SAG Acceptance Speeches, Ranked
Monday, February 27, 2023 at 8:42PM by Nathaniel R
SAG Awards are often a good swift night. There's no dawdling around with filler, there's not much in the way of montages, but there are clips, acceptance speeches, and a parade of celebrities. In short, we're into it. The most sublime inspired combo in terms of presenter pairings was the evil twinnage of Jenna Ortega and Aubrey Plaza. (Whoever thought of that deserves a 20% raise.) But what SAG is all about is the acceptance speeches.
They come one after the other, a veritable parade of gushing. This ranking was done on the fly from memory so... I do not stand by it should you want to fight in the comments. Nevertheless why not share the acceptance speeches? (the ones we could embed at least). Let's look at the speeches from least best to best best...
THE WHITE LOTUS - Outstanding Cast, Drama
What was happening here? Underwhelming even for those of us who were happy about the win.
BRENDAN FRASER - Best Actor, Film
If you've seen one Fraser speech, you've seen them all. We've been robbed of fawning on Farrell all season.
JASON BATEMAN - Best Actor, TV Drama
Did he have a long week? Tired but gracious vibe with a send off to his series and the many great actors in it.
JEAN SMART - Best Actress, TV Comedy
Christoper MacDonald read her message for her. It was cute. If you've been reading me for any length of time, you know that I was deeply thrilled that she chose to make the message about the many guest stars on Hacks, from day players to recurring guest stars Supporting actors are the best and they so rarely get any real kudos.
SAM ELLIOTT - Best Supporting Actor, TV
Yes, he read the speech but his voice is prime ASMR real estate and it was touching that he ended by acknowledging his wife, Katharine Ross (they met on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, over 50 years ago!)
JEREMY ALLEN WHITE - Best Actor, TV Comedy
He feels like the return of the 1970s star right? So in the craft and not glamorous but still deepy appealing.
KE HUY QUAN - Best Supporting Actor, Film
We love Ke Huy Quan and his enthusiasm for being in the room has been heartwarming in its authenticity. Would be cool if the Oscar speech was slightly more refined or well-structured while still making room for the gushing of course!!! He's had months of being the dead-certain winner to rehearse something.
JESSICA CHASTAIN - Best Actress, TV Movie or Miniseries
A surprise win but have you seen her in George & Tammy? It's a sensational performance full of an enormous range of feeling... and that's just her singing voice. She's just as (expectedly) good at the drama! For her speech she reminded us of how deeply she loves the craft (and other actors) and told a story about Philip Seymour Hoffman.
ABBOTT ELEMENTARY - Outstanding Cast, TV Comedy
Love this show so much and they're always a delight in acceptance speeches too.
JENNIFER COOLIDGE, Best Supporting Actress, TV
We missed the breathy "hello, hiiii" as intro which is unfailingly hilarious but points to Coolidge that she can be funny no matter which spacey approach she takes to an acceptance speech. This one ran the gamut from serious to silly and back again and back again -- loved the shout out to Charlie Chaplin as well as the suggestive bit about going home with her date (the hilarious gay actor)
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE - Outstanding Cast
Wonderful that they made this moment both a volley for the cast where they each got a line and a tribute to James Hong who is 94 years old.
SALLY FIELD, SAG - Lifetime Achievement
What a fun tribute and what a deserving woman. They didn't even touch on her stage work (this being the "screen" actors guild, but she's great at live theater, too.
MICHELLE YEOH - Best Actress, Film
The realness! From her problems with the mic -- what a gown! -- to her expletive laden glee/shock, she was utterly endearing and had a message, too.
JAMIE LEE CURTIS - Best Supporting Actress, Film
We already gushed about her in the previous post.
Reader Comments (15)
I've seen Yeoh's speech like 3x now and you perfectly summed it up... the realness. Oscar or not, I'm thrilled she got a big one this awards season. Such a great moment for her.
And I honestly would not have complained if the show lasted 30 more minutes with James Hong regaling us about this long career. Love THAT moment for him.
JLC and Michelle Yeoh just increased their chances of winning the Oscar.
Three words: “Women are talking.”
My favorite speech was James Hong when Everything won for best ensemble.
@Paranoid Android-Wahlberg persona is so annoying. Maybe he was upset cause they took it away from his routine of workout and prayers
I'm so head scratched by the plause for Fraser. For me all the actresses in the cast were the real awards buzz of The Whale
have they changed their rules? asking because i've seen pix of the unlisted cast members of 'eeaao' [joy's girlfriend and the dildo boys] holding sag awards with the rest of the title card cast and they were onstage for the win
shoutout to harry shum jnr winning his second ensemble award for a movie he's barely in
Chastain has officially entered her I-can't-move-my-face era
I find the Fraser speeches hard to watch. I can’t help but feel the trauma and emotional disturbance he’s experienced is being exploited—first by Aronofsky (in THAT film), then by clickbait writers (once he began sobbing in public last year), now by Hollywood—to tell a very tidy triumphant story. People seem to enjoy watching him teeter on the edge of something but I find it really discomfiting—and I say that with a lot of sympathy for him. He just seems so fragile and the internet has invented a story where winning an Oscar fixes everything. Wish him all the best.
When James Hong said that his first movie had been with Clark Gable, it really hit home for me how long he has been in the business. Wow.
Next up for James Hong, an honorary Oscar?
For me the show was a mess. Very unprofessional in almost all areas. I hope the Oscars are classier.
I love that you rank the speeches! A great speech is what these shows are all about, and it's a shame that several winners and several awards bodies/broadcasters don't understand that.
Jeremy Allen White needs someone to play back his acceptance speeches for him. He says "Um" every third word. It's incredibly distracting and frankly embarrassing for someone who reads lines for a living.
Likewise, homophobe/misogynist Sam Elliott's speech was a disaster. The man has been acting for decades upon decades and can't give a 60-second speech without his head facing completely down at his notes?? It's like time stopped and not in a good way while he droned on and on and on. I was literally screaming at my TV. Also, how did Evan Peters not win this?
I hope Jean Smart is recovering from her medical situation, but I don't think it's appropriate for a stand-in to accept an award on behalf of anybody unless they are deceased, incarcerated, or something extraordinary. To have that dude just stand there and ramble on and on was so disrespectful to the nominees who bothered to show up, including Christina Applegate, who made it there despite tremendous adversity. I'm also tired of Smart winning for this role. She's fine, but all of those other actresses are worthy. Let's spread the love.
I LOVE Michelle Yeoh and really, really, really want her to win the Oscar, but for the love of all things, I hope she wears a dress that doesn't compete with her for microphone time. And while I loved her spontaneous "Fuck," I'd like to see a more thoughtful and deliberate speech for the ages if and when she gets the Oscar.
James Hong's moment was INCREDIBLE. The history this man has seen and created blows my mind.
Jamie Lee was both the win of the night and the speech of the night for me. I was screaming and jumping up and down the way I imagine intoxicated heteros do when sportsball goes the way they want it to. Now I'm all in on her winning. In fact, I'd love nothing more than for all four SAG winners to repeat at the Oscars.
Jessica Chastain's speech ended well, but I thought the Hoffman antidote was more of a "look how cool I am. He told my entire class this thing and I did star with him." But, as always with Chastain, she's so appealing and gave such a heartfelt speech. I can't wait to see her on the Emmy stage soon.
I thought the EEAAO speech featuring James Hong was great. Especially him calling out yellow face in the industry. One of his first big TV series was playing a supporting role to a white actor playing an asian character (Charlie Chan). What's amazing about the longevity of his career is that he had a small part in "Flower Drum Song," a film with an all asian cast. It will be interesting to see if Hollywood embraces this moment (that's really borne from the success of Crazy Rich Asians) or if they once again choose not fund projects with Asian leads.
I also loved seeing Hong give a speech, especially since SAG typically overlooks the actors who tend to get roles of the size he got.
Yeoh's moment, in spite of the sound issues, was the highlight of the night. Between her speech there and JLC, I think she did a lot to make this a real race between her and Blanchett.
I thought it was nice that the EEAO also brought on stage Tallie Medel (who play's Hsu's character's gf) and the Le brothers (the stunt coordinators, who also appear in one of the best fight scenes). It doesn't look like they're on the official awarded cast list, but I guess the stars where keen for them to feel involved!
'"Women ARE Talking" killed me. Oh, Mark.
The EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE love is starting to feel like overkill at this point, but I'm so thrilled for Jamie Lee Curtis. What a speech!
What was going on with Aubrey Plaza after they announced Sam Elliott. I know he guest starred in parks & rec… but odd and distracting and she seems to bark ‘what!?’ At the poor guy trying to get her to move away. I guess that’s her thing?