Actors of color make history at Screen Actors Guild show
People of color sweep the individual acting categories at the 27th annual awards.
The late Chadwick Boseman looks like even more of an Oscar lock and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” won the biggest prize on a historic night for film actors of color at Sunday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Aaron Sorkin’s courtroom drama “Chicago 7” won best ensemble cast in a motion picture, and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” co-stars Boseman and Viola Davis snagged honors for best lead actor at the SAG Awards. For the first time, actors of color swept all four individual film categories.
Boseman’s widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, quoted her husband when accepting his award: “If you see the world unbalanced, be a crusader that pushes heavily on the seesaw of the mind.”
Daniel Kaluuya won supporting actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah” and Yuh-jung Youn earned supporting actress for “Minari,” becoming the first Asian winner of an individual SAG acting award for a movie.
“This one’s for Chadwick Boseman and this one’s for Fred Hampton,” Kaluuya said in his acceptance speech honoring the “Da 5 Bloods” actor he was competing against, as well as Kaluuya’s role as Hampton, the real-life Illinois Black Panther chairman he portrays in “Black Messiah.”
The SAG Awards often are seen as an indicator of what could win at the Academy Awards, because actors make up the largest Oscar voting bloc. Last year’s best picture, “Parasite,” won outstanding cast, and all four individual SAG winners in 2020 – Joaquin Phoenix, Renée Zellweger, Brad Pitt and Laura Dern – also won Oscars.
In TV categories, “Schitt’s Creek” won best comedy ensemble and star Catherine O’Hara took best comedy actress, “The Crown” ruled the drama cast contingent, Jason Bateman (“Ozark”) and Gillian Anderson (“The Crown”) took drama actor trophies, and Jason Sudeikis (“Ted Lasso”) earned best comedy actor.
Winners in top categories
Check out the SAG winners (in bold) from Sunday’s livestreamed pre-show and televised special.
Movies
Ensemble cast
“Da 5 Bloods”
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” “Minari”
“One Night in Miami”
WINNER: “The Trial of the Chicago 7” Actor
Riz Ahmed, “Sound of Metal”
WINNER: Chadwick Boseman, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Anthony Hopkins, “The Father” Gary Oldman, “Mank” Steven Yeun, “Minari”
Actress
Amy Adams, “Hillbilly Elegy”
WINNER: Viola Davis, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Vanessa Kirby, “Pieces of a Woman” Frances McDormand, “Nomadland” Carey Mulligan, “Promising Young Woman”
Supporting actor
Sacha Baron Cohen, “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
Chadwick Boseman, “Da 5 Bloods” WINNER: Daniel Kaluuya, “Judas and the Black Messiah”
Jared Leto, “The Little Things” Leslie Odom Jr., “One Night in Miami”
Supporting female actor
Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”
Glenn Close, “Hillbilly Elegy” Olivia Colman, “The Father”
WINNER: Yuh-jung Youn, “Minari” Helena Zengel, “News of the World”
Television Ensemble in a drama series
“Better Call Saul” “Bridgerton”
WINNER: “The Crown”
“Lovecraft Country” “Ozark”
Ensemble in a comedy series
“Dead to Me”
“The Flight Attendant” “The Great”
WINNER: “Schitt’s Creek” “Ted Lasso”