they were inspired by the Time’s Up pins both men were wearing in support of people who had been victimised.