“Trumbo,” the story of a blacklisted writer in the McCarthy era, will carry a leading three film nominations into Saturday night’s 22nd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, while “Game of Thrones,” “Homeland” and “House of Cards” each have three nods in the television categories.
Idris Elba and Helen Mirren both have three nominations heading into the Shrine Auditorium event, with Elba straddling film and television categories for his performances as a West African mercenary who leads a group of boy soldiers in “Beasts of No Nation” and as a homicide detective in the miniseries “Luther.”
Mirren is nominated for her lead role in “Woman in Gold,” for her supporting role in “Trumbo” and as part of the ensemble cast of that film.
In addition to director Jay Roach’s “Trumbo,” nominees for SAG’s film ensemble award — the guild’s equivalent of the best picture Oscar — are Tom McCarthy’s”Spotlight,” about The Boston Globe reporting team that investigated sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests; the housing-bubble drama “The Big Short,” “Beasts of No Nation” and the N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton.”
Leonardo DiCaprio, who won a Golden Globe for best drama actor and is also up for the best-actor Oscar, is nominated for the SAG Award for his gritty performance in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “The Revenant.” He will be competing with Michael Fassbender, who portrayed the Apple founder in “Steve Jobs”; Eddie Redmayne for his cross-dressing role in “The Danish Girl”; Bryan Cranston as the blacklisted writer in “Trumbo”; and Johnny Depp as gangster-fugitive “Whitey” Bulger in “Black Mass.”
Mirren’s fellow actress nominees for leading roles are Cate Blanchett for the lesbian romance “Carol”; first-time nominee and Golden Globe winner Brie Larson, for her portrayal of a woman held captive with her 5-year-old son in “Room”; Saoirse Ronan for “Brooklyn”; and comedian and first-time nominee Sarah Silverman for “I Smile Back.”
Supporting actor nominees are Christian Bale for “The Big Short,” which tells the tale of a big bet against the housing market during the 2008 financial crisis; Elba for “Beasts of No Nation,” Mark Rylance for “Bridge of Spies”; Michael Shannon for “99 Homes,” another take on the housing crash; and 9-year-old Jacob Tremblay for his portrayal of the boy held captive with his mother in “Room.”
Mirren’s supporting actress competitors are first-time nominees Rooney Mara for “Carol” and Alicia Vikander for “The Danish Girl,” along with Rachel McAdams for “Spotlight” and Kate Winslet for “Steve Jobs.”
On the small screen, the casts of “The Big Bang Theory,” “Key & Peele,” “Modern Family,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “Transparent” and “Veep” are nominated for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series. There are six nominees due to a tie.
If four-time ensemble winner “Modern Family” wins again, the ABC series starring Ed O’Neill, Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara would break a tie with “ER” for most ensemble wins.
Among drama series, the nominees are the casts of “Downton Abbey,” “Game of Thrones,” “Homeland,” “House of Cards” and “Mad Men.”
Actors nominated for work in a drama series are Peter Dinklage (“Game of Thrones”), Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”), Rami Malek (“Mr. Robot”), Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”) and Kevin Spacey (“House of Cards”).
Nine-time nominee and eight-time winner Julianna Margulies (“The Good Wife”) will compete with Claire Danes (“Homeland”), Viola Davis (“How to Get Away with Murder”), Maggie Smith (“Downton Abbey”) and Robin Wright (“House of Cards”) for the drama actress prize.
On the comedy series front, the nominated actresses are Uzo Aduba (“Orange Is the New Black”); Edie Falco who picked up her record-setting 22nd nod for “Nurse Jackie”; Ellie Kemper (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”); 17-time nominee Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“Veep”) and Amy Poehler (“Parks and Recreation”).
Actors competing in the comedy series category are Ty Burrell (“Modern Family”), Louis C.K. (“Louie”), William H. Macy (“Shameless”), Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang”) and Jeffrey Tambor (“Transparent”).
Nicole Kidman (“Grace of Monaco”), Queen Latifah (“Bessie”), Susan Sarandon (“The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe”), Kristen Wiig (“The Spoils Before Dying”) and Christina Ricci (“The Lizzie Borden Chronicles”) are nominated for their performances in a TV movie or miniseries.
Actors nominated in the TV movie or miniseries category are Elba for “Luther,” Ben Kingsley for “Tut,” Ray Liotta for “Texas Rising,” Bill Murray for his holiday variety special “A Very Murray Christmas” and Mark Rylance for “Wolf Hall.”
In the category of outstanding action performance by a stunt ensemble in a motion picture, the nominees are the teams that worked on “Everest,” “Furious 7,” “Jurassic World,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and “Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation.” On the television side, nominees are the stunt ensembles working on “The Blacklist,” “Game of Thrones,” “Homeland,” ” Marvel’s Daredevil” and “The Walking Dead.”
Carol Burnett will receive a lifetime achievement award at the ceremony.
— City News Service