Even veteran actors who are used to early morning call times for hair, wardrobe and makeup can feel like they’re sagging at 5 a.m. But when it comes to Thursday morning’s kind of SAG-ing, most of Hollywood had no problem getting up in the wee hours to hear the 10th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards nominee announcements.
Screen Actors Guild President Melissa Gilbert and SAG members Andie MacDowell and Mark Harmon joined the a small cadre of entertainment journalists and paparazzi in the SilverScreen Theater of the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood to make the announcements.
Gilbert admitted to being not so bright eyed and bushy-tailed despite the excitement surrounding the decade-old event, which also celebrates SAG’s 70th anniversary. “The alarm clock went off so fast,” said Gilbert. “It seemed like I just closed my eyes, and then I had to open them again. It’s getting much more difficult to pull myself together at this hour as the years tick by.”
MacDowell, a bundle of energy who couldn’t stop oohing and ahhing over Entertainment Tonight reporter Maria Menonous’ bare midriff, bejeweled navel and tied-off Tommy Hilfiger top, said she had an easier time getting out of bed, while her co-presenter Harmon never bothered to go to sleep. “This poor man has pulled an all-nighter!” she exclaimed. Harmon took it all in stride: “It’s not every morning you get to get up and see Andie MacDowell.”
But despite the daunting daybreak hour, all three actors agreed they were perked up by the names that were announced among this year’s nominees in five film and eight primetime television categories–and there were some major surprises.
Small Stature, Large Talent
Actress Patricia Clarkson led all comers with three nominations: female lead in the indie hit The Station Agent, female support in Pieces of April and as part of The Station Agent‘s ensemble of actors. Another nomination for The Station Agent‘s star Peter Dinklage as male lead tied that film with Mystic River as the most-nominated, with three nods apiece. Seabiscuit, 21 Grams and Thirteen followed closely with two nominations each.
Clarkson finds herself in an extremely interesting race among female leads, facing fellow nominees Diane Keaton for Something’s Gotta Give, Charlize Theron for Monster, Naomi Watts for 21 Grams and–in another awards season coup for under-21 actresses–16-year-old Evan Rachel Wood for Thirteen.
Earlier in the week Wood told Hollywood.com she was bracing herself for the forthcoming red carpet whirlwind. “I’ve gone to the Golden Globes twice [as part of TV’s Once & Again ensemble], but never alone and never for something this huge. I am trying to prepare for it.”
Not making the cut were several highly praised performances, such as Jennifer Connelly in House of Sand and Fog, Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation, and, perhaps most shockingly for one of Hollywood’s most admired and heavily hyped actresses, Nicole Kidman for Cold Mountain.
“This is a great lineup–nothing surprises me anymore,” said Gilbert of the entire crop of nominees, though she did admit to some personal surprise at Kidman‘s omission by her fellow actors. “If I could give an award for most diverse performances of this year, it would be to Kidman for her performances in Cold Mountain and The Human Stain. They were two truly different choices.”
Dinklage‘s nomination was perhaps the biggest surprise among the male lead nominees–the actor, a dwarf, was a relative unknown before his film debuted and is only now getting used to the newfound notoriety. “It’s fun,” he told Hollywood.com a few days before his SAG nomination. “People really like to stop and talk to you. They really like the film and it’s nice. Sometimes you’re really in a rush to get somewhere and somebody wants to tell you their whole life story and you feel really bad–‘I’m sorry, I’m really late for something.’ But it’s always good.”
Dinklage will compete against expected nominees Ben Kingsley (House of Sand and Fog), Bill Murray (Lost in Translation) and Sean Penn (nominated for Mystic River, not 21 Grams), as well as another possible spoiler, Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean). Critical darlings who didn’t make SAG’s cut included Tobey Maguire (Seabiscuit), Jude Law (Cold Mountain) and Paul Giamatti (American Splendor).
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Joining Clarkson in the female support race are Renee Zellweger (Cold Mountain), Holly Hunter (Thirteen), 13-year-old Keisha Castle Hughes (Whale Rider) and Maria Bello, another actress suddenly thrust into the awards season spotlight with a slate of recent nominations.
At an awards season “contenders” party thrown earlier in the week by Variety’s spin-off magazine V Life, Bello told Hollywood.com she was happy that the attention was also drawing new audiences to her film, The Cooler. “The movie is just opening wide this week, so this is a huge push, Alec [Baldwin] and I getting nominated,” said Bello. “Hopefully that will get more people out to see the movie, which to me is great because it’s such a hopeful, feel-good movie that’s really unexpected. People don’t expect that when they go.”
Hot off his recent Golden Globe nomination, The Cooler‘s Alec Baldwin also scored with SAG in the male support category, facing off against Chris Cooper (Seabiscuit), Benicio del Toro (21 Grams), Tim Robbins (Mystic River) and new-to-Hollywood actor Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai).
Baldwin told us, “It’s always a little bit easier when you’re nominated. It’s always fun because I’m rooting for someone whether I know them or I don’t, and now I’m going to these shows and I’m nominated, so it’s going to be an unusual experience.”
The ensembles of five films will be competing for the trophy for outstanding performance by a cast: In America (Emma Bolger, Sarah Bolger, Paddy Considine, Djimon Hounsou and Samantha Morton), Mystic River (Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Penn and Robbins), Seabiscuit (Elizabeth Banks, Jeff Bridges, William H Macy, Gary Stevens, Cooper and Maguire) and The Station Agent (Paul Benjamin, Bobby Cannavale, Raven Goodwin, Michelle Williams, Clarkson and Dinklage).
Also in the ensemble race is one of the largest casts ever nominated, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Bernard Hill, Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, John Noble, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban, Hugo Weaving, David Wenham and Elijah Wood). The nod marks the trilogy’s third consecutive nomination and the only time each installment of a trilogy made the grade.
SAG’s Small-Screen Standouts
On the television side, actors continued to love Everybody Loves Raymond, granting the long running series a whopping six nominations–Ray Romano, Peter Boyle and Brad Garrett go head-to-head for male lead in the comedy category; Patricia Heaton and Doris Roberts vie for female lead; and they all compete in the comedy cast category.
The series tied with HBO’s miniseries Angels In America, which scored nominations for stars Justin Kirk, Al Pacino and Jeffrey Wright for male lead in a TV movie or miniseries, and for Mary Louise-Parker, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson for female lead in a TV movie or miniseries. The West Wing and Will & Grace each grabbed four nominations.
In the dramatic actor categories, newly minted nominee Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace) joins familiar faces Peter Krause, Martin Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Treat Williams in the male actor race.
Meanwhile, a voting tie led to an expanded six nominee list among the females: Jennifer Garner (Alias) and Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU) get their first-time noms to join Stockard Channing, Frances Conroy, Tyne Daly and five-time SAG award recipient Allison Janney.
The battling drama series ensembles are Six Feet Under, The West Wing, Without a Trace, and–while the shows oddly received no single actor noms–Law & Order and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Lisa Kudrow (a past winner and twelve-time nominee for her solo work and as part of the Friends and Mad About You ensembles) was the only Friend who made the cut among the female actors in a comedy series, opposite Roberts (her first nom in this category) and previous winners Heaton, Debra Messing and Megan Mullally.
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Comedy actors Romano, Boyle and Garrett find themselves squared off against Sean Hayes (a two-time past winner and nominated four consecutive times in this category) and Monk’s Tony Shalhoub. Eric McCormack, all the Friends guys and the late John Ritter, who was seen as a possible sentimental favorite, were left off the list.
The comedy series Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends and Will & Grace match up against Frasier and Sex and the City, although the latter two series also failed to snag a single individual nomination for cast members.
The Buddy System
The performers who braved the early morning for the announcement weren’t shy about pointing out who their sentimental favorites were. “I love Diane Keaton. She directed me in a film and I think she’s just wonderful,” gushed MacDowell. “And Bill Murray–I’m really excited for him. Since Groundhog Day, the choices he’s made have always been working toward getting more serious roles.”
Harmon also had a standout whose name he was pleased to announce. “Allison Janney is a friend and it’s nice to see her get some recognition, and a half a dozen others.”
But it was Gilbert who may have the most pals to root for. “Kiefer Sutherland has been a friend for years, Johnny Depp‘s been a friend for years, Alec Baldwin‘s been a friend for years, Jennifer Garner played my daughter in the first job she ever did,” she confessed. “I think I’ve worked with pretty much everybody at some point.”
Maybe that’s why she’s the prez.
