TRUE COLORS
L Diverse winners list at SAG Awards l Prize for Leo bodes well for Oscars
THE WINNERS WERE not so white.
In contrast to the ongoing controversy surrounding the Oscars, the 22nd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards delivered on diversity.
Winners Saturday night included black actors Uzo Aduba, Queen Latifah, Viola Davis and Idris Elba for their critically acclaimed work in TV and film.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to diverse TV,” Elba, 43, said while presenting an award at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles. He’d already accepted statues for his best supporting actor role in the Netflix dramatic film “Beasts of No Nation,” and his lead actor role in the BBC miniseries “Luther.”
“Look at this stage,” actress Laura Prepon said, gesturing to the highly diverse cast of “Orange Is The New Black” while picking up their award for best comedic ensemble. “This is what we talk about when we talk about diversity.”
The #OscarsSoWhite hashtag started trending after all 20 men and women nominated by the Academy for best act- ing awards this year were white for the second year in a row.
Backstage Saturday, several “Orange” co-stars called recent reforms announced by the Academy “a start.”
“The producers and directors and casting people need to open up their eyes, that this is a different world we’re living in,” Bronx-raised “Orange” actress Selenis Leyva, 43, said.
Her co-star, Aduba, was the winner for best actress in a TV comedy for her role in the Netflix prison series.
“I hope that we wake up and realize that the old way of doing things is the old way of doing things, and it’s OK to evolve and change and grow,” Queen Latifah said backstage after winning a best actress award for her HBO movie “Bessie.”
“Change is inevitable, so might as well wrap your mind around it and, let’s go,” she said.
Davis, who won for best actress in a TV drama for “How to Get Away with Murder,” said “openness” was the key.
“We’ve become a society of trending topics,” she lamented when asked about the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.
She said stories with non-white actors are still human stories, and more people need to give them a chance.
“I’m just saying, plop your money down to see race, to see ‘Dope,’ to see ‘Straight Outta Compton,’ ” she said. “That’s more important than boycotting — openness.”
The night’s top honor, best ensemble in a film, went to the Boston-based newspaper drama “Spotlight.”
The SAG Awards have been a reliable bellwether for the Oscars, with individual SAG winners for film roles over the last three years corresponding exactly with Oscar winners a month later.
That was good news for the night’s best actor winner Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Revenant”) and best actress winner Brie Larson (“Room”), who seemed to cement their status as Oscar favorites.
Alicia Vikander won the best supporting actress statue for “The Danish Girl” and is another Oscar favorite.
Elba, meanwhile, was shut out as a nominee for best supporting actor at the Oscars.