SAG Awards liveblog #4

[cleolinda]

‘Dark Knight,’ ‘Heroes’ win early SAG Awards. For stuff like "Best Stunt Ensemble," apparently, for people who aren't glamorous enough to be on TV. Even though I would really, really love to see Best Stunts on TV.

Please welcome! The guild president! Alan Rosenberg! Let us extend a warm welcome to our global audience! Let us thank our fellow guilds! Please support us when we vote to strike! Also, he thanks the Teamsters. UNION! UNION!

Please welcome! Forest Whitaker! He is here to present James Earl Jones with the guild's highest honor: the opportunity for the TV audience to race to their kitchens and bathrooms. He is both "a king among men" and blessed with "the most evil voice in the universe" (HEE). James Earl Jones looks a little... frail. Like... he's smiling into the camera but... he's not blinking. The camera keeps cutting back to him and he never moves at all--his face hasn't moved since this whole thing started. I'm a little concerned.

His career began with a stammer and a poem recitation. He seems fine in the accompanying interview clip, so I don't know what's going on there. Young James Earl Jones is shouty. The Great White Hope! Star Wars! King Lear! Cat on a Hot Tin Roof! Sesame Street! Ladies and gentlemen, put down your cocktails and put your hands together for JAMES EARL JONES! "I've got something to say here," he says, and five minutes later, they're all still clapping. "Thank you. OKAY." He thanks his fellow actors for this great honor, and reminisces about Richard Harris. Then he invokes the Book of Genesis. Of course he does. "Now, I don't mean to embarrass anyone by comparing the actor to God, but..." This entire speech is about how wonderful his fellow actors are--I don't know why I was so worried, because this man is sharp and canny as a tack. And then he invokes Paul Newman, and the entire audience goes "AWWWWW." Aw.

Comments

[syustat71605.livejournal.com]

the opportunity for the TV audience to race to their kitchens and bathrooms.

hehehe

[havocs-roman.livejournal.com]

He mentioned Richard Harris? I think I'm in love. I'll need to look up his speech online tomorrow now--damn, I do not have time for this.

[lyricalnights.livejournal.com]

James Earl Jones was apparently the first man to portray an African-American U.S. president in a movie. Trufax brought to you by last night's pizza place trivia.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I saw that clip and wondered if he was the first!

[maudelynn.livejournal.com]

i love forest whitaker, james earl jones AND paul newman.
Awww.

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

Wait, James Earl Jones did Cat on a Hot Tin Roof onscreen? I saw his stage production, but I've never heard of him performing in that on TV or in a movie.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I think they had video of the stage production.

[laurelin-kit.livejournal.com]

I burst into tears at the Paul Newman shoutout and had to go watch Tool Academy for a while. It's probably best (for my pillowcase) that I missed the death montage.

[notemily.livejournal.com]

My mom was super-excited at this part because she went to New York a couple of weeks ago and ended up sitting behind James Earl Jones at a play. She apparently didn't know that he was the voice of Darth Vader, because my parents are Star Wars-deprived, and so I had to explain that there were actually three four people playing Darth Vader--the guy in the suit, the voice, the guy whose head you see when they take off the helmet at the end, and Hayden Christensen photoshopped in at the very end but we're going to pretend that never happened. And then I went to Wikipedia to look all that up and make sure it was true, and apparently the guy in the suit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Prowse) was originally supposed to be the guy you saw when they take the helmet off, but then he supposedly leaked Darth Vader's death to the press, so George Lucas brought someone else in instead. He called it "the worst filming experience of his career." Trufax.