Tag: awards

Universal’s Oppenheimer took took the top prize at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards, winning best cast in a film — while also taking the prizes for lead and supporting actor. 

Cillian Murphy won best actor for his role as in the eponymous scientist who led the Manhattan Project’s creation of the atomic bomb. He thanked his costars — his “Oppenhomies,” quoting costar Olivia Thirlby — and the larger acting community. “Twenty years ago, when I was trying to become an actor, I was a failed musician and I felt extremely like an interloper,” Murphy recalled. “But now, looking out at all of you guys here today, I know that I’m part of something truly wonderful.”

Lily Gladstone won best actress for Apple’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and opened her acceptance speech by thanking her fellow SAG members for their solidarity during last year’s strike. “This has been a hard year for all of us — those in this room, those not in this room. I’m so proud that we’ve gotten here in solidarity with all of our other unions,” Gladstone said. She added that acting is, ultimately, storytelling: “We bring empathy into a world that so much needs it. It’s so easy to distance ourselves. It’s so easy to close off, to stop feeling and we all bravely keep feeling. That humanizes people, that brings people out of the shadows — it brings visibility.”

Murphy’s Oppenheimer co-star Robert Downey Jr. won best supporting actor, his second career win at the SAG Awards after winning best actor in a comedy series for Ally McBeal in 2001. “Why me? Why now? Why do things seem to be going my way?” said Downey, who has also won a Golden Globe, a Critics Choice Award and a BAFTA for his role in the Universal historical epic directed by Christopher Nolan. “Unlike my fellow nominees, I will never grow tired from the sound of my own voice.”

Holdovers star Da’Vine Joy Randolph won best supporting actress for the Focus Features film. “How lucky are we that we get to do what we do? Truly, in what other profession are people able to live so many lives and touch so many hearts?” she said. “I wake up every day overwhelmed with gratitude to be a working actor. To be awarded this by my fellow artists is the greatest honor of my career. I also want to take a moment to say that every role that I have ever played has been crafted thanks to those who are nearest and dearest to me — some of the most brilliant actors I know whose talents have yet to be properly acknowledged by the world. For every actor out there still waiting in the wings for their chance, let me tell you: Your life can change in a day, and it is not a question of if but when. Keep going.”

HBO’s Succession won best ensemble in a drama series for its final season — its second win in the category after picking up the prize in 2022. “One last hurrah,” said Alan Ruck. “Right now, you’re looking at some of the luckiest people on the planet and some of the most grateful, because not only did we get to work on one of the best television shows maybe ever — we made friends for life.”

But in the acting categories, Pedro Pascal beat Succession’s awards streak, taking the prize for best actor for HBO’s The Last of Us. Even the star appeared surprised by the win. “This is wrong for a number of reasons — I’m a little drunk,” said Pascal. “I thought I could get drunk!”

Elizabeth Debicki won best actress in a drama series for The Crown’s sixth and final season, her second bout playing Princess Diana. Like Pascal, she also expressed her surprise at winning the award. “The women in my category, I watch with total awe,” she said, “I learn how to do my craft watching you.”

FX’s The Bear took home the top prize in the TV comedy categories, winning best ensemble. The show also won individual awards for actor and actress in a comedy: Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri, respectively, with White picking up his second consecutive SAG Award for the series. “I’m so honored to be in this community,” he said. “I’ve wanted to be a part of this community for my whole life. I had no backup plan. I started very young, and I’m just so incredibly touched to be standing in front of you all today.”

“I’m looking out at this room of people whose work moves me and motivates me and makes me feel and laugh,” said Edebiri before announcing she’d butcher a James Baldwin quote she had recently read. “The act of love is just really an act of mirroring, and I think anything that anybody sees in me that’s worth anything is because of the people who love me and support me and it made me who I am.”

Beef stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong won best actor and actress in a limited series. Wong thanked Netflix, noting that the company has supported her since the debut of her 2016 special Baby Cobra, while Yeun recalled in his speech that he earned his SAG card for wiggling in a vat of fake caramel while wearing a speedo for a Milky Way commercial. “Honestly, I felt just as hyped to get that card then as I am to receive this here now,” said Yeun. 

In the pre-show, HBO’s The Last of Us won the TV stunt performance category, while Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One win the respective film category.

The Morning Show’s Jennifer Aniston presented the lifetime achievement award to Barbra Streisand, noting that the location of the ceremony — Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium — was the site of Streisand’s first major concert in 1963. Noting that the two-time Oscar winner is a trailblazer for women in the entertainment industry, Aniston said that Streisand “did not just pave the way for us women — she bulldozed the clearing for us.” Joining Aniston on stage, Bradley Cooper also celebrated Streisand, saying, “One might think that an actor who becomes a director has to learn to look at everything in a whole new way to see how everything fits together, to have that 10,000-foot view. But that perspective wasn’t new for Barbara — for her it was second nature.”

“This is such a wonderful award to get because you know in advance … you don’t have to sit there and squirm, wondering if you’re gonna get it,” said Streisand, who noted she’s a six-decade member of SAG. She also recalled going to see Guys and Dolls as a teenager and falling head over heels for star Marlon Brando, knowing then that being in movies was her life’s goal. “That make-believe world was much more pleasant than anything I was experiencing,” Streisand added. “I didn’t like reality. I wanted to be in the movies. Even though I knew I didn’t look like the other women on the screen — my mother said, ‘You better learn to type,’ but I didn’t listen. And somehow, some way, it all came true.”

Michael Cera, Colman Domingo, Hannah Waddingham and Idris Elba kicked off the show with the annual “I am an actor” presentation, sharing personal anecdotes of their career highlights. Elba also introduced the awards show from the stage, noting that for the first time the ceremony is streaming live on Netflix and cursing is allowed — within reason. “Here’s a good rule of thumb: Maybe don’t say anything you wouldn’t say in front of Oprah,” said Elba. 

The Hijack star also took the opportunity to address the biggest elephant in the room: last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike. “It is especially meaningful to be here all together for this occasion after going through a very difficult time with the strike,” said Elba. “I want to take this moment to honor and appreciate all of you both here and watching at home who stood up for SAG-AFTRA in solidarity and support.”

Addressing the A-list members in the audience, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher also reflected on the lessons learned from the 2023 strike. “You survived the longest strike in our union’s history with courage and conviction. The journey was arduous. It came with great sacrifice and unrelenting stress. Your collective dignity and perseverance to stand up and say we deserve better because we are better resulted in an historic billion dollar deal.” 

Drescher added that their labor fight has inspired other workforces across the globe. “Your solidarity ignited workers around the world, triggering what forever will be remembered as the Hot Labor Summer,” she said. “You took the heroes journey and stood at the front lines. Strike captains led the march on the picket lines. And we all showed up to the rallies because you understood what our massive contribution means to this marvelous industry.”

This story was originally published on Feb. 24 at 5:44 p.m.