Highlights From the 32nd Annual Actor Awards
The 32nd Actor Awards celebrated Harrison Ford, union solidarity and 'That’s So Raven.'
The Actor Awards (formerly the Screen Actors Guild Awards, AKA the worst rebrand since Twitter) held their 32nd annual ceremony last night at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles and streamed to the masses for the third year in a row on Netflix. “I think the world could use some levity right now, so we’re gonna keep things fun tonight,” host Kristen Bell (returning for the third year in a row) told the crowd. I bristled at such intention setting and yet the result was a fun, breezy ceremony with a lot of high highs (That’s So Raven being included in the comedy montage, for instance, or Keri Russell winning her second ever major award in her illustrious career, for another, or the way Parker Posey looked up as Lisa Kudrow came out to present for Female Actor in a Comedy).
Unlike other award ceremonies, the SAG Awards (sorry, I’m not ready to fully acknowledge the rebrand) allow actors to vote in celebration of their peers. There’s no studio-driven campaigning which gives other award shows a more politicized feel; instead, the SAG Awards carry a more pure, unaffected energy and also come with speeches that tend to celebrate the craft of acting and the unions that protect and uplift actors. This iteration of the show was no different.
While the show opened with a musical number and a few bits throughout, the show mainly gets down to business: presenting its awards to both actors and ensembles. The overall feel is one of people who actually want to be in the room as opposed to some ceremonies that feel more perfunctory than enjoyable. Perhaps it was the air conditioning (mentioned throughout the pre-show by those in attendance as well as Seth Rogen during his speech) or maybe just a necessary aura cleansing, but the night proved to celebrate not just actors, but the community of artists who inspire empathy and imagination in all of us.
Delroy Lindo Gives Encouragement to Aspiring Thespians
“The grand irony of my sitting here right now, experiencing a period of wide acknowledgement and militant success, is that it’s causing me to think about the times in my career when things weren’t going so well. Being able to look back from a place of this current success at times that were more challenging for me is a testament, yes, to my own self-belief and my ability to hang in, but hopefully it’s also an encouraging example to all actors out there who currently may be facing their own challenges. I’m Delroy Lindo, I’m an actor and never forget all you aspiring thespians: You are too.”
Seth Rogen Calls Out the WGA
“This is a great award show! They’ve got food and drinks and shit, this is incredible. It’s not a hundred million degrees in here. It’s wonderful. You were able to pay your own employees enough to keep the award show from being canceled. Take notes WGA.”
This comment comes after the Writers Union’s West Coast division canceled its upcoming awards show, which was to set to take place this Sunday, due to an ongoing strike from its staff union.
Some Necessary Catherine O’Hara Appreciation
After picking up the posthumous award for Female Actor in a Comedy, the late Catherine O’Hara was honored by her costar Seth Rogen who took the stage to accept the award on her behalf.
“I obviously have been reflecting on the time I was fortunate enough to spend with her, working with her, and something that I’ve just been marveling at over the last few weeks was really her ability to be generous and kind and gracious while never, ever minimizing her own talents and her own ability to contribute to the work we were doing. She knew she could destroy and she wanted to destroy every day on set… She really showed that you can be a genius and be kind, and one of those things does not have to come at the expense of the other in any way, shape or form… If you have people in your lives that don’t know her work, if there are kids or just people who are out of touch or stupid or something, just show them O’Hara dancing to Harry Belafonte in Beetlejuice, show them O’Hara hurting her knee in Best in Show… and tell the people as they are laughing that that’s Catherine O’Hara. And we were lucky to live in a world where she so generously shared her talents with us.”
The broadcast featured touching reactions to Rogen’s tribute.
Noah Wyle Shows Love for His — and All — Labor Unions
A night of remarkable speeches kept its momentum when Noah Wyle stepped on stage to show his love and commitment to both acting and his union.
“Somebody had told me that you had to say seven words to get a SAG card and in 1990, I got one line in a television miniseries called Blind Faith — one line, five words — and I spent all morning in my four-banger scheming on how to stretch that out so that I could get my card, and I improvised, ‘Excuse me, what’s going on down there?’ and then I found it didn’t matter. But what did matter was getting that card — this card — which I’ve had in my wallet for the last 36 years. I love being an actor. I love actors. Working with you. Playing with you. And when necessary marching alongside of you has been the greatest joy of my life. I am so grateful to this union, for all the protections and the privileges it affords me. I don’t take it for granted and I don’t forget the hard-won fights and battles by giants who fought before us whose shoulders we all stand on. I’m so grateful for this. I’m so grateful to the membership of SAG-AFTRA, to the membership of all of our sibling unions, and to labor unions everywhere.”
Harrison Ford Delivers a Speech Worth Reflecting On
Nothing I could say would be necessary in setting up the speech of the night, delivered by Lifetime Achievement recipient Harrison Ford. So, I’ll simply get out of the way and share the transcript.
“I feel incredibly grateful for this kind of attention, but to be clear: I also am quite humbled. I’m in a room of actors, many of whom are here because they’ve been nominated to receive a prize for their amazing work, white I’m here to receive a prize for being alive. That said, it’s a little weird to be getting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the half point of my career. It’s a little early, isn’t it? I’m still a working actor. I was not an overnight success. I struggled for about 15 years going from acting job to carpentry and back to acting until I finally got a part in a wildly successful film. None of this happened on my own… In my third year of college, I was a little lost. I was failing at school, I felt isolated and alone, and then I found the company of people putting on plays. Storytellers. People I once thought were misfits and geeks turned out to be my people. I found a calling. A life in storytelling. An identity in pretending to be other people. Work I do with other actors is one of the great joys of my life. My career is built on their work, as well as the work of writers, directors and every single cast member, every crew member I’ve ever been on the set with. I’ve had incredible collaborators at every step of the way, and being able to deliver the work we create together to an audience is an honor and a privilege. And because of that privilege, I’ve come to know myself. This is a tough business to get into. In my case, it’s been a tough business to get out of, thank God, because I love what I do. As actors, we get to live many lives, we get to explore ideas that affirm and elevate our shared experience. The stories we tell have a unique capacity to create moments of emotional connection. They bring us together. So while we’re all at different stages of our lives and careers in this room, we all share something fundamental: We share the privilege of working in the world of ideas, of empathy, of imagination. Sometimes we make entertainment. Sometimes we make art. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we make both at the same time. And if we’re really fortunate, we also get to make a living doing it. Success in this business brings a certain freedom that comes with responsibility to support each other, to lift others up when we can, to keep the door open for the next kid, the next lost boy who’s looking for a place to belong. I’m indeed a lucky guy. Lucky to have found my people. Lucky to have work that challenges me. Lucky to still be doing it. And I don’t take that for granted. I want to say thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart, to my peers, to my extraordinary, beautiful wife Calista and our family, who have given me love and courage through all of it. And thank you to SAG-AFTRA for honoring me with this prize. This is very encouraging.”
Amy Madigan Celebrates Unions; Calls Out Ken’s Lack of Penis
“I’ve been doing this a long-ass time, and I have never been nominated by the SAG committee and by the guild. I’m a proud member and I keep getting asked, ‘What is it about this night?’ and I say, ‘Because actors love other actors. They just love being with them.’ We want to be working with them, we want to look up at them and just go, ‘Man, you guys are so good.’ I’m a union person. I come from Chicago, and everybody in my family and all my friends were union people. And I don’t care what somebody says, they’re not gonna bust us. Ever.”
She could have ended there and received acclaim for a great speech. But then she added a perfect grace note.
“Let’s see, what does he have here? Anyway, sorry, I digressed. It was like when you were little and you had the Barbie and then you got Ken and you whipped down his drawers and went: ‘Ken has nothing!’ I never quite understood that! Anyway, as you can tell, I’m nervous and I’m just overwhelmed and so happy.”
Michael B. Jordan Clinches Best Actor in a Drama
In a relatively unexpected win for an over-crowded category of worthy contenders, Michael B. Jordan picked up a major victory for his dual roles in Ryan Coogler’s acclaimed Sinners.
He delivered a heartfelt speech that could be a precursor to an Oscar speech in a few weeks.
“I remember as a kid in this industry, you had to earn your vouchers to become a member of SAG. I remember watching all the other actors I looked up to being a part of that club, being a part of this community, and I was like, ‘Man, I want to be that one day.’ I remember when I got my SAG-AFTRA card I was like, ‘I’m an entry-level member.’ And those guys that were on stage with the awards and the nice suits, being in fancy places like that… that’s what I always wanted. And that kid from north New Jersey is standing here right now.”
As Richard Lawson wrote in his newsletter: “Chalamet Might Not Win That Oscar, Huh?”
Jon Gries in Eckhaus Latta
Top toot of the night!