The cast of the NBC drama “This Is Us” celebrated backstage at the SAG Awards and also talked about Time’s Up and diversity in Hollywood.
In addition to the win for the ensemble cast, Sterling K. Brown was awarded an Actor statuette for best actor in a drama series Sunday evening.
Brown, who was losing his voice, said it was “awesome” to win alongside the whole cast.
“My cast has been so generous in celebrating me,” said Brown, who has also won a Golden Globe and Emmy for his portrayal of Randall Pearson, who is adopted into a white family with infant twins just days after all three are born.
The cast expected “The Handmaid’s Tale” to win, Brown said.
“When they called our network television drama … and we won,” Brown said, grinning ear to ear, “This is a very special night … it’s so nice to be able to do it with your family.”
Asked to talk about the Time’s Up movement and whether men can do more to end sexual harassment of women, Brown said, “It has been a wonderful opportunity for me to take stock that I actually have privilege, that I have male privilege.”
He recalled working late into the night with his wife during his grad school years at New York University and planning to jump on the subway, which he called “perfectly safe.”
His wife told him that might be “safe for you, but it’s a different world for me” before they chose to pay for a cab home.
“Black people have to know how to live in a white world. Gay people have to know how to live in a straight world. Women have to know how to live in a man’s world,” Brown said. In this moment, it’s nice to see “people at the top stop and consider what it’s like to have to live in the minority.”
He acknowledged “there are certain things that I have not registered … things that may not be funny to you, may not be funny to everyone. It’s not always about maliciousness and nastiness, sometimes it’s about downright thoughtlessness and we can all stand to be a bit more thoughtful.”
Susan Kelechi Waton, who plays Russell’s wife Beth, offered this message.
“What I would say to young women is that the times they are a- changin’, they are some people who are paving a pathway through their own courageousness,” Watson said and some visionaries who see a path forward.
Just as others “paved the way for me just to be a normal black woman on television,” Watson said, she looks forward to a time when female actors can “showcase their talents without having to sacrifice any of their self respect.”
Lonnie Chavis, who plays Brown’s character as a 9-year-old, had his own grown-up take.
After offering “all glory to God” and acknowledging the entire cast, saying “it just takes so many people to make a TV show happen,” Chavis told reporters he was grateful for the chance to “bring diversity to Hollywood and find a place for me where I fit in.”
For now, they were just happy to be together. Mandy Moore, who plays the triplet’s mother, Rebecca Pearson, revealed that “we’re never together just in one room” and said this particular award was especially poignant.
“Being recognized by our fellow actors, I can’t even put it in words yet,” Moore said.
—City News Service