SAG nods for ABC's 'Housewives,' 'Lost,' 'Anatomy'
ABC dominates SAG
Jan 30, 2006
The sprawling, multiethnic cast of "Crash," Paul Haggis' drama about racial tensions in Los Angeles, was named best film ensemble Sunday at the 12th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Los Angeles' Shrine Exposition Center.
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Reese Witherspoon, who also were honored at the Golden Globe Awards this month, took home the trophies for best male and female actor in a motion picture, respectively, for their work in "Capote" and "Walk the Line."
On the TV side, it was a sweep for ABC, whose red-hot troika of "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" won four of the six series categories, including best drama ensemble for "Lost" and best comedy ensemble for "Desperate Housewives."
In accepting the trophy for "Crash," Terrence Howard passed the opportunity to speak on to Don Cheadle, noting that Cheadle was admired by all the cast. Noting that the movie "really celebrates the definition of what an ensemble is all about -- I mean there are 74 of us," he said, "It's a film that doesn't end when the credits roll." Cheadle added that the film, released by Lionsgate in May, has "started a dialogue about things that people on the surface really seem to not want to talk about."
Hoffman, nominated by SAG as best actor for "Flawless" in 2000, captured the award this time for his critically applauded turn as Truman Capote. He paid a special tribute to fellow nominee David Strathairn from "Good Night, and Good Luck," saying, "I looked up to you when I was younger, and I still look up to you." He mentioned many of his fellow actors in the "Capote" cast by name and, speaking to the cavernous room full of actors, added, "Competition like this sometimes is tough because really what we need to do is support each other -- actors have to have each other's back."
First-time SAG nominee Witherspoon took the lead actress award for portraying June Carter in "Line." "Sometimes I can't shake the feeling that I'm really just a little girl from Tennessee," she said as she began her remarks.
Her thank-yous included praise for the late Carter for her dual roles as wife and musician. "I think there are so any women who are the quiet, sort of silent, frequently unacknowledged center of so many people's lives," Witherspoon said. "And I think I'm just really honored to bring her out of a certain shadow and into the light in this performance."
She also acknowledged her debt to co-star Joaquin Phoenix, director James Mangold and the other filmmakers before thanking her husband, Ryan Phillippe, and her mother, whom she called "the quiet center of my life."
The prize for best supporting male actor in a film went to Paul Giamatti, who plays boxer Jim Braddock's corner man in "Cinderella Man." It was Giamatti's third SAG nomination: He was nominated last year as the lead actor in "Sideways" and took home his first SAG Award as part of the winning "Sideways" ensemble.
"Wow, well then now, this is a hell of a thing, this is a great thing," Giamatti said as he hoisted the trophy. Reflecting on his years as an actor, he observed, "I found the best thing about it is hanging around the craft service table with other actors and crew people eating donuts," and so he offered thanks "to all the actors and the crew people who spent time with me at the craft services table, shooting the shit and eating donuts and having a hell of a good time."
Rachel Weisz, repeating her win at the Golden Globes, was named best female supporting actor in a film for her portrayal of an activist who risks her life to challenge a conspiracy in Africa in "The Constant Gardener."
"It's so special to be honored by fellow actors, so thanks very much to the tribe," she said upon taking the stage. In addition to naming castmates including Ralph Fiennes and Danny Huston, she also acknowledged the nonactors that director Fernando Meirelles cast in the international thriller and thanked him because "he let all the actors and nonactors run free and wild, and it was an incredible experience."
With the five film prizes spread among five films, the distributors represented included Lionsgate, Sony Pictures Classics, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Focus Features.
The SAG Awards don't necessarily predict the eventual Oscar winners. Over the past 10 years, SAG's best female film actor went on to win the best actress Oscar nine times, but SAG's best male film actor took home the corresponding Oscar just six of 10 times.
SAG's award for best film ensemble bears even less of a correlation to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' best picture winner. Over the past 10 years, only four of SAG's best film ensembles belonged to the film that went on to win the Oscar for best picture.
But the SAG Awards did represent the first setback for Oscar hopeful "Brokeback Mountain." Although it was nominated in four categories, the tale of two gay ranch hands struggling to acknowledge their love went home empty-handed.
"Brokeback" director Ang Lee still received acknowledgment from the podium when, in one of the night's most entertaining moments, Sean Hayes accepted his third best actor in a comedy series SAG Award for his role as flamboyantly gay would-be actor Jack McFarland on NBC's veteran sitcom "Will & Grace."
"I first of all would like to thank Ang Lee for taking a chance on me," he said, drawing laughter and a round of applause from the audience.
Hayes went on to bid a heartfelt goodbye to his colleagues on "Will & Grace" as the show nears the end of its eight-year run in May.
NBC was one of four TV networks to score SAG Awards. ABC led the pack with four, followed by HBO with two and Fox and NBC with one each.
There is no stopping ABC's hit "Lost," which followed its best drama series Emmy in September and Golden Globe this month with a SAG Award for drama series ensemble.
"About our cast, I'd like to say that this is the saddest collection of climbing, grasping, paranoid, back-stabbing, scene-grabbing losers and schmoozers that you ever saw on your stage in your life," "Lost" doyen cast member Terry O'Quinn said in accepting the award. "But we love each other very much."
He went on to thank ABC and "Lost" producer Touchstone TV "for showing our stuff to the world and for paying us so well to do it."
Touchstone TV recently offered all original cast members a significant salary increase that will bring the actors' per-episode fees to almost $80,000 for next season.
Another recent Golden Globe winner, Sandra Oh, took the best actress in a drama series category for her role in "Grey's Anatomy."
"I'm really proud to be on a show whose casting is a little more representative of how I think the world is," said Oh, who is of Korean descent. "To all my fellow Asian-Americans out there, I share this with you."
This was the second consecutive year that Oh made the trip to the mike on the SAG Awards stage, following her acceptance speech for the winning ensemble cast of "Sideways" last year.
Another repeat SAG Award winner, Kiefer Sutherland, picked up his second statuette in the actor in the drama series category for his role as Jack Bauer on Fox's action drama "24."
It was also a case of deja vu for the cast of "Desperate Housewives," which won the top comedy ensemble last year.
But a different housewife was triumphant in the actress in a comedy category this year. After Teri Hatcher's win last year, Felicity Huffman, the only lady of Wisteria Lane to snag a nomination this year, added a SAG Award to the Emmy she won in September for her portrayal of working mom Lynette Scavo.
"I am so grateful that I am acting, and I am so grateful I can make a living at it because I was never very good at math," she said.
It was another wild acceptance speech for S. Epatha Merkerson, star of the HBO movie "Lackawanna Blues," who started off fighting back tears and ended up with an almost hysterical laugh as she thanked her divorce lawyer. She referenced her Emmy Award acceptance speech when she said: "There's nothing in my bra. There is nothing in my head. It's all in my heart."
Merkerson's SAG Award win marks a clean sweep for the actress this season, whose role in "Lackawanna Blues" also earned her an Emmy and a Golden Globe.
In longform, it also was a hat trick for Paul Newman, who added a SAG Award to his Emmy and Golden Globe for his role in HBO's "Empire Falls."
Dakota Fanning introduced a tribute to Shirley Temple Black, the recipient of this year's SAG Life Achievement Award. Arriving at the podium with a Shirley Temple doll that her mother had passed down to her, Fanning observed that Black was just 3 when she was discovered in a dance studio in Los Angeles in the early 1930s. "By the time she turned 10, she became an international star of more than 40 motion pictures," Fanning said, adding, "Her amazing success helped to save 20th Century Fox."
In presenting the honor to Black, Jamie Lee Curtis recalled that even though she grew up the daughter of two actors, "I was skeptical about acting, but when I watched Shirley Temple, there was nothing artificial about her. She was a natural."
Greeted with a standing ovation, Black, slightly out of breath with excitement, said, "When I was 3 years old, I was delighted to be told I was an actress, even though I didn't know what an actress was." She offered one piece of advice for her fellow thespians "who want to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award: Start early."
Commenting on the serious subject matter that characterized much of the year's films and TV, SAG president Alan Rosenberg said, "Not only does great acting allow us to escape for a while, but it also allows us the opportunity to explore" a complex and challenging world.
The awards ceremony, broadcast by TNT and TBS, was exec produced by Jeff Margolis, produced by Kathy Connell, directed by Alan Carter and written by Stephen Pouliot. SAG producers were Yale Summers, Karla Tamburrelli, Daryl Anderson, Shelley Fabares and Paul Napier.
A complete list of winners follows:
FILM
Actor
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Actress
Reese Witherspoon,"Walk the Line" (20th Century Fox)
Supporting Actor
Paul Giamatti, "Cinderella Man" (Universal)
Supporting Actress
Rachel Weisz, "The Constant Gardener" (Focus Features)
Cast
"Crash" Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate (Lionsgate)
TELEVISION
Actor, Telefilm or Miniseries
Paul Newman, "Empire Falls" (HBO)
Actress, Telefilm or Miniseries
S. Epatha Merkerson, "Lackawanna Blues" (HBO)
Actor, Drama Series
Kiefer Sutherland, "24" (Fox)
Actress, Drama Series
Sandra Oh, "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC)
Actor, Comedy Series
Sean Hayes, "Will & Grace" (NBC)
Actress, Comedy Series
Felicity Huffman, "Desperate Housewives" (ABC)
Ensemble, Drama Series
"Lost" Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Naveen Andrews, Emilie De Ravin, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Maggie Grace, Josh Holloway, Malcolm David Kelley, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O'Quinn, Harold Perrineau, Michelle Rodriguez, Ian Somerhalder, Cynthia Watros (ABC)
Ensemble, Comedy Series
"Desperate Housewives" Roger Bart, Andrea Bowen, Mehcad Brooks, Ricardo Antonio Chavira, Marcia Cross, Steven Culp, James Denton, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Brent Kinsman, Shane Kinsman, Eva Longoria, Mark Moses, Doug Savant, Nicollette Sheridan, Brenda Strong, Alfre Woodard (ABC)
Life Achievement Award
Shirley Temple Black
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Reese Witherspoon, who also were honored at the Golden Globe Awards this month, took home the trophies for best male and female actor in a motion picture, respectively, for their work in "Capote" and "Walk the Line."
On the TV side, it was a sweep for ABC, whose red-hot troika of "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" won four of the six series categories, including best drama ensemble for "Lost" and best comedy ensemble for "Desperate Housewives."
In accepting the trophy for "Crash," Terrence Howard passed the opportunity to speak on to Don Cheadle, noting that Cheadle was admired by all the cast. Noting that the movie "really celebrates the definition of what an ensemble is all about -- I mean there are 74 of us," he said, "It's a film that doesn't end when the credits roll." Cheadle added that the film, released by Lionsgate in May, has "started a dialogue about things that people on the surface really seem to not want to talk about."
Hoffman, nominated by SAG as best actor for "Flawless" in 2000, captured the award this time for his critically applauded turn as Truman Capote. He paid a special tribute to fellow nominee David Strathairn from "Good Night, and Good Luck," saying, "I looked up to you when I was younger, and I still look up to you." He mentioned many of his fellow actors in the "Capote" cast by name and, speaking to the cavernous room full of actors, added, "Competition like this sometimes is tough because really what we need to do is support each other -- actors have to have each other's back."
First-time SAG nominee Witherspoon took the lead actress award for portraying June Carter in "Line." "Sometimes I can't shake the feeling that I'm really just a little girl from Tennessee," she said as she began her remarks.
Her thank-yous included praise for the late Carter for her dual roles as wife and musician. "I think there are so any women who are the quiet, sort of silent, frequently unacknowledged center of so many people's lives," Witherspoon said. "And I think I'm just really honored to bring her out of a certain shadow and into the light in this performance."
She also acknowledged her debt to co-star Joaquin Phoenix, director James Mangold and the other filmmakers before thanking her husband, Ryan Phillippe, and her mother, whom she called "the quiet center of my life."
The prize for best supporting male actor in a film went to Paul Giamatti, who plays boxer Jim Braddock's corner man in "Cinderella Man." It was Giamatti's third SAG nomination: He was nominated last year as the lead actor in "Sideways" and took home his first SAG Award as part of the winning "Sideways" ensemble.
"Wow, well then now, this is a hell of a thing, this is a great thing," Giamatti said as he hoisted the trophy. Reflecting on his years as an actor, he observed, "I found the best thing about it is hanging around the craft service table with other actors and crew people eating donuts," and so he offered thanks "to all the actors and the crew people who spent time with me at the craft services table, shooting the shit and eating donuts and having a hell of a good time."
Rachel Weisz, repeating her win at the Golden Globes, was named best female supporting actor in a film for her portrayal of an activist who risks her life to challenge a conspiracy in Africa in "The Constant Gardener."
"It's so special to be honored by fellow actors, so thanks very much to the tribe," she said upon taking the stage. In addition to naming castmates including Ralph Fiennes and Danny Huston, she also acknowledged the nonactors that director Fernando Meirelles cast in the international thriller and thanked him because "he let all the actors and nonactors run free and wild, and it was an incredible experience."
With the five film prizes spread among five films, the distributors represented included Lionsgate, Sony Pictures Classics, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Focus Features.
The SAG Awards don't necessarily predict the eventual Oscar winners. Over the past 10 years, SAG's best female film actor went on to win the best actress Oscar nine times, but SAG's best male film actor took home the corresponding Oscar just six of 10 times.
SAG's award for best film ensemble bears even less of a correlation to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' best picture winner. Over the past 10 years, only four of SAG's best film ensembles belonged to the film that went on to win the Oscar for best picture.
But the SAG Awards did represent the first setback for Oscar hopeful "Brokeback Mountain." Although it was nominated in four categories, the tale of two gay ranch hands struggling to acknowledge their love went home empty-handed.
"Brokeback" director Ang Lee still received acknowledgment from the podium when, in one of the night's most entertaining moments, Sean Hayes accepted his third best actor in a comedy series SAG Award for his role as flamboyantly gay would-be actor Jack McFarland on NBC's veteran sitcom "Will & Grace."
"I first of all would like to thank Ang Lee for taking a chance on me," he said, drawing laughter and a round of applause from the audience.
Hayes went on to bid a heartfelt goodbye to his colleagues on "Will & Grace" as the show nears the end of its eight-year run in May.
NBC was one of four TV networks to score SAG Awards. ABC led the pack with four, followed by HBO with two and Fox and NBC with one each.
There is no stopping ABC's hit "Lost," which followed its best drama series Emmy in September and Golden Globe this month with a SAG Award for drama series ensemble.
"About our cast, I'd like to say that this is the saddest collection of climbing, grasping, paranoid, back-stabbing, scene-grabbing losers and schmoozers that you ever saw on your stage in your life," "Lost" doyen cast member Terry O'Quinn said in accepting the award. "But we love each other very much."
He went on to thank ABC and "Lost" producer Touchstone TV "for showing our stuff to the world and for paying us so well to do it."
Touchstone TV recently offered all original cast members a significant salary increase that will bring the actors' per-episode fees to almost $80,000 for next season.
Another recent Golden Globe winner, Sandra Oh, took the best actress in a drama series category for her role in "Grey's Anatomy."
"I'm really proud to be on a show whose casting is a little more representative of how I think the world is," said Oh, who is of Korean descent. "To all my fellow Asian-Americans out there, I share this with you."
This was the second consecutive year that Oh made the trip to the mike on the SAG Awards stage, following her acceptance speech for the winning ensemble cast of "Sideways" last year.
Another repeat SAG Award winner, Kiefer Sutherland, picked up his second statuette in the actor in the drama series category for his role as Jack Bauer on Fox's action drama "24."
It was also a case of deja vu for the cast of "Desperate Housewives," which won the top comedy ensemble last year.
But a different housewife was triumphant in the actress in a comedy category this year. After Teri Hatcher's win last year, Felicity Huffman, the only lady of Wisteria Lane to snag a nomination this year, added a SAG Award to the Emmy she won in September for her portrayal of working mom Lynette Scavo.
"I am so grateful that I am acting, and I am so grateful I can make a living at it because I was never very good at math," she said.
It was another wild acceptance speech for S. Epatha Merkerson, star of the HBO movie "Lackawanna Blues," who started off fighting back tears and ended up with an almost hysterical laugh as she thanked her divorce lawyer. She referenced her Emmy Award acceptance speech when she said: "There's nothing in my bra. There is nothing in my head. It's all in my heart."
Merkerson's SAG Award win marks a clean sweep for the actress this season, whose role in "Lackawanna Blues" also earned her an Emmy and a Golden Globe.
In longform, it also was a hat trick for Paul Newman, who added a SAG Award to his Emmy and Golden Globe for his role in HBO's "Empire Falls."
Dakota Fanning introduced a tribute to Shirley Temple Black, the recipient of this year's SAG Life Achievement Award. Arriving at the podium with a Shirley Temple doll that her mother had passed down to her, Fanning observed that Black was just 3 when she was discovered in a dance studio in Los Angeles in the early 1930s. "By the time she turned 10, she became an international star of more than 40 motion pictures," Fanning said, adding, "Her amazing success helped to save 20th Century Fox."
In presenting the honor to Black, Jamie Lee Curtis recalled that even though she grew up the daughter of two actors, "I was skeptical about acting, but when I watched Shirley Temple, there was nothing artificial about her. She was a natural."
Greeted with a standing ovation, Black, slightly out of breath with excitement, said, "When I was 3 years old, I was delighted to be told I was an actress, even though I didn't know what an actress was." She offered one piece of advice for her fellow thespians "who want to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award: Start early."
Commenting on the serious subject matter that characterized much of the year's films and TV, SAG president Alan Rosenberg said, "Not only does great acting allow us to escape for a while, but it also allows us the opportunity to explore" a complex and challenging world.
The awards ceremony, broadcast by TNT and TBS, was exec produced by Jeff Margolis, produced by Kathy Connell, directed by Alan Carter and written by Stephen Pouliot. SAG producers were Yale Summers, Karla Tamburrelli, Daryl Anderson, Shelley Fabares and Paul Napier.
A complete list of winners follows:
FILM
Actor
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Actress
Reese Witherspoon,"Walk the Line" (20th Century Fox)
Supporting Actor
Paul Giamatti, "Cinderella Man" (Universal)
Supporting Actress
Rachel Weisz, "The Constant Gardener" (Focus Features)
Cast
"Crash" Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate (Lionsgate)
TELEVISION
Actor, Telefilm or Miniseries
Paul Newman, "Empire Falls" (HBO)
Actress, Telefilm or Miniseries
S. Epatha Merkerson, "Lackawanna Blues" (HBO)
Actor, Drama Series
Kiefer Sutherland, "24" (Fox)
Actress, Drama Series
Sandra Oh, "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC)
Actor, Comedy Series
Sean Hayes, "Will & Grace" (NBC)
Actress, Comedy Series
Felicity Huffman, "Desperate Housewives" (ABC)
Ensemble, Drama Series
"Lost" Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Naveen Andrews, Emilie De Ravin, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Maggie Grace, Josh Holloway, Malcolm David Kelley, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O'Quinn, Harold Perrineau, Michelle Rodriguez, Ian Somerhalder, Cynthia Watros (ABC)
Ensemble, Comedy Series
"Desperate Housewives" Roger Bart, Andrea Bowen, Mehcad Brooks, Ricardo Antonio Chavira, Marcia Cross, Steven Culp, James Denton, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Brent Kinsman, Shane Kinsman, Eva Longoria, Mark Moses, Doug Savant, Nicollette Sheridan, Brenda Strong, Alfre Woodard (ABC)
Life Achievement Award
Shirley Temple Black
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