Old Hollywood glamour and a tearful Harrison Ford at Actor Awards
- Mar 4
- 5 min read
Carol J. Bream
Night Vision
Viewers of the newly renamed The Actors Awards (formerly SAG) were treated to a glamour-packed Old Hollywood-style show March 1, which was refreshingly light-hearted despite the newly launched war on Iran by the U.S. and Israel.
But there were tears from 83-year-old Harrison Ford, and also from members of the audience, as the actor behind macho characters Indiana Jones and Han Solo accepted a lifetime achievement award while expressing his joy at many decades spent playing a myriad of roles.
On the red carpet, returning emcee Kristen Bell said that she was there to host, not to roast. In opening remarks she emphasized the awards are not handed out for best director, best film or best TV series, but rather simply to honour actors, including oft-neglected stunt performers. The latter prizes went to the stunt actors behind “Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning” (film) and “The Last of Us” (TV).
Many Oscar-nominated Best Picture films (not a category here) were represented by members of their casts: “Sinners” (the night’s big winner), “One Battle After Another,” “Hamnet,” “Frankenstein” and “Marty Supreme.”
The awards, boosting hopes for the recipients’ Oscar chances, went to:
FILM
• The cast of “Sinners” were feted for their outstanding performances, increasing the film’s chance for Best Picture and other prizes at the March 15 Oscars. Actor Delroy Lindo had to ad lib his thank-you speech, as the teleprompter seemed to jam up. He expressed deep gratitude to his “Sinners” castmates and to director Ryan Coogler.
• Best Actress winner Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”) now looks like a shoo-in for gold at the Oscars, the closest thing to a sure thing. “What a way to spend a life,” she said, as she thanked fellow cast member Emily Watson for mentoring and inspiring her.
• Best Actor winner Michael B. Jordan (“Sinners”) likewise seems well-positioned for Oscars, as does the dark horror film in which he plays two characters. Jordan thanked his mother (who accompanied him last evening) for driving him from New Jersey to New York City for auditions as a child actor.
• The absent Sean Penn (“One Battle After Another”) and a very surprised and grateful Amy Madigan (“Weapons”) won awards for outstanding performance in a supporting role for their respective films.
TV
• As expected, “The Pitt” and lead star Noah Wyle scooped both Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series (typical of the long titles of many awards).
• Canada’s Seth Rogen gave a deeply emotional tribute to the late Canadian actor Catherine O’Hara as he accepted her award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for Hollywood parody “The Studio.” The announcement was followed by lengthy applause for a beloved peer.
• Owen Cooper (“Adolescence”) once again won as outstanding male actor. Michelle Williams won for her performance in “Dying for Sex.”
• The ensemble for comedy again went to “The Studio.”
Many winners spoke movingly about the milestone moment when they received their first Screen Actors Guild card and remembered those who had supported and inspired them.
Among them was Harrison Ford, who was presented with the SAG-AFTRA Lifetime Achievement Award by his close friend Woody Harrelson, who also roasted him a bit.
After a series of clips from Ford’s long career, the normally stony-faced and cranky octogenarian actor was often fighting tears in the presence of his fellow actors, many of whom were equally emotional. He joked that this is an award just for still being alive but wondered at receiving it at the “half point of my career — a bit early”!
He thanked directors George Lucas (“Star Wars”) and Steven Spielberg (“Raiders of the Lost Ark”), and also two departed friends and supporters: Fred Roos, casting director and producer, and Ford’s manager of 30 years, Pat McQueeney, for making his career possible.
Ford said it was an honour and a privilege to be an actor, to get to live many lives and forge an identity by pretending to be other people through a life in storytelling.
“I found a calling, a life in storytelling,” he continued. “An identity in pretending to be other people. The work I do with other actors is one of the great joys of my life.”
He said that actors share the privilege of working in a world of ideas, empathy and imagination, that their success is forged on freedom and supporting each other (he is a major philanthropist in the community).
He offered a philosophical thought to the assembled actors: “Sometimes we make entertainment, sometimes we make art. Sometimes if we’re lucky we make them both at the same time. And if we’re really fortunate, we also get to make a living doing it.”
He said he’s a lucky guy (a recurring line in the film clips) to work with people who challenged him. He thanked his peers and his “extraordinary, beautiful wife” Calista Flockhart. “This prize is very encouraging!” he joked by way of closing, cradling his new lifetime achievement prize.
The best parts of the show are often the opening cameos, each of which ends with someone proudly proclaiming, “I am an actor.” The most touching (and most applauded) was by Canadian Michael J. Fox, stricken with Parkinsons but still acting (most recently in “Shrinking”), who said how fortunate he is to have the support of his wife, Tracy Pollan, whom he met on “Family Ties.” Other cameos were by nominees Kristin Wiig, Teyana Taylor, Delroy Lindo and Kate Hudson.
Memorable were the quickly paced clips of films and TV shows: at the opening, a collage of various nominees, then an overview of the year’s best moments, and later one of people behaving badly, and others on the art of the rom-com, medical shows and physical comedy.
Host Bell did a bit about actors changing their birth names to something more palatable to studio heads—Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, Cary Grant and Vin Diesel—followed by a scrolling background of possible and amusing new names for stars, like Ted Dandaughter, instead of Ted Danson.
A running gag table tennis competition (channelling and spoofing “Marty Supreme”) was absurd but sort of fun, with participants Ted Danson, Jackie Tohn, Ike Barinholz and Jacobi Jupe of “Hamnet.” An emotional Barinholz couldn’t even try against young Jupe, who won the trophy that Kristen Bell had concocted: a weird bust of Timothée Chalamet that scared Jupe and, apparently, even Bell.
The gospel song “This Little Light of Mine,” from a scene in “Sinners,” was a highlight of the awards show and featured the young teenager Caleb Tyler Serrano, who started singing at three or four years old and became a viral sensation in 2016 when he sang that song in church.
The evening’s theme was ’20s and ’30s Hollywood, and the stars didn’t disappoint. Viola Davis looked 110 per cent the movie star in a stunning deep, shimmering emerald-green gown and a diamond necklace bedecked with a huge emerald pendant.
The deep-slitted slip dress was favoured by numerous stars, including Emma Stone, Bell and Gwyneth Paltrow. Other fashion highlights: Yerin Ha (“Bridgerton”) in a black gown with a feathery white cape; Chase Infinity (blingy pink fitted gown and sparkly cloche); Michael B. Jordan in a “Smoke” grey double-breasted tux; Ali Larter of “Landman” in an elegant deep purple gown and lots of diamonds; Patrick Ball of “The Pitt” in a tux with a kilt; and Teyana Taylor of “One Battle After Another,” accompanied by her sweet daughter, in a swirling grey and beige fitted gown that included a sort of old-timey conical bra. The stunning gowns and tuxes, many of which were white, fit the event’s retro theme.
The show’s pacing was refreshing, quick and clean. Bell, who quick-changed into various gowns and a tuxedo, did a great job and deserves to return as host next year. She’s an actor’s actor, fitting for these awards.
(Carol J. Bream is a writer living in Gatineau, Quebec.)
