Natalie Portman: SAG Awards’ Best Actress for Black Swan.
SAG Awards 2011: Best Actress Natalie Portman ‘bleeped’
TNT and TBS bleeped Natalie Portman, this year’s Best Actress SAG Award winner for her performance as a mentally unbalanced ballerina in Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller Black Swan.
In her acceptance speech on Jan. 30 at the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles, Portman thanked her parents, who “always taught me to work my hardest and never be an asshole.” She added that it’s “never acceptable [to be an asshole].” Apparently, the mere word itself is “never acceptable” – at least on American television.
Year’s favorite Best Actress
Natalie Portman has been on an awards-season roll, having won nearly every Best Actress trophy and/or mention in the United States. She’s currently the favorite to win the Best Actress Academy Award.
ABC censors will likely be on high alert in case the actress dares to utter another “never acceptable” word at the stately Oscar ceremony – where the Best Picture winner will likely be the one in which, in a climactic moment, the hero lets out “fuck, fuck, fuck!”
Claire Danes’ won the SAG Award for playing an autistic woman in the television movie Temple Grandin. Danes remarked that she was competing with fellow Little Women players Winona Ryder (When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story) and Susan Sarandon (You Don’t Know Jack). Absentee Al Pacino was the Best Actor winner for You Don’t Know Jack.
“So grateful to have this union protecting me every day,” said Best Actress winner Natalie Portman (Black Swan). She then proceeded to thank fellow player Mila Kunis and director Darren Aronofsky.
The In Memoriam tribute included Jean Simmons, Tony Curtis, Dennis Hopper, Lena Horne, Lynn Redgrave, June Havoc, Kathryn Grayson, James MacArthur, Patricia Neal, Peter Graves, David Nelson, and many others. Hilary Swank presented it.
Modern Family won the Best Cast in a Comedy Series SAG Award.
Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder.
Barbara Hershey & Winona Ryder
Veteran Oscar nominee Barbara Hershey (The Portrait of a Lady, 1996) and fellow Black Swan player Winona Ryder are seen above at the 2011 SAG Awards ceremony held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 30. Ryder was a nominee for Best Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries for her performance in When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story.* She lost to Claire Danes in Temple Grandin.
Along with Barbara Hershey, Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis, Winona Ryder was also one of the Black Swan cast members up for the Best Cast SAG Award. Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, and Geoffrey Rush, turned out to be the winner in that category.
* Silent film aficionados: No connection to the leading woman in James Cruze’s 1923 blockbuster The Covered Wagon.
Susan Sarandon and son Jack Henry Robbins: SAG Awards.
Susan Sarandon and son Jack Henry Robbins
Pictured above are SAG Award winner Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking, 1995; etc.) and son Jack Henry Robbins at the 2011 SAG Awards.
In addition to hosting the ceremony with Tina Fey, Sarandon was a Best Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries nominee for HBO’s You Don’t Know Jack. She lost to Claire Danes for Temple Grandin; her costar Al Pacino, however, won the Actor statuette for Best Actor. (Pacino didn’t attend the ceremony.)
Of note, Sarandon told E! Online that had she been asked, she would have appeared in a cameo in the Glee episode that paid tribute to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. “What I saw I thought was so fabulous,” she remarked. “I thought it was so moving. They [people in general] kept asking if I was going to be on the episode. But nobody spoke to me about doing anything on the show.”
Susan Sarandon and Jack Henry Robbins image: © SAG Awards.
Christian Bale and Dicky Eklund at the 2011 SAG Awards.
Christian Bale & Dicky Eklund
Christian Bale, best known for playing Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman, in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, was the 2011 SAG Awards’ Best Supporting Actor winner in a Feature Film for his portrayal of downtrodden former boxer Dicky Eklund in The Fighter.
Some found Bale’s acceptance speech moving, including, one assumes, the following line directed at Eklund, “Thank you for living the life, and thank you for letting me play you.”
If you’ll pay any attention to the image above you’ll may just notice that Eklund looks nothing like the actor who won the SAG Award for bringing him to life on screen.
Since its inception in 1994, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor has usually gone to screen veterans, e.g., Martin Landau, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Eddie Murphy, Robert Duvall, Robin Williams. Much like at the Oscars (think Caine, Freeman, Landau, Williams, Sean Connery, Alan Arkin), these wins serve as unofficial Career Awards. This hasn’t been quite the case, though Bale has been around for more than two decades.
Christian Bale and Dicky Eklund image: © SAG Awards.
Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, and Geoffrey Rush.
Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter & Geoffrey Rush
Colin Firth, pictured above with Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush, won the SAG Award for Best Actor for his performance as the stuttering King George VI in Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech. The acclaimed and surprisingly successful British period drama received the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast as well.
Besides Firth, Carter, and Rush, The King’s Speech features Guy Pearce, Jennifer Ehle, Orlando Wells, and veterans Claire Bloom, Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon.
Claire Bloom: One degree of separation from the silent era
While accepting the Best Cast trophy, Best Supporting Actor nominee Geoffrey Rush singled out Claire Bloom, who plays the Queen Mother in the film, referring to her as “the delicious Claire Bloom … [who] puts us in one degree of separation from Charles Chaplin.”
Bloom, whose film career began in the late 1940s, was Chaplin’s leading lady in the 1952 drama Limelight.
Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush, Winona Ryder, and Barbara Hershey images: © SAG Awards.
Best Supporting Actress winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) apologized for getting political after telling the crowd at the SAG Awards, “I don’t know what’s ahead in the future,” and then suggesting that if the Screen Actors Guild join forces with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), working actors would have a stronger voice. Leo then added that “unions made this country strong,” before a last thank-you to The Fighter’s Mark Wahlberg.
Alec Baldwin, five-time winner of the SAG Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for 30 Rock, remarked: “I don’t know what to say. This is ridiculous.” Baldwin, however, knew he should thank the Teamsters.
“This is the biggest surprise I’ve ever had in this business,” 89-year-old Betty White remarked after winning a SAG Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for Hot in Cleveland. She then proceeded to say that the Hot in Cleveland cast is more than a family and that they all love going to work every day. White also said those remarks were a cliche (but were all true).
Other SAG Award winners announced so far: Steve Buscemi as Best Actor in a Drama Series for Boardwalk Empire, Julianna Margulies as Best Actress in a Drama Series for The Good Wife, and the Best Cast Award in a Drama Series for Boardwalk Empire.
The stunt teams of Inception and True Blood won SAG Awards in, respectively, the motion picture and television categories.
The intro to Ernest Borgnine’s Life Achievement Award segment included a speech by Morgan Freeman and Tim Conway (of McHale’s Navy), in addition to an interesting announcement by Burt Lancaster, made after Marty, costarring Betsy Blair, earned Borgnine the Best Actor Oscar.
“I always enjoyed working as an actor,” Borgnine told the media backstage. “… It’s been a thing of joy for me whenever I’m working.”
Advise for young actors nominated tonight: “Keep studying.” Borgnine says his success was due to his “learning about what life is all about … [Regarding a screenplay that says “two people fall in love” one has to know] what brings two people together.”
Borgnine added that as you learn, “The first thing you know you become more involved in the script and more involved in life itself. … You gotta make people understand. … There’s a lot of people in the world who are thumbsuckers. It’s wonderful. And you have their attention. The minute they take their thumb out, you’ve lost them. … You have to break it down to the lowest common denominator so the thumbsuckers are happy. Makes sense? I guess it does. It’s always worked for me, anyways. I’ve always been a thumbsucker myself.”
Next time you complain about how unsubtle and inane most movies are, remember Ernest Borgnine’s words. They’re all made with thumbsuckers in mind.
Ernest Borgnine, Morgan Freeman: Screen Actors Guild’s Life Achievement Award.
Ernest Borgnine: SAG’s Life Achievement Award recipient
Ernest Borgnine, who turned 94 this past Jan. 24, was this year’s recipient of the Screen Actors Guild’s Life Achievement Award. He was introduced by fellow McHale’s Navy alumnus Tim Conway and by 2004 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby, 2004), one of the stars of Robert Schwentke’s 2010 sleeper box office hit RED – in which Borgnine has a supporting role.
As part of the Ernest Borgnine movie montage, viewers got to watch actor-producer Burt Lancaster plug Borgnine’s Oscar-winning performance in Delbert Mann’s Marty (1955) – a slice-of-life comedy-drama produced by a company partly owned by Lancaster himself.
“I always enjoyed working as an actor,” Borgnine told journalists backstage. “… It’s been a thing of joy for me whenever I’m working.”
He advised young actors to “keep studying,” and said that he has always strived for the lowest common denominator in his performances so as to keep “thumbsuckers” interested.
Morgan Freeman, Ernest Borgnine, and Natalie Portman images: © SAG Awards.
David Fincher’s The Social Network, up for Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg) and Best Cast, failed to win anything at the 2011 SAG Awards. Colin Firth was named Best Actor for his performance as the speech-impaired King George VI in Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, while the British period drama received the Best Cast trophy.
Geoffrey Rush, a Best Supporting Actor nominee for his performance as the king’s speech therapist, accepted the ensemble Actor trophy, praising much of the cast which includes Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Jennifer Ehle, Orlando Wells, and veterans Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon.
Rush bestowed special praise on veteran Claire Bloom, who plays the Queen Mother, referring to her as “the delicious Claire Bloom … [who] puts us in one degree of separation from Charles Chaplin [Bloom’s costar in the 1952 drama Limelight].” Rush added that if a young The King’s Speech cast member – I missed his name – remains a working actor, Bloom, by way of the (now) young actor, “could well be standing here in 2070. And that’s what our industry is all about.”
The King’s Speech has now topped the three most important American Guild awards: the Producers Guild, the Directors Guild, and the Screen Actors Guild. (The David Seidler-written drama was deemed ineligible for the Writers Guild Awards, whose winners will be announced in Feb.) A Best Picture Oscar victory seems quite likely now. And to think that two weeks ago The Social Network was the absolute favorite following a whole array of critics awards.
SAG Awards 2011 nominations: Hilary Swank vs. Annette Bening rematch
Although not a fool-proof Academy Award bellwether, the Screen Actors Guild Awards are a solid indicator of which way Oscar voters will lean – at least when it comes to the acting categories.
The Screen Actors Guild Award nominations have been announced. Tom Hooper’s period drama The King’s Speech and David O. Russell’s boxing drama The Fighter, both inspired by real-life stories, topped the feature film categories with a total of four nominations each.
They were followed by Lisa Cholodenko’s family comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right and Darren Aronofsky’s psychological drama/thriller Black Swan, with three nods apiece.
David Fincher’s The Social Network, the film to beat at the 2011 Oscars, earned a relatively modest two nods.
As for Hilary Swank’s surprising inclusion for the critical and box office disappointment Conviction, that can only be explained in case Screen Actors Guild members (the minority selecting the nominees) have a secret yen to annoy Annette Bening.
In the feature film categories (individual nods), Bening has been shortlisted twice for the Screen Actors Guild Awards: in 1999 for American Beauty and in 2004 for Being Julia. Both times, Swank was Bening’s competitor: in 1999 for Boys Don’t Cry and in 2004 for Million Dollar Baby.
Bening took home SAG’s Best Female Actor trophy in 1999; Swank in 2004. At the Oscars, Swank was chosen Best Actress both times.
Screen Actors Guild Award omissions
Among those missing from the Screen Actors Guild Awards’ feature film shortlists, whether in the lead or supporting categories, were the following:
- Leonardo DiCaprio – Inception, Shutter Island
- Julianne Moore – The Kids Are All Right
- Noomi Rapace – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Matt Damon – True Grit
- Ben Affleck – The Town
- Andrew Garfield & Armie Hammer – The Social Network
- Barbara Hershey – Black Swan
- Mark Wahlberg – The Fighter
- Lesley Manville – Another Year
- Michelle Williams & Ryan Gosling – Blue Valentine
- Javier Bardem – Biutiful
- Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom
Leonardo DiCaprio has been snubbed before – most glaringly for James Cameron’s Titanic back in 1997 and for Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road in 2008.
A little-known performer in the U.S. and featured in a foreign (Australian) production, Jacki Weaver was ignored despite the kudos she has received from U.S.-based critics groups, in addition to a Golden Globe nomination. But that’s nothing new when it comes to the generally Hollywood-centered Screen Actors Guild Awards.
In the Best Supporting Actress category, in the last decade the sole exception to the “non-U.S. & not well-known not welcome” rule has been (actually lead actress) Keisha Castle-Hughes’ nod for Niki Caro’s New Zealand-made drama Whale Rider back in 2003.
Brenda Blethyn was shortlisted back in 1996 for Leigh’s own Secrets & Lies, while Jane Horrocks received a nomination two years later for Mark Herman’s Little Voice. Both were independently made British productions.
But then again, apart from Marion Cotillard for Olivier Dahan’s La Vie en Rose in 2007, Blethyn and Horrocks are the only two “lesser-known” performers – in the United States – to be nominated for a Best Actress SAG Award for their work in non-U.S. productions.
Marion Cotillard and Penélope Cruz (for Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver, 2006) are the two exceptions in the Best Actress category. That is, unless you include Catalina Sandino Moreno in the U.S.-financed Maria Full of Grace (2004).
Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards 2011: Winners & nominations
FILM
Best Actor
* Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Robert Duvall – Get Low
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
James Franco – 127 HoursBest Actress
* Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Hilary Swank – ConvictionBest Supporting Actor
* Christian Bale – The Fighter
John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s SpeechBest Supporting Actress
* Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Mila Kunis – Black Swan
Hailee Steinfeld – True GritBest Cast in a Motion Picture
* The King’s Speech
Anthony Andrews, Claire Bloom, Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Rush, Timothy Spall
Black Swan
Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Mila Kunis, Natalie Portman, Winona Ryder
The Fighter
Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Jack McGee, Mark Wahlberg
The Kids Are All Right
Annette Bening, Josh Hutcherson, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska
The Social Network
Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Justin TimberlakeScreen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
Ernest BorgnineTELEVISION
Best Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
* Al Pacino – You Don’t Know Jack
John Goodman – You Don’t Know Jack
Dennis Quaid – The Special Relationship
Edgar Ramírez – Carlos
Patrick Stewart – MacbethBest Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries
* Claire Danes – Temple Grandin
Catherine O’Hara – Temple Grandin
Julia Ormond – Temple Grandin
Winona Ryder – When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story
Susan Sarandon – You Don’t Know JackBest Actor in a Drama Series
* Steve Buscemi – Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall – Dexter
Jon Hamm – Mad Men
Hugh Laurie – HouseBest Actress in a Drama Series
* Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife
Glenn Close – Damages
Mariska Hargitay – Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Elisabeth Moss – Mad Men
Kyra Sedgwick – The CloserBest Actor in a Comedy Series
* Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock
Ty Burrell – Modern Family
Steve Carell – The Office
Chris Colfer – Glee
Ed O’Neill – Modern FamilyBest Actress in a Comedy Series
* Betty White – Hot in Cleveland
Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey – 30 Rock
Jane Lynch – Glee
Sofia Vergara – Modern FamilyBest Ensemble in a Drama Series (partial cast list)
* Boardwalk Empire
Steve Buscemi, Dabney Coleman, Paz de la Huerta, Stephen Graham, Kelly MacDonald, Gretchen Mol, Aleksa Palladino, Michael Pitt, Vincent Piazza, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Shea Whigham, Michael Kenneth Williams
The Closer
Kyra Sedgwick, J.K. Simmons, Corey Reynolds, Robert Gossett, G.W. Bailey, Tony Denison, Michael Paul Chan, Raymond Cruz, Jon Tenney
Dexter
Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, C.S. Lee, Lauren Velez, David Zayas, James Remar.
The Good Wife
Julianna Margulies, Josh Charles, Archie Panjabi, Matt Czuchry, Christine Baranski, Chris Noth, Graham Phillips, Alan Cumming.
Mad Men
Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Jared Harris, Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, Kiernan Shipka, Robert Morse, John Slattery.Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series (partial cast list)
Glee
Max Adler, Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Jane Lynch, Jayma Mays, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Heather Morris, Matthew Morrison, Chord Overstreet, Amber Riley, Mark Salling, Harry Shum Jr.
Hot in Cleveland
Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick, Betty White
* Modern Family
Ed O’Neill, Sofía Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Sarah Hyland, Rico Rodriguez, Ariel Winter, Nolan Gould
The Office
Brian Baumgartner, Creed Bratton, Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer, Kate Flannery, Ed Helms, Mindy Kaling, Ellie Kemper, John Krasinski, B.J. Novak, Oscar Nuñez, Craig Robinson, Rainn Wilson, Zach Woods
30 Rock
Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer, Scott Adsit, Judah Friedlander, Alec Baldwin, Tracy MorganOutstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
* Inception
Green Zone
Robin HoodOutstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series
* True Blood
Burn Notice
CSI: NY
Dexter
Southland
“SAG Awards 2011” notes
Screen Actors Guild Awards website.