Stars at SAG Awards Pay Tribute to Striking Writers

by James Parks, Jan 28, 2008

Julie Christie won SAG’s Actor® Award for her performance in the movie “Away From Her.”

Amid all the glitz at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards, actors took time to remember their brothers and sisters in the Writers Guild strike. Julie Christie, who received the award for best performance by a female actor in a leading role, paid tribute to the union in her acceptance speech:

 It’s lovely to receive an award from your own union. Especially at a time when they’re being so forcefully reminded how important unions are.   

In an interview later, she said :

All unions are important. Think of the fight to form unions. Without them, we wouldn’t have anyone to represent our injustices.

The actors have been some of the strongest supporters of the writers’ strike, marching on the picket line and refusing to cross the line to appear on talk shows that have not signed deals with the writers. The striking writers, citing the tremendous support and solidarity from SAG members, agreed not to picket the SAG Awards. Today, many of the SAG Award winners and nominees will join a picket at Fox Studios in Hollywood to demand a fair contract for the writers. 

SAG presented its coveted Actor® statuette to working actors for the outstanding motion picture and primetime television performances of 2007. The honorees were selected by the active SAG membership nationwide.

The Actor® for a motion picture cast performance went this year to “No Country for Old Men” and the Actors® for television comedy and drama ensemble performances went this year to “The Office” and “The Sopranos.”

Charles Durning was presented with SAG’s highest honor, the 44th Annual Life Achievement Award. Other actors honored  with individual awards were Daniel Day-Lewis, Javier Bardem and Ruby Dee for performances in motion pictures and Kevin Kline, Queen Latifah, James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Alec Baldwin and  Tina Fey for performances in television.

SAG’s new honors for outstanding performances by a stunt ensemble in film and television were awarded to “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “24”. Click here for a full list of the winners.

SAG is America’s largest union representing working actors, with 120,000 members in film, television, commercials, video games, music videos and other new media. The SAG Awards is the only nationally televised awards show of any kind that honors the work of union members.

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