Big SAG wins for ‘The Help’

Civil rights drama ‘The Help’ got a leg up in the Oscar race on Sunday when the movie won three awards from the Screen Actors Guild, including best cast in a surprise over silent movie romance ‘The Artist’.

‘The Help’, which came into the show with four nominations, more than any other film, also earned its star Viola Davis the SAG award for best actress, while Octavia Spencer was named top supporting actress. They both played maids who face discrimination in the film set in Mississippi during the 1960s. Davis thanked another African-American actress, Cicely Tyson, who inspired her as a child and was in the audience. Davis talked of dreaming big as a child when she wanted to become an actress. She encouraged others to do so, too. ‘Dream big and dream fierce,’ she said. Davis also took the opportunity to remind the celebrities in attendance, including A-listers George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Meryl Streep, as well as TV audiences, that change is still necessary in current US culture. ‘The stain of racism and sexism is not just for people of colour or women,’ she said. ‘It’s all of our burden. All of us, and we can, absolutely all of us, we can inspire change.’ Silent movie ‘The Artist’ could only claim one trophy. Jean Dujardin was named best actor in a drama for his role as a fading screen star at the end of the talkies who is ultimately saved by love. Dujardin, who beat out Clooney and Pitt in the category, seemed genuinely surprised as he held his statue and thanked SAG. Like Davis, he noted that as a kid he was always a dreamer and said his teachers called him ‘Jean of the moon’. Others winning SAG film honours included Christopher Plummer (82) for supporting actor. TV WinnersSAG members also pick winners in TV awards, and in that arena, ‘Boardwalk Empire’ was named best drama series for the second straight year and ‘Modern Family was chosen top comedy, also for the second year running. Jessica Lange took her first SAG trophy for best dramatic actress in new show, ‘American Horror Story’, and Steve Buscemi was named best actor in a drama for critically acclaimed ‘Boardwalk Empire.’ Both thanked their cast and crew members. Alec Baldwin (’30 Rock’), Betty White and the ‘Modern Family’ were the three TV winners in comedy categories. White, who turned 90 earlier this month, took the comedy actress trophy for a second time in ‘Hot in Cleveland’. In other TV awards, Kate Winslet was named best actress in a small-screen movie or mini-series for ‘Mildred Pierce’, and Paul Giamatti won the trophy for actor in a movie or mini-series with ‘Too Big to Fail’. Mary Tyler Moore – a star on comedy ‘The Dick Van Dyke’ show in the 1960s, who cemented her fame in the ’70s on ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ and starred in critically acclaimed 1980 movie ‘Ordinary People’ – was given a lifetime achievement honour. – Nampa-Reuters

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