On Sunday, Reese Witherspoon and Philip Seymour Hoffman came up tops at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards, bagging the best actress and best actor awards for their performances in
Walk The Line and
Capote respectively. Witherspoon's portrayal of singer June Carter in the Johnny Cash biopic bagged her the top honor, while Hoffman's Truman Capote, an author writing a crime novel, pushed him above the other contenders.
“Sometimes, I can't just shake the feeling that I'm just a little girl from Tennessee. I want to say my biggest inspiration for this movie obviously was June Carter. She was an incredible woman,” Witherspoon said while accepting her award. She praised the singer for juggling her career and marriage. “I think there are so any women who are the quiet, sort of silent, frequently unacknowledged center of so many people's lives. And I think I'm just really honored to bring her out of a certain shadow and into the light in this performance,” Witherspoon added.
On his part, Hoffman thanked the other actors in the film for his winning performance. “It's important to say that actors can't act alone, it's impossible. What we have to do is support each other. Actors have to have each other's backs. It's the only way to act well is when you know the other actor has your back, and these actors had my back, and I hope they know I had theirs,” he said.
Spiking hot favorite
Brokeback Mountain, racial drama
Crash won the best overall cast award, even as Rachel Weisz and Paul Giamatti walked away with the best supporting actress and actor awards respectively for
The Constant Gardner and
Cinderella Man.
Rachel Weisz, who bagged a Golden Globe for the same role, shared the recognition with director Fernando Meirelles and co-star Ralph Fiennes. “It's so special to be honored by fellow actors, so thanks very much to the tribe,” she said. Paul Giamatti, who plays a boxer in
Cinderella Man said, “This is a hell of a thing, this is a great thing. It's great, but I found the best thing about it is hanging around the craft-service table with other actors and crew people, eating doughnuts.”
The surprise package of the SAG awards was
Crash, a film about racism starring Brendan Fraser, Chris Ludacris Bridges, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Esposito, Larenz Tate, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe, Sandra Bullock, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton and William Fichtner. The film, based on several short stories brought together by car accidents, shootings and carjacking, left behind
Brokeback Mountain, a film about two sheepherders and a clandestine homosexual affair between them, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Terence Howard, who accepted the award on the behalf of the cast and crew, said the film “really celebrates the definition of what an ensemble is all about”. “I mean there are 74 of us. It's a film that doesn't end when the credits roll,” Howard said.
As far as the television awards went, the show belonged to ABC. The best ensemble in a drama series award was taken by
Lost, starring Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cynthia Watros, Daniel Dae Kim, Dominic Monaghan, Emilie De Ravin, Evangeline Lilly, Harold Perrineau, Ian Somerhalder, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Matthew Fox, Maggie Grace, Malcolm David Kelley, Michelle Rodriguez, Naveen Andrews, Terry O'Quinn, and Yunjin Kim.
“A friend of mine always says if you don't have something nice to say about someone, let's hear it. This is the saddest collection of climbing, grasping, paranoid, backstabbing, screen-grabbing schmoozers and losers that you ever saw in your life. But we love each very much,” said Terry O'Quinn, while accepting the award for
Lost with his cast.
The trophy for the best ensemble in a comedy series went to
Desperate Housewives, which stars Andrea Bowen, Antonio Chavira, Alfre Woodard, Brent Kinsman, Brenda Strong, Doug Savant, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman, James Denton, Mark Moses, Mehcad Brooks, Nicollette Sheridan, Roger Bart, Ricardo Marcia Cross, Steven Culp, Shane Kinsman and Teri Hatcher.
Felicity Huffman also bagged the best actress in a comedy series for the same show. “I love actors. I married one. Okay, I married a fantastic one,” Huffman said referring to her husband William H Macy. “But even more than acting, I love the community of actors. I love the greenroom. I love the hair and makeup trailer,” she said while taking her trophy.
Will & Grace gay guy Sean Hayes was adjudged the best comedy actor. “First of all, I would like to thank Ang Lee for taking a chance on me,” Hayes quipped on
Brokeback Mountain.
In the drama series, Kiefer Sutherland won the best actor award for
24, while Korean-Canadian actress Sandra Oh bagged the best actress award for
Grey's Anatomy. “To all my fellow Asian-American actors out there, I share this with you, and be encouraged and keep shining,” Oh said.
In the telefilm or miniseries category, Paul Newman was declared the best actor for
Empire Falls, and S Epatha Merkerson best actress for
Lackawanna Blues. Former child actress Shirley Temple Black was honored with a lifetime achievement award.
