5 Shocking Moments From SAG Awards – ‘This Is Us’ Star Makes History

Lawrence Yee
TV Movies
TV Movies

The 24th Screen Actors Guild Awards were held on Sunday night. The awards show celebrated the best in television and film, with guild members voting on the 13 acting SAG Awards.

While the spotlight was on women (all the presenters were female), the mood was more festive and less political than the Golden Globe Awards earlier this month. Women wore color opposed to all black. Still, there were messages of empowerment, subtle and not-so-subtle digs at the Trump administration, and history-making moments.

Here are five highlights:

I Am an Actor Intros

In keeping with tradition, the show opened with the “I Am an Actor” segment, where actors share their personal stories. Allison Janney, Millie Bobby Brown, and Tracee Ellis Ross all spoke, but the funniest belonged to the show’s first-ever host Kristen Bell, who self-deprecatingly said:

 “When I was young I used to record Disney movies on my cassette player. I would sing every lyric in the Disney canon, knowing and believing that one day I would be a part of that magic. I’m Kristen Bell and I am a narcissist. Just kidding! I am an actor and tonight I am also your host.”

She later plugged Frozen 2. It’s coming in 2019!

Digs at Trump

The president was never mentioned by name, but several digs were made at his expense.

“There has never been a host of this awards show before. First time. First lady … I think my first initiative as First Lady will be cyber-bullying. Because I have yet to see any progress made on that problem quite yet.” — Kristen Bell during her opening monologue, referencing First Lady Melania Trump’s campaign promise

“And even though our lines and the stories we’re told are given to us by writers it’s our job under those imaginary circumstances to find the truth … especially in this day and age when so many can’t recognize the truth or don’t think it’s important.” — William H. Macy

History Made

History was made at the SAG Awards. As mentioned above, Kristen Bell was the first-ever host of the show.

Sterling K. Brown was the first African American actor to win the Best Actor category. Watch his passionate speech here.

Hilarious Winner’s Speeches

“A lot of people have been talking about who the greatest male actor is. Robert De Niro or the tall dude from True Blood? The thespians have spoken!” — Alexander Skarsgard, upon winning Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries.

“I’m going to tell you what’s wrong with this statue. It works from the back. From the front, it’s gender-specific. Maybe I started something.” — Lifetime Achievement Award winner Morgan Freeman on the Actor statue (which is a nude male).

“To my white family — which thankfully is nothing like the family from Get Out — I love you.” — Sterling K. Brown upon winning Actor in a Drama Series.

“This is really great and I thank you. I come out of the woods every few years and you invite me to the party. But there’s a lot of young ones coming up and they need doorstops too. Let’s think about that.” — Frances McDormand upon Winning Actress in a Drama.

Twitter Reactions

Yes, Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya is British.

Andrea Zuckerman aka Gabrielle Carteris from Beverly Hills 90210 is the SAG President.

Yes, Olivia Munn is Asian (her mother is Chinese born in Vietnam).

Lawrence Yee
Lawrence is Editor in Chief of FANDOM. He grew up loving X-Men, Transformers, and Japanese-style role playing games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. First-person shooters make him incredibly nauseous.