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« Roush Dispatch
Acting It Up at the SAG Awards
Yes, that was my shout of glee that woke up the neighbors Sunday night when Chandra Wilson was named outstanding female actor in a drama series for Grey’s Anatomy. At long last, Miranda Bailey has been given her due, and the wonderful Ms. Wilson rose to the occasion with a rapturous acceptance speech, acknowledging how unlikely it would be for someone with her skin, her nose, her height, her weight, to be accepted in this industry. (I think I also yelped in delight when the entire Grey’s cast took the stage for its well-deserved ensemble acting award.)
This on the same night that Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera also took home an Actor trophy. Another unconventional, but absolutely right, choice.
I tend to enjoy the crisp, fast-moving SAG Awards telecast—aside from those pretentious opening monologues in which the likes of Marg Helgenberger (revealing an astounding lot of cleavage, right up there with Marcia Gay Harden), Jada Pinkett Smith and Freddie Rodriguez remind us that they’re “an ACTOR” (causing you to pine for Jon Lovitz’s “THESPIAN!” character, or perhaps Martin Short’s Jiminy Glick, to puncture the ego trip). The salute to heard-but-not-seen voice-over actors was smartly done, and the warm life-achievement tribute to Julie Andrews was, like its recipient, a class act (although the clips reminded us how many dreadful late-’60s movies she and we had to endure).
And how cool to see the terrific cast of The Office, winning the ensemble comedy prize, mingling on stage with the legends from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Almost as cool as Alec Baldwin’s second straight comedy-acting win (following the Globes) for his brilliant work on 30 Rock. Having supporting players like Baldwin and Wilson winning SAG trophies over lead performers is a smart acknowledgement of how essential scene-stealers are in the TV business.
The only TV acting prizes I would have liked to see go a different way: Robert Duvall over Jeremy Irons in the TV-movie category (although Irons' win led to Eddie Murphy’s hilarious send-up of British acceptance speeches when he got his well-deserved Actor for Dreamgirls), and Michael C. Hall for Dexter over Hugh Laurie. I have nothing but respect for Laurie, who gives a great speech every time, and I was shocked to realize he hadn't yet won a SAG Award for House. But given how unexpectedly well-chosen so many of the TV winners were, I would have loved to see Hall win for his surprisingly engaging, thoroughly original twist on a serial-killer hero. All things considered, though, his nominations here and at the Globes is validation enough. At least HBO didn’t dominate the night, the way it used to before the networks stepped it up and showed that it’s OK to be “just TV” after all.
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Jan 29, 2007 12:20 PM
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The worst part is that "The Wire" wasn't even considered...it has perhaps the greatest cast in TV history.
People mention all this stuff about diverse casts and whatnot and ignore the fact that The Wire has a cast including not one, but 2 "lead" gay characters and doesn't focus on that aspect as other shows do sometime. Also, the cast is about 70% black.
Yeah and why wasn't Ian McShane nominated? That guy has to be the best actor on TV.
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Jan 29, 2007 2:44 PM
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I also screamed in delight for Chandra Wilson! Her speech brought tears to my eyes. I was so excited for her, and for the entire Grey's cast. And how funny was she when she mentioned "the cast member in rehab"??
Also excited for America, Alec and the cast of The Office! How great for all of them. And while some of the other nominees are more worthy than Laurie, I am always grateful for a speech that is guaranteed to make me laugh!
And I was happy with the movie side of it too. Overall, a great show (minus the omissions in general....FNL!!!)---short and full of winners I was happy with.
And what a night for Steve Carrell, huh? Apparently you want a cast that includes him!
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Jan 29, 2007 5:26 PM
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I hope that with winners like America, Chandra, the cast of The Office and the cast of Little Miss Sunshine, the industry will realize that what we the viewers want to see are truly talented actors, not models.
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Jan 30, 2007 12:07 PM
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I love that America won. I'm glad The Office won for ensemble, but I also would have been happy if Ugly Betty won. I'm also glad that Hugh Laurie won. He's the best actor on tv, and he also gives a great speech. I know Matt loves Michael C. Hall, but I don't think his performance on Dexter is better than Laurie's House. Hall is very good; Laurie is great! It was about time Laurie won a SAG, and hopefully he'll get the Emmy he deserves this year too!
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Jan 31, 2007 12:56 AM
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I was overall very disappointed with both the Golden Globes and SAG awards this year, as with a lot of the recent television awards shows. This whole awards thing seems to be more about whose show is the most popular rather than who turns in the best performance. I was thrilled to see Kyra Sedgwick win the GG for The Closer, but was disappointed for Patricia Arquette, as I feel she is one of the finest actresses on television today, and highly underrated. I know she has been nominated the past 2 years on both of these shows, but to not give her an award is not only disrespectful,but shows a lack of imagination and willingness to acknowledge real talent and excellent work, but rather a desire to kiss up to whichever actors are on whichever shows are hottest at the moment. So when are they going to stop the rampant re-awarding of the same actors on the same shows and show some respect to the other talented actors working out there? Patricia Arquette deserves a lot more than to just be nominated over and over. She deserves to win an award for her incredible work, and I mean more that that one Emmy. As long as she has that one award, people will always call it a fluke, which it was not. It was well-deserved and hard-earned. So let's get off our Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives soapbox (newsflash: Not everyone in America thinks these shows are all that great) and share the wealth. It's only fair.
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Feb 5, 2007 10:15 PM
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