'Argo' Big Winner At SAG Awards
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — "Argo," actor-director Ben Affleck's film about the true-life rescue of hostages from Iran, may have moved closer Sunday evening to winning the Oscar for best picture.
"Argo" -- which earned a Producers Guild award Saturday, bolstered its Oscar credentials by winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for best ensemble in a motion picture.
Daniel Day-Lewis, the leader in the race for Oscar's best actor, also won the SAG award for playing the title role in Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln."
Jennifer Lawrence beat out "Zero Dark Thirty's" Jessica Chastain for SAG's best actress honors. Lawrence won for her role in "Silver Linings Playbook."
"To me this has nothing to do with me," Affleck said while accepting the top award at the Shrine Auditorium. "It has to do with the incredible people who were in this movie. The people you see on stage, we had more than 150 actors. They spoke in English, they spoke in Farsi, and the one thing that they had in common was they came to work every single day -- whether they had a line or a look to somebody or two lines or 10 lines or a bunch of stuff I couldn't understand in Farsi -- and they wanted to kill it to make the movie better," he said. "Because that's what actors do all over the world, every day. God bless you, thank you so much for making the movies that you make, television you make, theater you make. We are in your debt."
Day-Lewis won his third SAG Award, having won previously for "There Will Be Blood" and "Gangs of New York." He said that when he was considering taking the role in "Lincoln," he kept thinking about the Hippocratic Oath and its principle of "first do no harm."
"With that modest but important ambition, I set out, and then it occurred to me that it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln," he joked. "And therefore, somehow it's only fitting that every now and then an actor tries to bring him back to life again."
Lawrence won her first SAG Award for her role as Bradley Cooper's tough-talking but emotionally-damaged love interest. The 22-year-old actress began her acceptance speech with thanks for MTV, noting that she earned her SAG card when she did a promotion for the cable channel's "My Super Sweet 16."
She also hailed the film's director, David O. Russell, saying he made a film that left a lasting impact.
"You made a movie for your son so that he wouldn't feel alone and so that he could feel understood, and I think I can speak on behalf of most of us in saying that you helped more than your son, you've helped so many sons and daughters and husbands and wives," she said.
IMAGES: Red Carpet Arrivals
Anne Hathaway was named best supporting actress for her turn as the beset prostitute in the musical "Les Miserables." It was Hathaway's first SAG Award.
"I'm just so thrilled I have dental," she joked to her fellow union members. "I got my SAG card when I was 14. It felt like the beginning of the world. I have loved every single minute of my life as an actor, and I have been the recipient of so much kindness and support from actors in this room and out of it."
Tommy Lee Jones won the award for best supporting actor for his role as Thaddeus Stevens in "Lincoln." It was also the first SAG award for Jones who was not present to pick up his trophy.
ABC's "Modern Family" won its third straight Screen Actors Guild Award for best ensemble cast in a comedy series tonight, while "Downton Abbey" was named best drama.
Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin of NBC's "30 Rock" were honored as best actress and actor in a comedy, respectively.
The heavily-lauded Claire Danes of "Homeland" and Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad" won the awards for dramas.
For Baldwin, the win was his seventh in a row in the category, and he praised Fey and his fellow cast members.
"It's the end of our show, which is sad," he said. "It's the greatest experience I've ever had."
Julianne Moore won best actress in a television movie for portraying Sarah Palin in "Game Change." Kevin Costner was named best actor in a TV movie for "Hatfields & McCoys."
SAG Awards were also presented to the ensemble stunt performers for the film "Skyfall" and the television drama "Game of Thrones."
