At Screen Actors Guild Awards, stars turn spotlight on Trump and immigration bans
Oscar season is looking more and more like one very well-dressed protest against US President Donald Trump.
In speech after fiery speech at Sunday night’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, winners struck a defiant tone against Trump’s sweeping immigration ban. Their words varied from tender personal reflections to full-throated battle cries, but they were nearly uniform in channelling the nationwide demonstrations sparked by Trump’s halting of immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim nations.
The SAG Awards culminated with the evening’s top honour, best movie ensemble, going to the cast of Hidden Figures, an uplifting drama about African-American mathematicians who aided NASA’s 1960s space race, starring Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae and Octavia Spencer. Henson concluded the show the same way its first presenter, Ashton Kutcher, began it: with the kind of pointed politics that have traditionally been more an aberration than a constant at Hollywood award shows.
“This story is about unity,” said Henson, who stars alongside Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae in Hidden Figures. “This story is about what happens when we put our differences aside and we come together as a human race. We win. Love wins. Every time.”
It was a surprise win for Hidden Figures. With the Oscar front-runner La La Land (which took the Producers Guild Awards’ top honour on Saturday) not nominated in the category, most expected a contest between Moonlight or Manchester by the Sea. Such a result could now mean Hidden Figures is the strongest challenger to the La La Land dominance, or, perhaps, that none of the three films will be able to muster enough to topple the song-and-dance juggernaut.
