18th Screen Actors Guild Awards – Winners

The show was last night and went by smoothly but with a couple surprises:

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role

JEAN DUJARDIN as George - "The Artist"
This was the biggest surprise of the night.  Clooney was the front runner and has been for the entire awards season, so Dujardin’s win could mean one of two things: Clooney’s not the favorite to win the Oscar anymore, or people decided to recognize Dujardin here in order to feel OK about handing Clooney a second Oscar next month.

DiCaprio was the only one not in attendance.  Unfortunate, since this is the last big award he would have been in the running for.

DEMIÁN BICHIR as Carlos Galindo - "A Better Life"
GEORGE CLOONEY as Matt King - "The Descendants"
LEONARDO DiCAPRIO as J. Edgar Hoover - "J. Edgar"
BRAD PITT as Billy Beane - "Moneyball"

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role

VIOLA DAVIS as Aibileen Clark - "The Help"
Davis takes this prize, bringing her tally to 2 (Critics’ Choice and SAG) versus Streep’s 1 (Golden Globe) as far as the biggest awards go.  The same reasoning laid out above applies: the Guild might have wanted to recognize Davis’ craft with the Actor because Streep will likely take home the Oscar this year, or Davis has simply overtaken Streep and will be unstoppable.

Meryl Streep really likes dresses with pockets, doesn’t she…?

GLENN CLOSE as Albert Nobbs - "Albert Nobbs"
MERYL STREEP as Margaret Thatcher - "The Iron Lady"
TILDA SWINTON as Eva - "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
MICHELLE WILLIAMS as Marilyn Monroe - "My Week With Marilyn"

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER as Hal - "Beginners"
This win was totally forecast and well deserved.

Rather, having now watched Moneyball, I don’t understand how Hill got showered with so many accolades…

KENNETH BRANAGH as Sir Laurence Olivier - "MY WEEK WITH MARILYN"
ARMIE HAMMER as Clyde Tolson - "J. Edgar"
JONAH HILL as Peter Brand - "Moneyball"
NICK NOLTE as Paddy Conlon - "Warrior"

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role

OCTAVIA SPENCER as Minny Jackson - "The Help"
Another win forecast in advance, she looked genuinely surprised and touched.  She doesn’t have to.  She’s won everything on the awards circuit and will conclude the sweep with the Oscar next month.

How cool would it have been to see McCarthy win though??!  Scorsese…

BÉRÉNICE BEJO as Peppy - "The Artist"
JESSICA CHASTAIN as Celia Foote - "The Help"
MELISSA McCARTHY as Megan - "Bridesmaids"
JANET McTEER as Hubert Page - "Albert Nobbs"

Outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture

"The Help"
While at first I was shocked that The Artist didn’t win (again, after winning everything up to now pretty much), I then realized that that movie was really shouldered by two actors at most (Dujardin and Bejo), so The Help’s win is actually quite justified.

Furthermore, it undermined The Descendants chances to win the Best Picture Oscar even more, if they couldn’t even win here and had a fantastic cast as well as The Help.

"The Artist"
"Bridesmaids"
"The Descendants"
"Midnight in Paris"

TELEVISION

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series

STEVE BUSCEMI as Enoch "Nucky" Thomson - "Boardwalk Empire"
Totally deserved.  He was great the past season.

Holy crap Patrick J. Adams!!!!

PATRICK J. ADAMS as Mike Ross - "Suits"
KYLE CHANDLER as Eric Taylor - "Friday Night Lights"
BRYAN CRANSTON as Walter White - "Breaking Bad"
MICHAEL C. HALL as Dexter Morgan - "Dexter"

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series

JESSICA LANGE as Constance - "American Horror Story"
Another totally deserved award.  Too bad she won’t be back for the second season of the show (at least at the time of this writing…)

This category actually looked as packed with great performances as the lead female actor in a motion picture, which isn’t so surprising when one considers that 3 of the 5 nominees are actually legends of the silver screen.

KATHY BATES as Harriet Korn - "Harry's Law"
GLENN CLOSE as Patty Hewes - "Damages"
JULIANNA MARGULIES as Alicia Florrick - "The Good Wife"
KYRA SEDGWICK as Dept. Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson - "The Closer"

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series

ALEC BALDWIN as Jack Donaghy - "30 Rock"
Baldwin, with his great acting chops and fantastic comedic timing, is a perennial favorite in this category.  The voiceover said this was his sixth win in a row!!

Congratulations, but would it be so bad to endorse some other talent now?  Then again, advocating not to award the best simply because they’ve won “too much” in order to spread the wealth is a recipe for disaster and heartbreak…

TY BURRELL as Phil Dunphy - "Modern Family"
STEVE CARELL as Michael Scott - "The Office"
JON CRYER as Alan Harper - "Two and a Half Men"
ERIC STONESTREET as Cameron Tucker - "Modern Family"

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series

BETTY WHITE as Elka Ostrovsky - "Hot in Cleveland"
Great as she might be on the show, how many of these vote were cast as sympathy votes?  Oh well, she’s great, and her speech was totally funny.

JULIE BOWEN as Claire Dunphy - "Modern Family"
EDIE FALCO as Jackie Peyton - "Nurse Jackie"
TINA FEY as Liz Lemon - "30 Rock"
SOFIA VERGARA as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett - "Modern Family"

Outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series

"Boardwalk Empire"
Totally deserved.  Season 2 was such an improvement for the show, which came into its own and became a must-see!

"Breaking Bad"
"Dexter"
"Game of Thrones"
"The Good Wife"

Outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series

"Modern Family"
Another greatly deserved win.  This show is always top notch, even when an episode isn’t memorable.

"30 Rock"
"The Big Bang Theory"
"Glee"
"The Office"

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or miniseries

PAUL GIAMATTI as Ben Bernanke - "Too Big to Fail"
I didn’t see him, but he’s always very good.

LAURENCE FISHBURNE as Thurgood Marshall - "Thurgood"
GREG KINNEAR as Jack Kennedy - "The Kennedys"
GUY PEARCE as Monty Beragon - "Mildred Pierce"
JAMES WOODS as Richard Fuld - "Too Big to Fail"

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movie or Miniseries

KATE WINSLET as Mildred Pierce - "Mildred Pierce"
What can be said about Winslet that hasn’t been said before?  She’s one of the great and if you’re up against her, don’t bother writing a speech…

DIANE LANE as Pat Loud - "Cinema Verite"
MAGGIE SMITH as Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham - "Downton Abbey"
EMILY WATSON as Janet Leach - "Appropriate Adult"
BETTY WHITE as Caroline Thomas - "Hallmark Hall of Fame: The Lost Valentine"

Here’s the SAG official site.