Eleven Takeaways from the 26th Screen Actors Guild Awards
Last night, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) labor union celebrated the silver anniversary of its awards show and gave out 15 acting awards across film (6 awards) and television (9 awards). Tonight’s winners and losers have plenty of implications for the upcoming Oscar and Emmy ceremonies and, as usual, it was a fast-paced, star-studded ceremony brimming with sentiment.
Why Do the SAG Awards Matter?
Despite the fact that it has only been around a fraction of the time that the other major awards shows have, the SAG Awards have developed into one of the most important nights of awards season. This is likely due to two factors. First, given that every single award goes to actors, it is a star-studded affair that usually makes for fairly painless viewing and hot red carpet action. Second, and more importantly, it is the only awards-granting body that gives out high-profile acting awards during awards season that shares significant membership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which doles out the Oscars. Due to this overlap in membership and the SAG Awards strategic ceremony date that is positioned right before Oscar voting begins, it has earned a name for itself as the single best predictor of the eventual acting Oscar winners among all the award shows.
Eleven Takeaways from the 26th SAG Awards
- The four acting Oscars are all locked up. In my analysis of this year’s Oscar nominations, I doubled down on my prediction that this year’s four acting Oscars were already locked. The only thing that could possibly convince me otherwise would have been a major upset at SAG or BAFTA. Although BAFTA is still a question mark (the ceremony occurs on February 2nd), SAG rubber stamped the four front runners last night. Thus, I am more confident than ever that Renee Zellweger (Judy), Joaquin Phoenix (Joker), Laura Dern (Marriage Story), and Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood) will be taking home the four acting Oscars in a few weeks. They may not all be my top choices in their respective categories, but I’ve seen much, much more disappointing lineups so I will be fine if this is how it all plays out.
- Best Picture is still up in the air thanks to Parasite’s historic win. For the first time, the SAG award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture went to a foreign language film. The audience erupted into a standing ovation both times the cast of Parasite took the stage, first to introduce clips from their film and then to receive the night’s top award. (Note: The SAG only honors acting so its award for film ensemble is as close as it gets to giving out a Best Picture trophy). Not only did Parasite have to overcome subtitles to win, but it did not have any individual acting nominations and had no bankable A-listers (in stark contrast to the other four nominees). This show of support means that it is still very much in the running for Best Picture, after it somewhat underperformed at the Oscar nominations and had a couple of high-profile losses to 1917 (PGA) and Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (Critics’ Choice).
- Robert DeNiro is one of the biggest acting legends still with us. Robert DeNiro became the 55th recipient of the SAG Life Achievement Award (this award predated the other SAG acting awards by several decades). If anyone had doubts about whether or not that fete was deserved, the montage of his greatest performances introduced by Leonardo DiCaprio made a persuasive argument in his favor. Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, The Godfather Part II, Raging Bull, The Deer Hunter, The King of Comedy, The Mission, GoodFellas, Awakenings, Cape Fear, Analyze This, Meet the Parents, Casino, Heat, Jackie Brown, Silver Linings Playbook, and American Hustle are just some of the classic films he has been in over the past five decades, and this year he adds The Irishman and Joker (both nominated for the Best Picture Oscar). During his speech, he let out some of his normal gruffness, but was passionate in his anti-Trump speech and full of humility and gratitude when he turned the focus to his career.
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel continues to be a behemoth. In the last two years, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has won five out of the six comedy series categories at the SAG Awards (this year it won Outstanding Ensemble and Outstanding Actor for Tony Shalhoub, last year it won both of those plus an Outstanding Actress trophy for Rachel Brosnahan). Given that the latest spate of awards cover the show’s recently released third season, there is good reason to suggest that it will continue to be a powerhouse player at the Emmys come September.
- Hollywood loves Fleabag. If you’re wondering what was the only SAG award Maisel lost in the past two years, well that would be this year’s Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series award, which went to Phoebe Waller-Bridge for Fleabag. Waller-Bridge joins an elite group of performances that have won all five major television awards in the same year — the Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, Critics’ Choice, and the Television Critics Awards (the other two are Sarah Paulson for The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story and Michelle Williams for Fosse/Verdon, a feat she also accomplished last night). Not only did Waller-Bridge interrupt the Maisel domination, but her show dominated the Maisel cast’s screen time as they spent a good chunk of their acceptance speech talking about their admiration for Fleabag. During her acceptance speech, Waller-Bridge downplayed her usual snarky, self-deprecating shtick and rather gave a heartfelt speech about how incredibly grateful the cast and crew are for the extraordinary reception of the second season. It was a lovely change of pace.
- The new installment of The Crown will be a big Emmy player. The third season of The Crown was not necessarily an awards season slam dunk. Although the first two seasons did well at the awards shows (with a total of eight major wins from the Emmys, SAG, and Golden Globes), the new season featured an entirely new cast (to reflect the aging of the characters they play) and did not drop for nearly two years after the second season. However, its big wins at the Globes (Best Actress for Olivia Colman) and at SAG (Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series) suggests that it was well-received by Hollywood and will be a major player at this year’s Emmys. It seemed a bit odd that Olivia Colman (Queen Elizabeth II) was not there to accept the award, but at least Helena Bonham Carter (Princess Margaret) was present to deliver a delightfully weird acceptance speech.
- The Morning Show is not the disaster it looked like it was upon its launch. When The Morning Show launched alongside AppleTV on November 1st, early buzz was quite negative. Despite an all-star ensemble that included Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell in the main roles, critics gave it mediocre marks and the social media buzz among fans was far from glowing. However, critics and audiences noted a significant uptick in quality throughout the season and it received major nominations at the Globes and SAG awards. It had a big win last night in the form of Jennifer Aniston taking home Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series over the likes of Olivia Colman, Helena Bonham Carter, Jodie Comer, and Elisabeth Moss (not to mention the un-nominated Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Sandra Oh, Lena Headey, and Regina King). This improving buzz means that it will likely be a real player at the Emmys and more than justifies its already-ordered second season.
- SAG needs to introduce an ensemble category for limited series/television film. I have said this every year for the past few years, but it is just weird that SAG has Outstanding Ensemble categories to go along side its film acting, television drama acting, and television comedy acting categories, but not for its limited series/television film categories. This year, such an award would likely have gone to something richly deserving like Chernobyl or When They See Us, which were defeated in the individual acting categories by Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell of Fosse/Verdon.
- It was an all-white evening of winners until Parasite won. The lily white and male-centric awards season of 2019–2020 continued on course with SAG. All ten individual acting winners were white, non-Hispanic, heterosexual, and cisgender. The winning television ensembles were by far the two whitest (there is barely a person of color in sight on either Maisel or The Crown). Thus, it was extra surprising when the cast of Parasite made their historic upset in Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (see #2).
- The acceptance speeches were brimming with authenticity and humility. Maybe it’s because a lot of the winners are repeating and they have had time to work out the kinks in their acceptance speech strategies. Maybe it’s because the SAG Awards aren’t nearly as widely viewed and scrutinized a telecast as the Globes, so the actors felt freer to be themselves. Maybe the actors just feel more at ease in a room full of their peers. Or maybe it’s just because they don’t have a drunk Ricky Gervais screaming at them telling them that they are hypocrites and dictating what they should and shouldn’t say in their acceptance speeches. Whatever the reason, all of the winners seemed much more at ease than they have in other ceremonies this season and gravitated toward speeches that were more heartfelt and personal. In addition to Waller-Bridge (mentioned above), Michelle Williams eschewed the political for an amusing discussion of her acting partners, Joaquin Phoenix was actually coherent and paid tribute to his other nominees (and the best Joker of them all, Heath Ledger), Renee Zellweger thanked Judy Garland for her inspiration and Tom Cruise for his help early in her career, the Maisel cast honored their recently deceased co-star Brian Tarantina, Peter Dinklage paid tribute to his wife, global superstar Brad Pitt made self-deprecating yuks and then gushed over what a fan he is of his colleagues, and his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston seemed genuinely shocked and delighted to have won. On the whole, I found them far more memorable and touching than most of the speeches at the Globes.
- Eugene and Dan Levy are beyond adorable. After nominees Christina Applegate (Dead to Me) and Cynthia Erivo (Harriett) gave the traditional “I’m an actor” anecdotes about the early days of their career to start off the show, it then turned into Eugene Levy giving a hilariously long-winded one while his uptight and impatient son Dan Levy looked on. They then emerged from the table, went on stage and did some banter before introducing the first award. Although they insisted they weren’t the evening’s hosts, they did reappear for the ceremony’s final award. I loved seeing them get the credit they deserve for their scrappy, late-breaking gem Schitt’s Creek — even if it didn’t translate into any wins for the show this year.
Winners of the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards
Film
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture: The cast of Parasite
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role: Renee Zellweger, Judy
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Laura Dern, Marriage Story
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture: The stunt ensemble of Avengers: Endgame
Television
Outstanding Performance by a Ensemble in Drama Series: The cast of The Crown
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series: Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series: Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Outstanding Performance by a Ensemble in Comedy Series: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series: Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie: Michelle Williams, Fosse/Verdon
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie: Sam Rockwell, Fosse/Verdon
Outstanding Performance by Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series: The stunt ensemble of Game of Thrones
I will be blogging all throughout awards season, so follow me on Medium and/or Twitter to stay up to date on how things progress.
Check out my articles about this awards season:
A Deep Dive into the 92nd Academy Award Nominations
