The 18th Screen Actor Guild Award ceremony took place last night at the Shrine Exposition Centre in LA with ‘The Help’ sweeping the board with three awards including Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Viola Davis was also honoured for her lead performance in ‘The Help’ along with cast member Octavia Spencer. Davis and Spencer beat out hopefuls Glenn Close and Janet McTeer both of whom were nominated for there performance in Irish film ‘Albert Nobbs’. Jean Dujardin picked up the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in black and white silent film ‘The Artist’.
‘Beginners’ star Christopher Plummer was honoured for his supporting role beating out Belfast born actor Kenneth Branagh as Sir Lawrence Olivier for ‘My Week With Marilyn’. ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; Part Two’ was honoured in the SAG award for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
In the television categories HBO dominated with four award wins. HBO series ‘Game of Thrones’, which is filmed in Northern Ireland, was honoured with the Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series. The series stunt coordinator was Paul Jennings (Clash of the Titans, The Dark Knight), Amie Stephenson (Red, Clash of the Titans) was the stunt manager on set and Buster Reeves(Green Latern, Red) provided fight arrangement. includes such Irish talent as IFTA nominated Michelle Fairley, Ian McElhinney, Aidan Gillen and Jack Gleeson.
Elsewhere, actor Paul Giamatti took home the gong for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in Television Movie or Miniseries for his performance as Ben Bernanke in HBO TV movie ‘Too Big To Fail’ about the financial meltdown of 2008. Kate Winslet took the Female Actor award for her leading performance in HBO series ‘Mildred Pierce’ and ‘Boardwalk Empire’ took scooped two awards including Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and Steve Buscemi being honoured with Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series.
Other winners on the night included ABC family comedy ‘Modern Family’ for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Jessica Lange was honoured for her performance as Constance in FX’s ‘American Horror Story’. Alec Baldwin picked up the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a comedy series for NBC’s 30 Rock and Betty White took the Female Actor Award in a comedy Series for TV Land’s ‘Hot in Cleveland’
Dick Van Dyke presented American TV legend and co star Mary Tyler Moore with the 48th Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony.
