By Monica Rubalcava
Los Angeles US, Feb 24 (EFE).- ‘Oppenheimer’ won big at the Screen Actors Guild awards on Saturday, bagging the prestigious trophy for outstanding performance by a motion picture cast, among other awards.
“Thank you to every SAG-AFTRA member whose support and whose sacrifice allows us to be standing here better than we were before,” said actor Kenneth Brannagh, who accepted the award on behalf of the ‘Oppenheimer’ cast.
“When we were all last together, it was at the premiere of this film on July 14, last year when the strike was just about to begin. And led by our fearless leader, the great Cillian Murphy, we went from the red carpet and we didn’t see the film that night. We happily went in the direction of solidarity with your good selves. So this is a full circle moment for us,” he added in reference to last summer’s actors strike for better pay and working conditions.
Cillian Murphy, who plays the tortured physicist credited with developing the nuclear bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, in Christopher Nolan’s film, won outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role, while Robert Downey Jr. won best supporting actor.
Lily Gladstone won outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role for ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ while the best supporting actress award went to Da’Vine Joy Randolph for her role in ‘The Holdovers’ by Alexander Payne.
“It’s truly a gift that we get to do this for a living…We bring empathy into a world that so much needs it. It’s so easy to distance ourselves. It’s so easy to close off, to stop feeling, and we all bravely keep feeling, and that humanizes people,” Gladstone said.
However, the highest-grossing film of 2023, ‘Barbie’, and ‘Poor Things’, by Yorgos Lanthimos, did not take home any trophies.
The television awards were monopolized by ‘The Bear’ and ‘Succession’.
‘Succession’ won outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series while ‘The Bear’ won outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series, as well as best actor and best actress trophies for Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri respectively.
Pedro Pascal was the surprise recipient of the trophy for outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series for HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ while Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Princess Diana in the series ‘The Crown’, won outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series.
Steven Yeun and Ali Wong were the outstanding performance in a television movie or limited series winners for ‘Beef’.
The ceremony was held at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles and streamed live on Netflix for the first time. EFE
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