Los Angeles, Feb 28: The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards 2022 will be remembered for its diversity, as actors from ethnic minorities winning all four individual film categories for the first time.
The 27th SAG Awards was held on Sunday at a virtual event. Viola Davis, Youn Yuh-jung, Daniel Kaluuya and the late Chadwick Boseman all triumphed in their categories.
Chadwick Boseman, who died of cancer in August last year at the age of 43, won best male actor for his performance as a Blues musician in the 1920s drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a film adapted from a cycle of plays by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, August Wilson.
Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” won best ensemble cast in a motion picture, making history for Netflix. The ensemble prize is seen as the top honour at the SAG Awards, in the absence of a best picture category, the BBC reported.
“The Trial…” retells the story of the notorious courtroom drama involving a largely unrelated assortment of political activists who were accused of inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The film stars Mark Rylance, Eddie Redmayne, Frank Langella, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Keaton, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeremy Strong, Yahya Abdul-Mateen, John Carroll Lynch and Alex Sharp.
Its win means Keaton set a new record by becoming the first person to be part of three SAG-winning ensembles, following his wins as part of 2014’s “Birdman” and 2015’s “Spotlight”. Keaton got emotional at the end of his speech while talking about his nephew who died in 2016 when he accepted the SAG Award for his performance in Dopesick.
The SAG Awards are seen as a key indicator of which films and stars may come out on top at the Oscars, which will be presented on March 28. The favourite to win the best picture Oscar this year, “Nomadland”, was however not nominated for the top prize at SAG, as it centres around one character (played by Frances McDormand) rather than an ensemble cast.
There was no red carpet to welcome nominees in Los Angeles this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the awards were pre-recorded via video conference and squeezed into a one-hour broadcast. Boseman’s final performance was honoured at Sunday’s SAG awards, with his widow Taylor Simone Ledward delivering a moving speech as she accepted his posthumous prize.
“If you see the world unbalanced, be a crusader that pushes heavily on the seesaw of the mind,” she said, quoting her late husband. Viola Davis, who played the singer Ma Rainey in the film, won the award for best female actor in a leading role.
Accepting the prize, she thanked “the beautiful Chadwick Boseman” and “August, for leaving a legacy to actors of colour that we can relish for the rest of our life.” Davis looked visibly shocked to win the prize.
The best actress race is seen as wide open this year, with Carey Mulligan, Andra Day, Frances McDormand and Vanessa Kirby also in the running for the equivalent Oscar, the BBC said. British star Daniel Kaluuya won best supporting actor for his performance in Judas and the Black Messiah.
The film follows Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, who was killed in a co-ordinated raid by the FBI and Chicago Police in 1969. Youn Yuh-jung was named best female supporting actor for her performance in “Minari”, a red-hot favourite of awards season. She plays an unconventional grandmother in the film, which follows a Korean-American family who move to Arkansas as they chase the American Dream. In the television categories, British actress Anya Taylor-Joy picked up best female actor in a miniseries for her performance in “The Queen’s Gambit”, a seven-part drama about a chess prodigy. The actress paid tribute to her fellow nominees in her acceptance speech and made light of the virtual ceremony. “Thank you for your performances, I’m unbelievably honoured to be in this room, even though it’s not a room, it’s all mental, but you know what I mean,” she joked. “The Crown” was named best overall drama, while Gillian Anderson won best female drama actor for her performance as British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. “Schitt’s Creek”, which came to an end last year after six seasons, picked up best comedy series as well as best female comedy actor for Catherine O’Hara. It rounds off a hugely successful year for the series and O’Hara in particular, who has won the same prize at the Emmys and the Golden Globes. “Thank you to all who voted for us, what a way to say goodbye,” said Dan Levy, who co-created and starred in the series. Other TV category winners included Jason Bateman for Ozark, Jason Sudeikis for Ted Lasso, and Mark Ruffalo for I Know This Much Is True.
The SAGs was a two hour ceremony aired on both TBS and TNT.
Apple TV+’s Best Picture-nominated ?CODA?, the only film in the nominees’ list with a mostly deaf cast earned the biggest award of the night, with Marlee Matlin, the only deaf actress in history to have won an Oscar praising the awards for validating the work of deaf performers in her emotional acceptance speech.
?This validates the fact that we deaf actors can work like anyone else,? Matlin said. ?We look forward to more opportunities for deaf actors?.
CODA went on to score another great historic win, with actor Troy Kotsur becoming the first deaf actor to score a SAG win, for best supporting actor.
Facing stiff competition from Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper and Jared Leto, Kotsur said ?Now I feel I’m finally part of the family,? Kotsur said in his speech, which was also signed.
?I know you all are artists, and I know you all know what it’s like to be a starving actor. Back then I used to sleep in my car, I slept in my dressing room backstage, I couch-surfed and all of that. You feel me, right? So thank you so much.?
Using a sign-language interpreter, he professed his love to his wife, seated in the audience, and joked that his daughter can’t use the statuette to hold his jewelry.
Likewise, Jessica Chastain ended up winning in the category of best actress in a film for The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Expressing great surprise at the win the actress said that she had been working on the film for ten years and made it in a way which she hoped would make Tammy Faye proud.
It was a dream of mine to play Tammy Faye, she said I worked on the project for 10 years and I hope we made the story in a way that she would be proud of. She continued: I love my artistic family and my heart is with our international family who is all around the world right now and fighting for their safety and their freedom.
The Netflix sensation Squid Game was another historic winner as it became the first foreign language series to win small screen awards by picking up best male and female actor in a drama series for Lee Jung-Jae and Jung Ho-Yeon.
For Hulu’s miniseries Dopesick, Michael Keaton won best actor in a TV series with Keaton raising the matter of the Russian invasion of Ukraine before tearfully accepting the award.
The awards took place in the Santa Monica Barker Hangar. It awarded prizes in six film categories and nine TV races, in a hostless show for the third year in a row.
Winners of the 28th SAG Awards across all categories are as follows: Outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture CODA
Outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role Will Smith, King Richard.
Outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye Outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role Troy Kotsur, CODA
Outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role Ariana DeBose, West Side Story.
Outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or miniseries Michael Keaton, Dopesick.
Outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movie or miniseries Kate Winslet, Mare of Easttown
Outstanding performance by a cast in a drama series Succession
Outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series Jung Ho-yeon, Squid Game
Outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series Lee Jung-jae, Squid Game.
Outstanding performance by a cast in a comedy series Ted Lasso.
Outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series Jean Smart, Hacks
Outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso
Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture No Time to Die
Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series Squid Game
(UNI)
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