“Get up, girl!”
That was Sandra Oh’s message to her Grey’s Anatomy co-star Chandra Wilson after Oh made the 5 a.m. journey to West Hollywood’s Pacific Design Center for the 13th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations announcements, which she co-announced with Elijah Wood, urging Wilson to wake up at home and celebrate the good news: Wilson’s was one of the first names Oh got to announce, nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for her performance as the tough but tender Dr. Bailey, and the series’ entire cast—including Oh—for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.
Hollywood.com asked Oh how her co-star and the rest of the cast would celebrate the honors, provoking a giggle. “I know Chandra’s working all day today!” she laughed. “I think we’ll just be really happy for each other. We’ll see – Maybe we’ll get an hour off of work.”
If the morning made for uncloudy skies for Grey’s, it was positively sunny for Steve Carell and sparkling for Leonardo DiCaprio, who together led the pack of nominations—voted on by the entire membership of the Screen Actors Guild, the professional union of Hollywood performers both famous and not-so-famous—with three nods apiece.
Carell was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for his role on the NBC sitcom The Office and in the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series category as part of the series’ ensemble, as well as for his role in the ensemble of the dark comedy Little Miss Sunshine, nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Meanwhile, DiCaprio scored an Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role nod for his turn in Blood Diamond and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in The Departed, which also provided the actor’s third nomination, ranking in the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture category.
The later category is the SAG Awards’ equivalent of a “Best Picture”-style award, and 2007’s crop of nominees—Babel, Bobby, The Departed, Dreamgirls and Little Miss Sunshine—were notable for their large, star-powered ensembles, where several name actors unite with lesser-known performers on a major project.
The Year of the All-Star Cast
SAG president Alan Rosenberg, a familiar face on television for his roles on such series as L.A. Law and The Guardian, said he was thrilled with the trend toward big ensembles. “It means more work for our members,” he told Hollywood.com. “Ensemble work goes to the very essence of what we do and I think it’s what differentiates us from the other awards shows. We all understand getting into this business that the best way to make yourself shine is to make everybody else look good because it’s a team sport, and I love the fact that these awards reflect that.”
The television series honored (24, Boston Legal, Deadwood, Grey’s Anatomy and The Sopranos in the drama category; Desperate Housewives, Entourage, The Office, Ugly Betty and Weeds on the comedy side) also skewed heavily toward shows with expansive casts.
“I actually think the ensemble awards are the best ones, because there are no other awards for an ensemble,” said Oh. “To get a great ensemble together and to work well together is really hard. You can have wonderful performances but to have it all cohesive and mesh I think is quite challenging.”
Oh said that she found 2007 to be an especially strong year for acting, “quite rich in its performances and quite rich in the ensemble work,” which she thinks isn’t always the case. “Some years are like, ‘Ehh.’ And some years there are so many fantastic performances, you couldn’t possibly decide.”
As is the norm, the SAG Awards offered a slightly different selection of nominees than many of the other announced awards ceremonies of the season. Many of the expected names were included, but there were plenty of surprises which may come to bear on the as-yet-to-be-determined Academy Awards nominations, including Half Nelson’s Ryan Gosling for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Little Children’s Jackie Earle Haley for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role and Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.
One For All
Rosenberg said the actors especially enjoy the SAG Awards because they can set aside any too-Hollywood rivalries and career gamesmanship to simply honor their own. “One of the great things about this awards show is that it doesn’t feel so much like a competition to me as it does a celebration of what we do,” he said. “When you go to the awards show that night, people are just thrilled to be there and hobnob with their compatriots rather than knock each other out.”
“The award show is very, very different,” agreed Oh, “because it’s specifically for actors and voted on by actors, and that’s why every single award is very special.”
For a full list of nominees, click here.
Screen Actors Guild will honor its own at the 13th Annual Actors® ceremony on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2007, at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center, simulcast live nationally on TNT and TBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7 p.m. CT, and 6 p.m. MT.
