The Biggest Surprises of the 2015 SAG Award Winners
Eddie Redmayne beats Michael Keaton.
Really, this was the only suspenseful acting race on the film awards side of things. If someone had beat Julianne Moore, J.K. Simmons or Patricia Arquette, it would have been a full-on shocker. But Best Actor was a genuine question mark, with Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne and Michael Keaton (the latter the arguable frontrunner) in a sincere three way race. But Redmayne won out in the end, giving a lovely speech and suggestively making him the new Oscar frontrunner over Keaton. Unless, of course, SAG snubbed Bradley Cooper rides the insane “American Sniper” success story to a rare non-SAG nominated Oscar win.
But then “Birdman” beats “Boyhood.”
Michael Keaton’s loss for “Birdman” seemed to suggest that “Boyhood”
might be poised to lead the night, but it was not the case. Keaton and
company got their second major guild award in as many nights when they
won the SAG ensemble award, giving “Boyhood” a serious run for their
money when it comes to Oscar’s biggest prize.
“Orange is the New Black” is the only double winner.
“Birdman,” Downton Abbey,” “The Theory of Everything,”
“Still Alice,” “Boyhood,” “Whiplash,” “How To Get Away With Murder,”
“House of Cards,” “Olive Kitteridge,” “The Normal Heart” and “Shameless” all tied for second place when it came to SAG wins: One. Only one film or TV series managed to become a double winner, and it was Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black,” which somewhat surprisingly won both Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
Kevin Spacey beats Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.
Netflix won almost half of the television SAG awards thanks to both “Orange is the New Black” and “House of Cards,” which won acting honors for Kevin Spacey. Spacey helped give a rather shocking overall shut out to the acting cast of the first edition of HBO’s “True Detective.” Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson have now managed to lose Emmys, Golden Globes and SAG Awards to Billy Bob Thornton and Harrelson, respectively.
The speeches were better than the Golden Globe Awards.
The SAGs are largely regarded as one of the most boring awards shows, but tonight they genuinely trumped their typically much more entertaining sibling the Golden Globes when it came to actual speeches. Even Globe winners like Julianne Moore, J.K. Simmons, Patricia Arquette and Eddie Redmayne gave far better speeches than they did at the Globes. And new winners Frances McDormand and Viola Davis have downright classics. Also: Kevin Spacey and Mark Ruffalo didn’t even show up, giving us a rare awards show that ended 5 minutes before it was supposed to it.
