Weisz Wins SAG Supporting-Actress Prize
By DAVID GERMAIN
LOS ANGELES – Rachel Weisz won the Screen Actors Guild Award as best supporting actress Sunday for her role as a rabble-rousing humanitarian-aid worker in the murder thriller “The Constant Gardener.”
The triumph at the guild honors, the last major acting prizes before the Academy Awards, boosts Weisz’s prospects at the Oscars, whose nominations come out Tuesday.
“It’s so special to be honored by fellow actors, so thanks very much to the tribe,” said Weisz, who also won the Golden Globe supporting-actress prize.
Among those Weisz beat out was Michelle Williams of the cowboy romance “Brokeback Mountain,” which is favored for a big night at the Oscars and was the odds-on front-runner for Sunday’s best cast performance prize, the guild’s equivalent of a best-picture award.
The other nominees for cast performance were the film biographies “Capote” and “Good Night, and Good Luck,” the ensemble drama “Crash” and the rap music tale “Hustle & Flow.”
“Brokeback Mountain” led the guild’s film contenders with four nominations. Along with Williams, Heath Ledger was nominated for lead actor and Jake Gyllenhaal was in the running for supporting actor, the two playing cowboys in love.
Ledger and Gyllenhaal faced strong competition. Philip Seymour Hoffman as author Truman Capote in “Capote” beat Ledger for the dramatic-actor prize at the Golden Globes and was considered a favorite for both the guild honor and the best actor Academy Award.
Gyllenhaal faced supporting-actor Globe winner George Clooney for the oil-industry saga “Syriana.”
Felicity Huffman, the Globe winner for dramatic actress for the transsexual comic drama “Transamerica,” was a safe bet to take the same honor at the guild awards.
Huffman, an Emmy winner last year for “Desperate Housewives,” has the inside track on the best-actress Oscar for “Transamerica.” She also had a guild nomination for best actress in a TV comedy series for “Desperate Housewives.”
The best-actress honor for a television drama series went to Sandra Oh for the medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” Oh said she was gratified at how the casting of the show reflected real-world diversity.
“This is unbelievable. I thank every single actor out there. I’m so grateful for having a job,” Oh said. “To all my fellow Asian-American actors out there, I share this with you, and be encouraged and keep shining.”
Kiefer Sutherland won as best actor in a TV drama for the action series “24,” while the airplane-disaster show “Lost” won for TV dramatic ensemble.
“A friend of mine always says if you don’t have something nice to say about someone, say it,” said “Lost” co-star Terry O’Neil, surrounded by fellow cast members. “This is the saddest collection of climbing, grasping, paranoid, back-stabbing, screen-grabbing schmoozers and losers that you ever saw in your life. But we love each very much.”
“Brokeback Mountain” led the Jan. 16 Golden Globes with four wins, among them best dramatic film and director for Ang Lee, who took the same prize Saturday from the Directors Guild of America.
Adapted from Annie Proulx’s short story about old sheepherding buddies who conceal a homosexual affair from their families, “Brokeback Mountain” also has earned top honors from key critics groups and the Producers Guild of America.
The film is positioned to become the first explicitly gay-themed movie to win best picture when the Oscars are awarded March 5.
The SAG awards have a solid record of forecasting Oscar winners. All four guild acting recipients for 2004 – Jamie Foxx for “Ray,” Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman for “Million Dollar Baby” and Cate Blanchett for “The Aviator” – went on to win Oscars.
The 12th annual SAG awards also were honoring former child star Shirley Temple Black for life achievement.
Guild nominees were chosen by 4,200 randomly selected union members. The union’s full membership of more than 100,000 was eligible to vote for winners.
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