“Birdman” capped a golden weekend by winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding ensemble cast Sunday night, although its star Michael Keaton lost his bid for best actor to Eddie Redmayne for “The Theory of Everything.”
With Keaton portraying a once-blockbuster actor trying to rebuild his career on Broadway, “Birdman” gained major momentum for the Oscars with the prize — which is SAG’s equivalent of a best-picture honor. “Birdman” also won the top prize from the Producers Guild of America on Saturday.
“This is very, very exciting,” Keaton said on behalf of the cast as it accepted the honor at the Shrine Auditorium during the 21st annual SAG Awards. “It’s the ultimate team sport, what we do for a living. These guys are unbelievable. Every time I turned around I ran into another tremendous actor, but to look at all the great actors up there and people who have laid themselves on the line and put it all out there — this is for (director/co- writer) Alejandro (Inarritu) and all of you and the producers — and these guys are tremendous, and I’m proud to be part of this group.”
Redmayne picked up his first SAG Award for his portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.” Redmayne and Keaton both previously won Golden Globes, but the SAG win gives Redmayne an advantage as Oscar night approaches.
He dedicated the honor “to those people around the world living with ALS, and to those who have lost their lives to this brutal disease.”
“In preparing to (portray) Stephen, I met many people fighting ALS, and I met their families fighting alongside them,” he said. “The courage, the bravery, the spirit, the triumph of spirit that I witnessed, blew my mind.”
Julianne Moore cemented her position as Oscar favorite for best actress for her role as a linguistics professor diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in “Still Alice.”
“When I was on ‘As the World Turns,”‘ she said to start her acceptance speech, drawing laughs and applause. “I was so excited when they wrote two parts for me, you know the classic twin-sister role — the good and the evil one. And I couldn’t wait to do it and I was so excited, and then I realized it was super boring to act by myself.
“And what I really loved and what I really craved and what was most exciting for me was being with another actor and feeling that intimacy and that excitement, that thrill of getting to know somebody in that way,” she said. “And that’s what keeps me coming back to acting again and again and again.”
Patricia Arquette of “Boyhood” and J.K. Simmons of “Whiplash” also appear to be Oscar locks, with each repeating their Golden Globe victories for supporting actress and actor, respectively.
“I can’t tell you what this means to me,” Arquette said breathlessly. “I’m a fourth-generation actor. My family has been committed to acting for over a century through feast or famine.”
She also thanked “Boyhood” director Richard Linklater for “showing me the beauty of this human experience and how we all matter.” The win was her first SAG Award in six nominations.
Simmons, collecting his first career SAG Award, praised the entire cast of “Whiplash,” saying “all of us actors are supporting actors.”
“Each of us is not only supporting the story, the movie the play, the whatever it is that we’re doing, each of us is essential, completely crucial to the story because if there’s one false move, the dream comes off the rails and our willing suspension of disbelief is gone and we have to earn it back,” he said. “So I would like to thank the 49 actors who appear on screen in ‘Whiplash’ for realizing (writer/director) Damian Chazelle’s vision so beautifully.”
The movie “Unbroken” was honored for its stunt ensemble, while “Game of Thrones” received the stunt ensemble honor for television programs. The Netflix original program “Orange is the New Black” had a big night, winning the prize for outstanding ensemble cast in a comedy series and a best comedy actress prize for Uzo Aduba.
“We want to say a big massive, massive thank you to (series creator) Jenjie Kohan, without whom this is not at all possible,” Aduba said while accepting the ensemble award on behalf of the 40-strong cast. “… We want to thank everyone who’s tuned into our show, who’s watched our show and supported it in such a brilliant way. We are incredibly grateful for this tremendous honor.”
It was the first SAG nomination for the streaming program, and also the first for Aduba.
William H. Macy won the award for best actor in a comedy series for his work in “Shameless.” It was his second career SAG Award in nine nominations. He won in 2003 for his role in the television movie “Door to Door.”
“I’ve written so many great acceptance speeches that I never got to give,” he said. “But not tonight.”
He jokingly added, “To my fellow nominees — ah, forget it you lost.”
“Downton Abbey” won its second SAG Award for ensemble cast in a drama series, while Viola Davis was named best actress in a drama for her work on ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder.” She previously won the Actor for her lead role in “The Help” and as part of the film’s ensemble cast.
She thanked the creators of the ABC series “for thinking that a sexualized, messy, mysterious woman could be a 49-year-old dark-skinned African- American woman who looks like me.”
Kevin Spacey won the award for best actor in a drama for the Netflix series “House of Cards.” His previous wins were for his lead role and part of the ensemble cast of “American Beauty.”
Mark Ruffalo, who was not at the ceremony, won the award for best actor in a miniseries or made-for-television movie for his work in HBO’s “The Normal Heart.” He posted on his Twitter account, “To all the people who lived through the AIDS crisis and lost the ones you loved, this award is yours.”
Frances McDormand was named best actress in a miniseries or television movie for HBO’s “Olive Kitteridge.”
“This is a celebration, right? We’re celebrating,” said McDormand, who previously won a SAG Award for the film “Fargo.” “It’s also a proclamation. I’m proclaiming if you haven’t seen ‘Olive Kitteridge’ you need to. You can stream it — I don’t know how — you can watch it on an intercontinental flight, I’m told…”
— City News Service