Breaking the mould
SAG prize starts out as molten metal and craftsmanship sets them apart
BURBANK, CALIF. Winners of the Screen Actors Guild Awards often remark on their statuettes — their green-black appearance, their hefty weight — but the awards start out in a decidedly different state: as molten metal.
Winners often tell stories about how much the award, conferred to them by the 121,000-plus members of the guild SAG-AFTRA, mean to them. And for individual film-acting winners, the honour often means another piece of hardware: an Academy Award.
Long before the glitzy awards ceremony, held Sunday at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium, the statuettes are forged in a decidedly unglamorous foundry on an industrial side street in Burbank. Men in welding masks and reflective suits craft the trophies using a metalworking that is a process centuries old to create the award, which depicts an actor holding the drama and comedy masks. Once the statuette is done, a process that takes several weeks, the award weighs 12 pounds — nearly four pounds heavier than an Oscar.
The statuettes are created by pouring molten bronze into a wax mould. The bronze is heated to about 1,000 C, said Angel Meza a production manager at the American Fine Arts Foundary, who has helped oversee the crafting of the award, called The Actor, for several years. Machines whirr and chains clank as the heavily protected workers pour the liquid metal into moulds, which grow bright as they’re filled. After cooling down for several minutes, the men dismantle the moulds and despite their oversized protective mitts, bobble the pieces in their hands as they pass them onto a table.
“To see the labour and see what really goes on, the artistry of it, I think is magnificent. These skills — I don’t think people are aware,” said Ann Dowd, who is nominated for a SAG Award as part of the cast for The Handmaid’s Tale. She was one of several celebrities who watched the creation of several statuettes during an event earlier this month.
“We see these beautiful old buildings, we see statues, and they’re going away because that craftsmanship — it’s rare, I think, to have those skills and that artistry,” she said.
The initial moulding process takes about 15 minutes.
It takes weeks to cast, polish, apply a patina to the dozens of statuettes needed for the SAG Awards. The show honours the best performances in film and television from the previous year. The show awards several large cast ensembles, including stunt performers, making it impossible to know before the ceremony exactly how many will be handed each year.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is the leading film nominee, while the HBO drama Big Little Lies leads all television nominees.
Whether Dowd is among the winners Sunday, she said watching the crafting of the statuettes was a treat.
“Nothing thrills me more than seeing how things come together,” Dowd said.