Iran hostage drama picks up best cast ensemble a day after winning Producers Guild award
The Iran hostage drama Argo has won its second big award in two days, boosting its chances of winning a best picture Oscar next month in a race that had been considered wide open.
Argo won best cast ensemble, the top prize, at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards, while Daniel Day-Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence took lead acting honours.
On Saturday, Argo won the Producers Guild award – a key measure of Hollywood sentiment – beating Lincoln, Les Miserables and Silver Linings Playbook, which are all Academy Award best picture contenders.
"There was absolutely no way I thought we would win this award," the film's director and star, Ben Affleck, told reporters backstage after the SAG win. Argo is the true story of the rescue of US diplomats stranded in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Asked about his movie's Oscar chances, Affleck said he was not in the business of "handicapping or trying to divine what's going to happen down the road".
"I don't know what's going to happen, nothing may happen, but it's a wonderful opportunity to be on the ride," Affleck added.
The Screen Actors Guild ceremony is among the most-watched during Hollywood's awards season because actors make up the largest voting group in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which chooses the Oscar winners. The honours are selected by about 100,000 actors working in the United States.
British-born Day-Lewis, who has picked up a slew of awards for his intense portrayal of the US president Abraham Lincoln's efforts to abolish slavery in Lincoln, confirmed his status as frontrunner for what would be his record third Oscar on 24 February.
But the actor played down his Oscar hopes backstage. "Members of the academy love surprises, so about the worst thing that can happen to you is if you've built up an expectation," Day-Lewis told reporters.
Accepting his award on stage to a standing ovation, he recalled that "it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln and, therefore, it is sometimes only fitting that, now and then, an actor tries to bring him back to life again".
In one of the most closely contested categories, Lawrence, 22, was named best lead actress for playing an outspoken young widow in Silver Linings Playbook over Jessica Chastain's CIA agent in the Osama bin Laden thriller Zero Dark Thirty.
Tommy Lee Jones, 66, won the best supporting actor trophy for his turn as the radical congressman Thaddeus Stevens in Lincoln, beating strong competition from Robert De Niro, who played a gruff father in Silver Linings Playbook.
Anne Hathaway, 30, won her first SAG award for her supporting role as the tragic Fantine in the musical Les Miserables.
"I got my SAG card when I was 14 … And I have loved every single minute of my life as an actor," said Hathaway, accepting the statuette.
SAG also handed out awards for performances in TV dramas, comedies and mini-series, and gave a lifetime achievement award to the actor Dick Van Dyke.
In TV drama, Downton Abbey won best ensemble cast. The Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston was named best actor and Homeland's Claire Danes best actress.
Modern Family won the best comedy cast ensemble award for a third consecutive time. Alec Baldwin won best TV comedy actor for the eighth time for his role as an egotistical executive in 30 Rock and his co-star Tina Fey took the honours for comedy actress before the show's final episode on Thursday.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/jan/28/argo-screen-actors-guild-oscar
No comments:
Post a Comment