The dimension-hopping adventure "Everything Everywhere All at Once" won the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, solidifying its position as the frontrunner for the renowned best picture award at the Academy Awards next month.
In the weeks running up to the March 12 Academy Awards, the film about a Chinese-American laundromat owner striving to finish her taxes amidst family strife has won several trophies at several Hollywood award ceremonies.
Sunday, members of the SAG-AFTRA acting union voted the actors of "Everything Everywhere" the finest ensemble in a film. Actors make up the largest group of Oscar voters. Hence the SAG's film awardees are widely observed.
Michelle Yeoh, who portrays laundromat owner Evelyn Wang, and supporting actresses Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis also won prizes for their roles in the science-fiction film.
As she accepted her trophy, Yeoh spoke through tears and a few expletives as she was overcome with emotion.
"This is not just for me. This is for every little girl that looks like me," Yeoh stated. "Thank you for giving me a seat at the table."
Quan, who as a child starred in an "Indiana Jones" movie in 1984 but had given up acting for years, stated that he was the first Asian to win the award.
The Vietnamese-American actor explained that he left acting because there were few opportunities. Thank you to everyone in the room who contributed to these revisions, which have made the landscape look so different than it did before.
Yeoh passed the microphone to 94-year-old James Hong, who played her father in the film when the cast took the stage for the ensemble prize.
Hong reminisced about the early days of his career; according to producers, "Asians were not good enough, nor are they popular.
Nevertheless, look at us now.
"Everything Everywhere" has already won top honours at the Directors Guild and Producers Guild awards. It is also an economic triumph, selling more than $107 million in tickets.
The SAG award for best male film actor was given to Brendan Fraser for his performance in "The Whale." as a reclusive, morbidly obese man attempting to reconnect with his daughter.
Emotionally, Fraser remarked that his younger self "never would have believed that I would have been offered the role of my life" as Charlie, the man in "Whale" who "is on a raft of regrets in a sea of hope."
He said, "I've been on that sea, and I've ridden that wave,"
The best TV comedy ensemble went to the actors of "Abbott Elementary," a mockumentary about teachers at an underprivileged school in Philadelphia.
The actors in "The White Lotus" won the best drama series for the show's second season, which is set in Italy and follows wealthy visitors and the staff of an upscale resort.
Sally Field, 76, earned a lifetime achievement award for an acting career that began over 60 years ago with the television classics "Gidget" and "The Flying Nun" and continued with the Oscar-winning films "Norma Rae" "Steel Magnolias" "Forrest Gump" and "Lincoln."
"Daily, I am secretly happy to call myself an actor," she remarked.
