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The “wonderful family” from ‘The White Lotus' scooped the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series honour at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards on Sunday (26.02.23).
The HBO vacation satire picked up the accolade ahead of ‘Ozark', ‘Better Call Saul', ‘The Crown' and ‘Severance' and as the cast gathered on stage at Los Angeles' Fairmont Century Plaza hotel, F. Murray Abraham – who played Bert Di Grasso – took the mic to offer an acceptance speech on their behalf, and paid tribute to everyone who had worked on the show.
He said: “Thank you, thank you SAG-AFRTA, Than you HBO, this was the best job I ever had, not only because of this really remarkable, wonderful family of actors but because Mike and David and Mark pulled together an international company of technicians and actors.
“We all lived together in the same place and ate together and worked together, so this is not only for the actors, this is for the entire company.”
The veteran actor also took the time to recognise global issues.
He said: “This is a wonderful time but I ‘d like to send a prayer out to the earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey, and a prayer for peace in Ukraine and Russia.”
Earlier in the evening, ‘The White Lotus' star Jennifer Coolidge was tearful when she picked up the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series honour ahead of Elizabeth Debicki (‘The Crown'), Zendaya (‘Euphoria') and ‘Ozark' actresses Julia Garner and Laura Linney.
She said: “Wow. Wow. You know… It's been a very special year, overwhelming, ‘White Lotus' and Mike White writing me a great part that went on for two seasons. HBO giving me the thumbs up to let me do it and I just wanna say, I want you all to know that I'm just so grateful.”
She then paid tribute to her father for igniting her love of film with a day out when she was a child.
Jennifer added: “What I really wanna say is I have these amazing parents and they had this incredible gift. I think It was impossible for them to lie, they just couldn't do it, except that my father one day the school principal came to my first grade class and said I had to be called to the office.
“I went and she said my father's here and he said ‘Yeah Jenny we have to go' and the principal said ‘Jennifer get well'. I didn't know what that meant but we got in the car and my father said, ‘I'm never gonna tell a lie again but we're going somewhere really cool.' We drove to Massachusetts and it was the Charlie Chaplin film festival and I swear to god having that experience, it's my love of film, my love of actors, all of that came from that first grade experience.”
Meanwhile, Jason Bateman was pleased he had the opportunity to “say a final thank you” after he won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Marty Byrd in the final season of ‘Ozark', taking the honour ahead of ‘Better Call Saul's Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks, Jeff Bridges for ‘The Old Man' and ‘Severance' star Adam Scott.
He said: “Thanks you to anybody who voted for me, it gives me the chance to say a final thank you to not only the people who watched this show, but I get to say thank you to my wife Amanda, my two kids at home, they made me feel like a good dad even though I was gone for six months a year so they're better actors than I am.
“Ted Sarantos gave me all the trust I could ask for. Laura, Julia and the rest of the cast taught me so much and made the show what it is. Chris Mundy and the writing staff wrote incredible stuff we all got to enjoy, myself included.
“Finally to the crew, we're lucky enough to work on great projects because it was a great crew, it was a great family… Thank you guys, I love you all.”
