Chris Lowell + Emma Stone + Viola Davis: SAG Awards

The Help cast: SAG Award winners Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Mike Vogel et al.

The Help cast: SAG Award winners range from veterans Sissy Spacek and Mary Steenburgen to Mike Vogel and Emma Stone

Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Mike Vogel, Emma Stone, Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, and their fellow The Help cast members – all of them SAG Award winners for Best Cast in a Motion Picture – pose for the cameras while holding their The Actor statuettes in the press room during the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards, held on Jan. 29 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Click on the image above to enlarge it.)

Pictured above (from left to right) are:

Best Actress Oscar winner Sissy Spacek (Coal Miner’s Daughter, 1980). Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard, 1980). Ahna O’Reilly. Mike Vogel.

Best Actress Oscar nominee Cicely Tyson (Sounder, 1972). Jessica Chastain. Chris Lowell. Emma Stone. Octavia Spencer. Allison Janney. Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Viola Davis (Doubt, 2008).

Missing from the group photo is Bryce Dallas Howard, whose movie credits range from Jodie Markell’s Tennessee Williams-scripted The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2008) to playing the vindictive vampire Victoria in David Slade’s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010).

Oscar contenders

Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer have been both shortlisted for this year’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Spencer is expected to win.

Viola Davis is in the running for Best Actress. Her strongest competitor is veteran and multiple Oscar nominee Meryl Streep for her performance as right-wing British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady.

Tate Taylor, who was bypassed for the Best Director Academy Award, directed The Help.

Mike Vogel movies

One of two notable The Help male cast members – the other one is Chris Lowell – Mike Vogel has been featured in close to 20 movies in the last decade. Titles include Ken Kwapis’ The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005), with Amber Tamblyn; Matt Reeves’ Cloverfield (2008), with Lizzy Caplan; and Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine (2010), with Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.

The Help cast group photo featuring Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Mike Vogel, Cicely Tyson, Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Ahna O’Reilly, Chris Lowell, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Allison Janney: Michael Buckner | WireImage.

‘The Help’ cast members at the SAG Awards: Mike Vogel, Emma Stone, Jessica Chastain et al.

Round two: Jessica Chastain, Mike Vogel, Sissy Spacek and their fellow ‘The Help’ cast members

Above is another image showing the SAG Award-winning cast of Tate Taylor’s The Help at the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Pictured (from left to right) are:

Mike Vogel. Mary Steenburgen. Jessica Chastain. Allison Janney. Cicely Tyson. Ahna O’Reilly.

Emma Stone. Chris Lowell. Viola Davis. Sissy Spacek. Octavia Spencer.

In addition to their Best Cast win, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were also named the year’s Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.

Best Cast SAG Awards

The Help‘s Best Cast competitors at the SAG Awards 2012 were the following:

• Michel Hazanavicius’ black-and-white, silent comedy-drama The Artist.
  Cast: Jean Dujardin. Bérénice Bejo. John Goodman. Penelope Ann Miller. Missi Pyle. James Cromwell.
• Paul Feig’s sleeper comedy hit Bridesmaids.
  Cast: Kristen Wiig. Maya Rudolph. Rose Byrne. Melissa McCarthy. Matt Lucas. Ellie Kemper. Two-time Academy Award nominee Jill Clayburgh (An Unmarried Woman, 1978; Starting Over, 1979), et al.
• Alexander Payne’s family drama The Descendants.
  Cast: George Clooney. Shailene Woodley. Judy Greer. Robert Forster. Beau Bridges, et al.
• Woody Allen’s fantasy comedy-drama Midnight in Paris.
  Cast: Owen Wilson. Rachel McAdams. Marion Cotillard. Michael Sheen. Kathy Bates. Adrien Brody. Carla Bruni.

The Help cast group photo featuring Mike Vogel, Jessica Chastain, Mary Steenburgen, Sissy Spacek, Cicely Tyson, Chris Lowell, Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Ahna O’Reilly, Octavia Spencer, Allison Janney: Lester Cohen | WireImage.

Chris Lowell and Emma Stone: SAG Awards Best Cast winners.

Emma Stone and Chris Lowell: SAG Awards Best Cast winners

Emma Stone adjusts Chris Lowell’s black tie at the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards. In the U.S., the 2012 SAG Awards ceremony was broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on on Jan. 29.

Both Stone and Lowell were SAG Award winners as cast members of Tate Taylor’s socially conscious period drama The Help. Sharing their Best Cast SAG Award were:

Viola Davis. Jessica Chastain. Bryce Dallas Howard. Octavia Spencer. Ahna O’Reilly. Mike Vogel. Allison Janney.

Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard, 1980). Best Actress Oscar nominee Cicely Tyson (Sounder, 1972).

Best Actress Oscar winner and (total) six-time nominee Sissy Spacek (winner for Coal Miner’s Daughter, 1980; nominee for Carrie, 1976; Missing, 1982; The River, 1984; Crimes of the Heart, 1986; In the Bedroom, 2001).

Chris Lowell movies

The Atlanta-born Chris Lowell (Oct. 17, 1984) is better known for his television work, e.g., playing William ‘Dell’ Parker in Private Practice, Stosh ‘Piz’ Piznarski in Veronica Mars.

Prior to The Help, Lowell has been seen in only three big-screen releases:

• Up in the Air (2009).
  Director: Jason Reitman.
  Cast: George Clooney. Vera Farmiga. Anna Kendrick. Jason Bateman. Amy Morton. Melanie Lynskey. Sam Elliott. Chris Lowell. J.K. Simmons. Danny McBride.
• Spin (2007).
  Director: Henry Pincus.
  Cast: Michael Biehn. Adam Campbell. Katie Cassidy. Patrick John Flueger. Lauren German. Chris Lowell.
• Graduation (2007).
  Director: Michael Mayer.
  Cast: Chris Lowell. Adam Arkin. Shannon Lucio. Huey Lewis. Chris Marquette. Riley Smith. Glynnis O’Connor.

Emma Stone and Chris Lowell photo: Lester Cohen / WireImage.

Jessica Chastain: SAGA Awards double nominee.

Best Supporting Actress nominee Jessica Chastain

Actress Jessica Chastain is seen above at the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards, held on Jan. 29 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Chastain was a Best Supporting Actress nominee for Tate Taylor’s socially conscious ensemble piece The Help. This awards season, she has been U.S. critics’ favorite supporting actress.

Besides The Help, Chastain has also been seen in The Debt, Coriolanus, The Tree of Life, Texas Killing Fields, and Take Shelter. She has been most frequently singled out for The Help and for Terrence Malick’s Palme d’Or winner The Tree of Life, also featuring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.

Jessica Chastain’s competitors at the SAG Awards were:

• Octavia Spencer for The Help.
• Bérénice Bejo for The Artist.
• Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids.
• Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs.

As widely expected, Spencer was the evening’s winner. Both Chastain and Spencer are also in the running for this year’s Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.

Best Cast winner

In addition to Octavia Spencer’s and Best Actress Viola Davis’ wins, The Help won the SAG Award for Best Cast:

Jessica Chastain. Viola Davis. Octavia Spencer. Cicely Tyson. Sissy Spacek. Mary Steenburgen. Ahna O’Reilly. Mike Vogel. Chris Lowell. Emma Stone. Allison Janney. Bryce Dallas Howard.

Jessica Chastain photo: Christopher Polk / WireImage.

Brad Pitt, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer: SAG Awards.

Brad Pitt, Viola Davis and Best Supporting Actress winner Octavia Spencer

Pictured above are Brad Pitt, Viola Davis, and Octavia Spencer while onstage during the 2012 SAG Awards.

Besides winning the SAG Award for Best Cast, The Help also earned individual The Actor statuettes for Davis and Spencer. The former won as Best Actress (thus beating likely Oscar favorite Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady); the latter, the odds-on favorite for the Oscars, as Best Supporting Actress.

Brad Pitt was a Best Actor nominee for Bennett Miller’s baseball drama Moneyball, featuring Robin Wright and Jonah Hill. Pitt lost to Jean Dujardin, who plays a fading silent film star à la John Gilbert in Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist. Pitt and Dujardin’s fellow SAG Award nominees were:

• George Clooney for Alexander Payne’s family drama The Descendants.
• Demián Bichir as an undocumented Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles in Chris Weitz’s A Better Life.
• Leonardo DiCaprio as the all-powerful FBI top dog J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, also featuring Judi Dench and Best Supporting Actor SAG Award nominee Armie Hammer.

J. Edgar Hoover on film

Among the actors who have previously played Hoover on the big screen are:

• Broderick Crawford in Larry Cohen’s The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977).
• Kevin Dunn in Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin (1992).
• Bob Hoskins in Oliver Stone’s Nixon (1995).
• Ernest Borgnine in Rick Pamplin’s Hoover (2000).
• Billy Crudup in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies (2009).

Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, and Brad Pitt photo: John Shearer / WireImage.

Viola Davis

The Help‘s Best Actress winner Viola Davis holds two Actors – or rather, two The Actor statuettes – at the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards. The SAG Awards ceremony was broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on January 29 in Los Angeles, California. Besides her Best Actress statuette, Davis also took home an Actor for being a part of The Help‘s ensemble. (Photo by Lester Cohen/WireImage.)

In addition to Davis, The Help‘s Best Cast winners were: Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Chris Lowell, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Ahna O’Reilly, Mike Vogel, Cicely Tyson, Allison Janney, and Bryce Dallas Howard. Octavia Spencer, for her part, was also chosen as Best Supporting Actress.

Davis Best Actress competition consisted of Meryl Streep (as Margaret Thatcher) in Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, Glenn Close in Rodrigo García’s Albert Nobbs, Tilda Swinton in Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Michelle Williams (as Marilyn Monroe) in Simon Curtis’ My Week with Marilyn.

Coincidentally, alongside Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Davis was featured opposite Streep in John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt (2008) – for which Streep won her first (and so far only) SAG Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture.

The Help‘s Best Cast competitors at the SAG Awards 2012 were the following:

• Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist (Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, James Cromwell)
• Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids (Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Jill Clayburgh, Melissa McCarthy, Matt Lucas, Ellie Kemper, etc.)
• Alexander Payne’s The Descendants (George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Judy Greer, Robert Forster, Beau Bridges, etc.)
• Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, and Carla Bruni).

Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis – SAG Award winner Female Actor in a Supporting Role and Winner Female Actor in a Leading Role for Tate Taylor’s The Help – pose in the press room during the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. The 2012 SAG Awards was broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on January 29 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/WireImage.)

Viola Davis’ Best Actress competitors were Meryl Streep as former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, Glenn Close as a 19th-century Irishwoman passing for a man in Rodrigo García’s Albert Nobbs, Tilda Swinton as the mother of a young mass murderer in Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in Simon Curtis’ My Week with Marilyn. Coincidentally, along with Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Davis was featured opposite Streep in John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt (2008) – for which Streep won her first (and so far only) SAG Award for Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture.

Octavia Spencer’s Best Supporting Actress competitors were The Help‘s Jessica Chastain, The Artist‘s Bérénice Bejo, Bridesmaids’ Melissa McCarthy, and Albert Nobbs’ Janet McTeer. In addition to Davis’ and Spencer’s victories, The Help also won the SAG Award for Best Cast for Davis, Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Ahna O’Reilly, Mike Vogel, Cicely Tyson, Chris Lowell, Emma Stone, Allison Janney, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Octavia Spencer, Josh Hopkins

Octavia Spencer, Best Supporting Actress SAG Award winner for Tate Taylor’s The Help, and Cougar Town/The Perfect Storm‘s Josh Hopkins arrive at the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards. The SAG Awards ceremony was broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on January 29 in Los Angeles, California. Octavia Spencer’s Best Supporting Actress competitors were The Help‘s Jessica Chastain, The Artist‘s Bérénice Bejo, Bridesmaids’ Melissa McCarthy, and Albert Nobbs’ Janet McTeer. (Photo by Lester Cohen/WireImage.)

In addition to earning the Best Supporting Actress SAG Award, Spencer won a second trophy that evening for being a The Help cast member. Her fellow winners were: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Chris Lowell, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Ahna O’Reilly, Mike Vogel, Cicely Tyson, Allison Janney, and Bryce Dallas Howard. Viola Davis was also chosen as Best Actress of 2011.

The Help‘s Best Cast competitors at the SAG Awards 2012 were the following:

• Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist (Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, James Cromwell)
• Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids (Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Jill Clayburgh, Melissa McCarthy, Matt Lucas, Ellie Kemper, etc.)
• Alexander Payne’s The Descendants (George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Judy Greer, Robert Forster, Beau Bridges, etc.)
• Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, and Carla Bruni).

Viola Davis, Best Actress winner for her performance in Tate Taylor’s The Help, holds her Actor statuette at the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards. The SAG Awards ceremony was broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on January 29, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/WireImage.)

Viola Davis’ Best Actress competitors were Meryl Streep as former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, Glenn Close as a 19th-century Irishwoman passing for a man in Rodrigo García’s Albert Nobbs, Tilda Swinton as the mother of a young mass murderer in Lynne Ramsay’s British-made We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe (during the making of Laurence Olivier’s The Prince and the Showgirl) in Simon Curtis’ My Week with Marilyn.

A week or so earlier, Davis had lost the Golden Globe for Best Actress – Drama to Meryl Streep. Both actresses are in the running for the 2012 Academy Award. Coincidentally, along with Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Davis was featured opposite Streep in John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt (2008) – for which Streep won her first (and so far only) SAG Award for Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture.

In addition to Davis’ SAG Award victory, The Help also won awards for Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer) and Best Cast: Davis, Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Ahna O’Reilly, Mike Vogel, Cicely Tyson, Chris Lowell, Emma Stone, Allison Janney, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Jessica Chastain and Cicely Tyson: SAG Awards’ winners.

Cicely Tyson and Jessica Chastain photo: SAG Awards

The Help SAG Award-winning cast members Jessica Chastain and Cicely Tyson are seen above (apparently with Mary Steenburgen and Emma Stone right behind them) at the 2012 ceremony held on Jan. 29 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Chastain and Tyson were two of this year’s Best Cast winners, alongside:

Emma Stone. Viola Davis. Octavia Spencer. Chris Lowell. Sissy Spacek. Mary Steenburgen. Mike Vogel. Allison Janney. Bryce Dallas Howard. Ahna O’Reilly.

Cicely Tyson nominations

Cicely Tyson had been previously nominated for three SAG Awards:

• Best Actress in a Television Movie or Mini-Series for Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1994).
• Best Actress in a Drama Series for Sweet Justice (1994).
• Best Actress in a Television Movie or Mini-Series for The Road to Galveston.

Additionally, Tyson received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Martin Ritt’s rural drama Sounder (1972), co-starring Paul Winfield. The winner that year was Liza Minnelli for Bob Fosse’s Cabaret.

Jessica Chastain and Cicely Tyson photo: Lester Cohen / WireImage.

Betty White: SAG Awards’ winner and loser.

SAG Award winner Betty White

Betty White, Best Actress SAG Award winner for the television comedy series Hot in Cleveland, speaks onstage during the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards. White’s fellow nominees were:

• Tina Fey for 30 Rock.
• Edie Falco for Nurse Jackie.
• Sofia Vergara for Modern Family.
• Julie Bowen for Modern Family.

Betty White, who turned 90 last Jan. 17, also won for Hot in Cleveland last year. Additionally, she was nominated as part of the Hot in Cleveland cast along with Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick, and Valerie Bertinelli.

Kate Winslet, Mary Tyler Moore

This year, Betty White was also a nominee for Best Actress in a Television Movie or Mini-Series, along with:

• Emily Watson for Appropriate Adult.
• Diane Lane for Cinema Verite.
• Maggie Smith for Downton Abbey.
• Kate Winslet for Mildred Pierce.

Kate Winslet, who has already won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for the old Joan Crawford role (in Michael Curtiz’s 1945 Best Picture Oscar nominee), was absent from the SAG Awards ceremony.

But in attendance was Mary Tyler Moore, the star of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which White had a recurring supporting role. Moore was handed the SAG Life Achievement Award from the hands of Dick Van Dyke. White had been handed that same trophy (from the hands of Sandra Bullock) in 2010.

Betty White photo: John Shearer / WireImage.

Octavia Spencer: SAG Award winner.

SAG Award winner Octavia Spencer

Best Supporting Actress SAG Award winner Octavia Spencer speaks onstage during the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards. In the U.S., the show was broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 29, ’12, in Los Angeles. Spencer’s competitors were:

• Jessica Chastain for The Help.
• Bérénice Bejo for Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist.
• Melissa McCarthy for Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids.
• Janet McTeer for Rodrigo García’s Albert Nobbs.

Octavia Spencer SAG Awards’ speech

As it has been remarked elsewhere on this site (and in several other publications as well), speeches are as important during awards season as the performances on screen. They can be an immense help (or hindrance) to early winners – usually actors – on their way to Oscar gold. Who wants boring, vapid speeches at the Oscars?

In her acceptance speech, Octavia Spencer said the following:

It was really a privilege to work on a film that gave a voice to so many women who made it possible for me to be standing here tonight. These women represented our mothers, our grandmothers, and it was their courage and them facing the challenges that they faced every day, and living their life [with] dignity and grace. … By honoring me, you honor them.

I also want to thank an unsung hero of The Help, [civil rights activist] Medgar Evers and his family. And finally, I want to thank all the people out there [who] went to support this movie, and after watching it, felt something. You felt compelled to make a change in your lives, so I’m going to dedicate this … to the downtrodden, the underserved, the underprivileged, [the] overtaxed, whether emotionally, physically or financially.

Expect more words from Octavia Spencer at the Academy Awards.

Best Cast

In addition to Spencer’s and Best Actress Viola Davis’ victories, Tate Taylor’s The Help won the SAG Award for Best Cast:

Bryce Dallas Howard. Emma Stone. Jessica Chastain. Viola Davis. Mike Vogel. Mary Steenburgen. Octavia Spencer. Cicely Tyson. Sissy Spacek. Ahna O’Reilly. Chris Lowell. Allison Janney.

Octavia Spencer photo: John Shearer | WireImage.

Octavia Spencer SAG Awards speech via thedailyactor.com.

Screen Actors Guild Awards website.