SAG Awards: Five things to know
THE strangest award season ever continued Sunday night with the 27th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Like past shows in the pandemic era, the organisation presented all awards remotely over Zoom, but also kept things brief: The entire programme was only an hour, including commercials, and it was all pre-recorded to avoid any technological mishaps.
While there were a few blurry Zoom screens and brief audio issues, for the most part, it went quite smoothly and even managed to have some entertaining moments.
Here are five things to know:
The Trial of the Chicago 7 won the night's big prize.
The final category, outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture, is a frequent predictor of best picture at the upcoming Oscars.
Although Nomadland is currently the front-runner among prognosticators, it wasn't nominated in the category – and the trophy went to The Trial of the Chicago 7, a courtroom drama written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, about the anti-Vietnam War activists charged with inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Frank Langella accepted on behalf of the cast and quoted Martin Luther King Jr. (“God give us leaders”), noting the SAG Awards were taking place on the same date King was assassinated in 1968.
“The trial of the Chicago seven began 18 months later,” he said. “Aaron Sorkin was determined to tell their story, and his loving and respectful direction transformed a group of disparate actors into an ensemble.
“Reverend King was right. We need leaders to guide us towards hating each other less. We owe a debt of thanks to the voices of the Chicago seven. And most especially Aaron Sorkin, our leader, whose voice is the soul of this movie.”
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom triumphed in the lead actor categories.
Viola Davis was in a tough category for female actor in a leading role, which included Frances McDormand in Nomadland and Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman.
But she must have really assumed she didn’t have a shot, because she nearly fell off her chair when she was named the winner for her starring role as blues singer Ma Rainey, easily making it the night’s most amazing reaction shot. Davis thanked the cast and crew members, as well as August Wilson, who wrote the play on which the movie is based.
“Thank you, August, for leaving a legacy to actors of colour that we can relish for the rest of our lives,” she said.
A few moments later, Davis’s co-star, the late Chadwick Boseman, won for male actor in a leading role. His wife, Simone Ledward Boseman, accepted the honour with a quote she attributed to her husband: “If you see the world unbalanced, be a crusader that pushes heavily on the seesaw of the mind.”
There were many supportive Zoom screens of actors.
As Mark Ruffalo noted when he won the male actor in a TV movie/limited series prize for HBO’s I Know This Much is True, this award is particularly gratifying to actors, considering that it’s voted on by fellow actors – and no one is more critical than fellow actors.
Sure enough, the stars cheered one another on in their group Zoom screens in each category. “Nicely done, Mark!” Ethan Hawke called out to Ruffalo.
The highlight may have been Youn Yuh-jung, who earned the trophy for female actor in a supporting role for Minari and was overwhelmed with emotion.
“I don’t know how to describe my feelings,” she said, adding she was “very, very honoured”.
When she expressed concern about her English, the other actors cheered her on: “Perfect!” Glenn Close and Olivia Colman yelled. (According to the Hollywood Reporter, Yuh-jung also made SAG history as the first Asian actor to win in an individual movie category.)
The Crown and Schitt’s Creek dominated yet again.
It’s a familiar scene: Netflix’s The Crown and Pop TV’s Schitt’s Creek went home with multiple trophies.
Gillian Anderson won for playing British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and the cast walked away with the prize for ensemble in a drama series.
Schitt’s Creek earned the ensemble in a comedy series prize, while Catherine O’Hara took another victory lap for her role as eccentric matriarch Moira Rose.
Elsewhere on the TV side, Jason Bateman triumphed in the lead role for Netflix’s Ozark, and gave shout-outs to medical workers and urged everyone to get a coronavirus vaccination: “Go get your shot and let's all get back to normal”.
There were a few “only in an award show during a global pandemic” moments.
Zoom really is the great equaliser, even for A-list celebrities.
Thanks to the SAG Awards, we learned that on Zoom, Ruffalo goes by “Mark R.”, Hugh Grant is just “Hugh”, and Catherine O’Hara streamed in from “Catherine’s iPad”.
And we can’t forget The Queen’s Gambit nominee Bill Camp appearing in a car:
The producers also included many filler segments with celebrity presenters, and at one point, everyone had to name their favourite TV shows.
This is how we now know that Helen Mirren is a fan of Hulu’s Pen15; Sterling K. Brown can’t get enough of HBO’s Succession; Mindy Kaling has been watching Netflix’s Unorthodox; Daveed Diggs’s guilty pleasure is ITV’s Love Island; Daisy Ridley enjoys Bravo’s Below Deck; and Cynthia Erivo, Riz Ahmed and Dan Levy are fans of HBO’s