With all the media chatter about how the Academy of Motion Pictures becoming an all-white affair, it was good to see that when it is left to the actors themselves,, then diversity is the name of the game. At last nights S.A.G. (Screen Actors Guild) Awards there was not just a fair share of African/Americans and people of color who ended up as winners, but also the LGBT Community was recognized for a fine body of work.
The multi-award winning ‘Orange Is The New Black’ from Netflix collected yet another accolade when it picked up the Best Ensemble Award – with an extensive 35 cast members name-checked, including Laverne Cox, Ruby Rose, and Lea DeLaria who all squeezed on to the stage.
One of the show’s stars Uzo Abuda picked up her second award for Female Actor in a Comedy Series for her role as Suzanne ‘Crazy Eyes’ Warren.
Queen Latifah deservedly picked up the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries – for her stunning turn as bisexual blues singer Bessie Smith in HBO’s Bessie. As she did bicep curls she gave a very moving and inspirational acceptance speech “I hope that anyone out there who does not come in the package people say you should, keep fighting for it,” she said. “Flip those rocks over. Keep pushing. Keep turning, you can do it! You build your own boxes, not people. So knock that thing away and do you!“
Alicia Vikander was the recipient of one of two Awards that recognized the transgender community. She picked up Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Award, for her turn as Gerda Wegener in the Eddie Redmayne drama “The Danish Girl”.
Jeffrey Tambor took home the award for Actor for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for his portrayal of trans woman Maura Pfefferman in Amazon TV show “Transparent”. This is 6th major award for his sublime performance, and typical of Tambor he was very generous in his very touching acceptance speech “I play Maura Pfefferman, she’s very entitled and she has a lot of money, and I would just like to dedicate this award to the non-Maura Pfeffermans who don’t have a lot of cash for their operations, for their medicines, for their freedom.”
British actor Idris Elba was the big winner of the night picking up two SAG Awards. He won the Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture prize for “Beasts of No Nation” and the Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries Award for “Luther”. Whilst neither of these are gay roles, Elba scored big with the LGBT community recently when making a speech to the UK Parliament on diversity in the film industry. “I’m not here to talk about black people, I’m here to talk about diversity. Diversity in the modern world is more than just skin color– it’s gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, social background, and – most important of all, as far as I’m concerned- diversity of thought.”
Let’s hope all the Members of the Academy were watching and taking notes.
Let’s hope all the Members of the Academy were watching and taking notes.
