The Help wins big at Actors Guild Awards

The Help also earned its star Viola Davis the SAG award for best actor (female).

LOS ANGELES:

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 (SAG), including best cast 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 actor (female), while Octavia Spencer was named top supporting actor (female). They both played maids who face discrimination in the film set in Mississippi during the 1960s.

Davis talked of dreaming big as a child when she wanted to become an actor. 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 everyone’s burden. All of us can inspire change.”

Meanwhile, 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. Dujardin beat out Clooney and Pitt in the category. Like Davis, he noted that as a kid he was always a dreamer and said his teachers called him ‘Jean of the moon’. “I was always dreaming,” he said. “I realise now that I never stopped dreaming.”

SAG’s film awards are closely watched for their impact on Oscars because actors make up the biggest voting group at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which picks winners. The Academy Awards take place in Los Angeles on February 26.

Small-screen winners

Unlike academy voters focused on film, SAG 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 actor (female) in new show “American Horror Story”, and Steve Buscemi was named best actor in a drama for critically acclaimed “Boardwalk Empire”.

Alec Baldwin, Betty White and the “Modern Family” were the three TV winners in comedy categories.

In other TV awards, Kate Winslet was named best actress in a small-screen mini-series for “Mildred Pierce” and Paul Giamatti won the trophy for actor in a mini-series with “Too Big to Fail”.

Hollywood’s biggest film stars including Clooney, Pitt, Jolie and others turned out on the red carpet, as did TV’s top talent such as Julianna Margulies, Lea Michelle and others.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2012.