What did celebs have to do to get their SAG cards? We asked at the SAG Awards….Plus red carpet fashion scoop on page 2!
The Screen Actors Guild’s annual awards celebration filled the red carpet outside the Shrine Auditorium with a throng of performers from film and television who were being honored for some of their finest achievements. But before they can take home a SAG Actor Award, they have to earn their SAG Card: Long before the multimillion paychecks, designer clothes and private jets, the life of an actor can be a rough existence, and the magic moment when they finally earned a spot in the actors’ union was never very far from anyone’s thoughts as they celebrated their success.
Tony Shalhoub, who would take home an Actor trophy for his work on Monk later in the evening, admitted he’s always nervous when he shows up on the red carpet, so we distracted him by having him recall the first job that earned him his SAG Card and membership in the actors’ union. “It was a movie that I was entirely cut out of,” laughed Tony. “My first movie was Heartburn, directed by Mike Nichols, with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. And I had all this great stuff with Meryl Streep and I was completely left on the cutting room floor. Before I heard that I was cut out of it, I had told everyone in the known universe that I had done this movie. It’s very hard to call everyone in the known universe and tell them you’re not it anymore.”
The SAG Card game became infectious. Charlize Theron, one of the best-dressed actresses of the evening, looking stunning in a strapless lavender creation by Tom Ford for Gucci–“He sent me a sketch and I loved it. I thought it was very fitting and beautiful”–started getting flummoxed by a number of rapid fire questions that she just didn’t have answers for, and an insistent Chilean TV crew who offered her a shirt with their native flag that clearly would never fit the statuesque stunner. Charlize did seem to regain focus when we asked her if she remembered her first SAG gig. “Yeah, I do. It was for a commercial,” she said, then furrowed her brow when she couldn’t remember the product. “I have a lot on my mind right now!” she admitted–indeed, she was just two hours away from taking home another accolade for her brilliant performance in Monster. She did loosen up when the crew from Chile offered her a new, if even smaller item of clothing: a day-glo orange thong. Charlize merrily swung it over her head before handing it off to her publicist for safekeeping.
Mystic River‘s Tim Robbins, another soon-to-be Actor winner, knew in a heartbeat where his SAG card came from: “My first job was on St. Elsewhere. Four episodes!” So did another nominee, Thirteen‘s Holly Hunter: “The Burning, a horror movie produced by Harvey Weinstein,” mused Hunter. “It made me more money than I’d ever seen. Like $1,200 a week.” Hunter, who’s taken home a mantle full of trophies and nominations over her career, said she’s staying pretty centered during the whirlwind awards season. “I feel pretty relaxed. I’m good,” she said. “I live in New York and when I come to L.A. I get to see a lot of friends that I don’t normally see. It’s always a fabulous opportunity. So hanging out with friends, drinking champagne, the free champagne that’s sent to my room, and having people dress me and do my hair and makeup–it’s wonderful!”
Although The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King‘s cast was short on individual nominations, the film’s legion of actors were included in the ensemble nomination, and John “Gimli” Rhys-Davies said if they all won, the audience could “watch us fight over it!”
John was also happy to think of the many actors who inspired him throughout his career. “There are number…. There’s one coming down here right now,” said John, pointing out Clint Eastwood just a few feet away. “I think Eastwood is a really great star. And not a bad director, either? There are a lot of acting idols. Alas, they’re all getting older. I, of course, am not.”
And even though he’s currently a very serious and very honored director, Eastwood was quick to recall his humbler beginnings earning a SAG card as a rookie actor. “I did a picture at Universal called Revenge of the Creature From the Black Lagoon 50 years ago,” said Eastwood, “so I’ve been 50 years in SAG.”
Other stars clearly remembered even earlier times. Australian Naomi Watts was clearly disappointed when her handlers dragged her away from an Aussie TV crew eager for a chat with her so, once her other responsibilities were over, she quickly angled her way backward down the red carpet to do an interview with her countrymen. And while most of the ladies of Sex and the City skipped the media, most likely to avoid getting emotional given that their series finale was only hours away, Kim Cattrall made time for the people who got her where she is today: the fans. More than any other celeb in attendance, Kim spent time shaking hands and signing autographs for the lucky fans who snared seats in the carpet-side bleachers.
It was clear that many actors will never forget the job that earned them entry in SAG. “I was about 13, I think, and I was on a show called Ghost Writer, and I had to play the Basketball Boy,” recalled The West Wing‘s Dule Hill. “I had, like, one line. And the stage manager kept calling me ‘Basketball Boy.’ He wouldn’t call me Dule, he’d say ‘Can you tell the Basketball Boy to move over to the left?’ I made the final cut–Got paid, too. Even though my fee to join SAG was way more than what I got, let me just say.”
His co-stars John Spencer and Richard Schiff had a little difficulty with their SAG entry gigs, however. “I don’t remember,” said Spencer. “I can tell you about what year it was, though. Around 1966, ’67–I’m an old timer.” Schiff was equally stumped: “I did a bunch of independent stuff beforehand, and it must have been after I came out to California. It might have been on a pilot I did, that Bruce Dern was in out in Hawaii. It might have been Young Guns II–I was in that. I have no idea–it wasn’t a major event in my life, obviously,” he laughed.
“I went to Vancouver to do 21 Jump Street–yeah, just like five years ago–and I had to cuff this guy and I had never properly handcuffed anybody,” remembered Frasier‘s Peri Gilpin (whose character Roz probably has handcuffing down cold). “I though of it on the plane. I was riding with this other actor and I said ‘I’m really an irresponsible actress not to have learned to do that,’ and the guy goes, ‘Oh don’t worry, they’ll show you how.’ And then we had like 40 takes and that poor guy probably still doesn’t have skin on part of his wrist.”
But while the actors enjoyed joking about their first SAG job, it was clear the union was also deeply important to all of the performers who turned out for the ceremony. “I love the Screen Actors Guild because of what it does for actors,” said Ben Kingsley. “How it defends us and keeps our dignity and looks after our health and all sorts of things. It fights a battle for us every day.”
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Carpet Couture: Celebrity SAG–but not Sagging–Cleavage
As always, the red carpet provided the actors with an opportunity to trot out the latest fashions, and apparently the SAG Awards left many of the female stars in a purple mood. Plums, lavenders and various other shades in the regal color made gowns belonging to Naomi Watts, Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall, Charlize Theron, Patricia Clarkson and Holly Hunter pop of the red carpet. Hunter’s purple sheath had a special place in her heart, having been designed by her frequent fashion muse Vera Wang. “It’s our ten year anniversary,” Hunter said with a smile. Meanwhile, fashion-forward Maria Bello was radiant in a multicolored Elie Saab Moroccan-inspired number, Doris Pano jewels, a Lulu bag and Jimmy Choo shoes that made her feel “fabulous and very Bohemian and easy and laid back.”
Several TV actresses took the opportunity to go against their well-established characters and shake up their image. Amber Tamblyn, ever oh-so-average-teen on Joan of Arcadia, looked decidedly grown-up in a powdery blue Valentino with a provocatively and extremely adult bust line. “The dress was interesting to me because I wasn’t sure if it was going to work and then I tried it on, and it just fit like a glove,” admitted Amber. “The jewelry is by Erica Courtney, who’s another wonderful, wonderful designer that I like.”
Marg Helgenberger also provided another sexy display of the cleavage that usually goes unseen on CSI in a daring patterned Donna Karan gown and glittery Neil Lane jewels, but when Hollywood.com asked what made her choose this dress, she swirled her skirt and flashed her shapely gams. “An opportunity to show some leg,” she smiled sweetly, “which I never do.”
Other TV crimefighter also opted for amped up sex appeal: Without a Trace‘s Poppy Montgomery was radiant in a dark red Richard Tyler creation. “Richard Tyler made it for me as he did my Emmy dress. He’s my angel! It’s my favorite dress ever, I think!” she beamed, noting that she leaves the inspiration to the designer. “He does his magic. I leave him entirely alone. This actually was a lot simpler than the dress I wore to the Emmys. It was two fittings and Richard’s so talented it was just done.” And then there was Cold Case‘s Kathryn Morris in flowing pastel hued gown by Heike Jarick, Jimmy Choo shoes and Jamie Joseph jewelry. “I originally had something else in mind [but] I kept looking at it on the rack…. I don’t know if it was because I was on break from the show and it had a very springtime, light feel. I always wear very tight suits on the show.”
Jennifer Garner was another standout, clad in a racy red-carpet-matching Ralph Lauren dress and a batch of Bulgari baubles, Jennifer’s on her way to becoming a style icon in her own right, and when we asked whose fashion sense she’s always admired, she had a ready answer: All kinds of different people! Of course, the movie stars from the ’40s and ’50s, and then there are lots of women now who have their own style that I don’t want to model myself after, but I would love to emulate how great they feel in their own clothes.”
The men, of course, didn’t vary far from the usual fare: Tony Shalhoub was a tasteful favorite in a traditional black tux accentuated by slightly shimmery tiger-ish stripes and an antique pin in place of a bow tie. Dule Hill admitted his closet was starting to get overloaded with black tie couture: “This is my last one,” he conceded. “I have four more in my closet, so I’m just going to keep rotating the five that I have now. I mean, enough is enough.”
