Hollywood loves a sequel, and this awards season is shaping up to be one.
Just as Argo emerged as the unlikely victor over Lincoln last year, another 1970s-set crowd-pleaser is turning into the Academy Awards favourite over a solemn historical epic about slavery.
David O. Russell’s American Hustle took the Screen Actors Guild Awards’ top honour for outstanding cast on the weekend beating out Steve McQueen’s acclaimed 12 Years a Slave.
Because actors make up the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the SAG Awards (which last year picked Argo) are considered one of the best indicators of the Oscars.
Just days ago, the Academy Awards nominations set up a trio of front-runners, bestowing 10 nods on American Hustle and Gravity, and nine on 12 Years a Slave. But though no actor was individually honoured by the guild for American Hustle, the Abscam tale now appears to have an edge over its Oscar rivals.
Speaking for a cast that includes Amy Adams, Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper credited Russell as the epitome of the actor’s director.
“He makes you feel like you’re part of the family, whether you’re Robert DeNiro or you’re Patty Mack,” Cooper said at the Shrine Auditorium ceremony in Los Angeles. “You are part of the family.”
In addition to last year’s Argo, SAG cast awards have lined up with such past Oscar best-picture winners as The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire and No Country for Old Men. But the guild has also diverged with picks like The Help, Inglourious Basterds and Little Miss Sunshine.
Saturday’s awards were a somewhat low-key affair with a few memorable speeches but no earthquakes in a rapidly solidifying award season. The night’s acting winners – Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) and Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) – are each probably the favourites of their categories.
“It really shines a great light on this bull ride we call acting,” said McConaughey, honored for lead actor in the Texas HIV drama. “I’ve been able to recently find some characters that I can humble myself to their humanities and get feverishly drunk on their obsessions.”
One of the night’s biggest winners was Nyong’o, who won supporting actress over Lawrence. Though 12 Years a Slave is only her feature film debut, the Kenyan actress has been hailed for her red-carpet style and grace this awards season. Her speech was both composed and emotional – the kind of display that can turn Oscar voters’ heads.
She thanked McQueen “for taking a flashlight and shining it underneath the floorboards of this nation and reminding us what it is we stand on.” And she recalled the celebratory phone call to her father when she got the part.
“‘Daddy, do you know who Brad Pitt is I’m going to be in a movie with him!'” recalled Nyong’o. “And he said, ‘I don’t know him personally, but I’m glad you got a job.'”
Ad Feedback
The Breaking Bad victory lap continued as the show took honours for outstanding dramatic cast and for lead actor Bryan Cranston. For his indelible performance as teacher-turned-meth dealer, Cranston added his second lead actor SAG Award, to go with his recent Golden Globe win and his numerous Emmys.
“We have the nicest bunch of white supremacist Nazis I have ever worked with,” said Cranston, looking over his former cast mates. “I swear to you I would kill you all over again.”
Two big-screen veterans won awards for TV films: Michael Douglas for HBO’s Liberace drama Behind the Candelabra, and Helen Mirren for the biopic Phil Spector, also on HBO.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been a mainstay at award shows recently, both for her acclaimed HBO series Veep (for which she won an Emmy) and the romantic comedy Enough Said (for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe). She won a SAG trophy for female actor in a comedy series for Veep, and slyly mocked the award season crush by first thanking the Hollywood Foreign Press and then the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
“It’s hard you know because it’s awards season and things get confusing, much like elections,” said Louis-Dreyfus.
The ABC sitcom Modern Family enjoyed another round of awards, winning for ensemble in a comedy series and taking the male actor in a comedy series honour for Ty Burrell.
Emma Thompson, a surprise snub in Thursday’s Oscar nominations for the Mary Poppins making-of tale Saving Mr. Banks, was just as much the witty, winning award-show attendee she’s been all season. As a presenter, the lead actress nominee noted the show’s cheesy elevator music soundtrack: “Is this music available on CD”
SAG’s lifetime achievement award was given to Rita Moreno, the 81-year-old West Side Story actress whose career has spanned Broadway, television and music. Introduced by Morgan Freeman, the much-honoured Latina legend danced to the podium before a standing ovation and let out a gleeful expletive.
“I hope the man with the button was there,” she said. (He was.)
Moreno serenaded the SAG audience with a few bars from “This Is All I Ask”:
“And let the music play/ As long as there’s a song to sing/ And I will stay younger than spring.”
All winners at the SAG Awards:
MOVIES:
Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Supporting actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Supporting actress: Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Cast: American Hustle
Stunt ensemble: Lone Survivor
TELEVISION:
Actor in a comedy series: Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Actress in a comedy series: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Comedy series cast: Modern Family
Actor in a movie or miniseries: Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra
Actress in a movie or miniseries: Helen Mirren, Phil Spector
Drama series cast: Breaking Bad
Actor in a drama series: Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Actress in a drama series: Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Stunt ensemble: Game of Thrones
–
