SAG Awards: What THR Critics Say About the Lead Acting Nominees’ Performances
Ten top actors are vying for SAG Awards in the lead performance categories.
The nominees for best performance by a male actor in a leading role are Adrien Brody, Timothée Chalamet, Daniel Craig, Colman Domingo and Ralph Fiennes.
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Vying for best female actor in a leading role are Pamela Anderson, Cynthia Erivo, Karla Sofía Gascón, Mikey Madison and Demi Moore.
The winners will be announced at the 31st annual SAG Awards ceremony, which is set for Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall. The event will be streamed live on Netflix at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
Read below to see what The Hollywood Reporter’s critics say about their performances.
Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
If the breathy Marilyn voice and constant, nervous verbal diarrhea wear thin at times, Anderson’s transformative performance is undeniably affecting, offering illuminating insights into both the character and the actress playing her, who has had to struggle to be taken seriously. This role should mark a turning point on that front. Read more. — David Rooney
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Running a densely packed three-and-a-half hours, including a built-in intermission with entr’acte, the enthralling movie hands Adrien Brody his best role in years as gifted architect László Tóth, ushered through fortune’s door by a wealthy tycoon eager to bankroll his dream project and then viciously cut down to size when his patron is displeased. Brody pours himself into the character with bristling intelligence and internal fire, holding nothing back as he viscerally conveys both exultant highs and gutting sorrows. His exacting accent work alone is a measure of his commitment to the audacious project. Read more. — David Rooney
Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Clearly, Chalamet has done a forensic probe to find his connection to the lyrics and the singer-songwriter’s state of mind when he was composing them. There are obvious parallels also to the rapid spiral of fame at a young age for both artists. It’s a transformative performance, arguably Chalamet’s best since Call Me by Your Name. Commendably, neither the movie nor the actor sugarcoat the abrasiveness of a creative genius whose insensitivity toward people close to him often stands in stark contrast to the humanity in his songs. Read more. — David Rooney
Daniel Craig, Queer
It’s hard to think of a more ideal director than [Luca] Guadagnino to explore queerness, sensuality and the shifting terrain of romantic intoxication, and he’s found the perfect traveling companion in Daniel Craig. In a transfixing performance that balances colorful affectation with raw hunger, the actor makes Lee a magnetic raconteur whose shield of worldly composure falls away as Eugene (Drew Starkey) eludes his grasp, leaving him a virtual ghost by the end of the film. Read more. — David Rooney
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Domingo shines, proving himself once again as an actor of wide range and deep feeling. As Divine Eye’s mentor, he channels the tough paternal energy he displayed in Euphoria in the role of Rue’s Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. But when Divine Eye, once his protégé, questions the traditions of the program and later lands a pivotal role in the production, Divine G must confront the less flattering parts of himself. Domingo’s performance reflects the undulating texture of his character’s emotional development, from disappointment to rage unearthed by a poignant loss. Read more. — Lovia Gyarkye
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Wicked belongs to Erivo. Elphaba was always the meatier part — in the faceoff for best actress in a musical at the 2004 Tonys, original Elphaba Idina Menzel prevailed over Kristin Chenoweth’s Glinda — and the character’s arc carries even more weight in this adaptation. Or maybe that’s just because Erivo brings such moving personal investment to her performance, a quality that recalls the Tony-winning role that put her on the map, in the 2015 Broadway revival of The Color Purple. Her eyes are an expressive window into the character’s lifetime of hurt and exclusion or defiant pride and anger, sometimes spanning that range and more within one scene or song or single line reading. Her Elphaba is an outcast hero worth rooting for. Read more. — David Rooney
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Fiennes gives a superb performance as a man beginning to have doubts about his faith as a result of all these scandals, and when he emerges as a top contender to be named pope, his crisis of conscience intensifies. We can see that he may be the most qualified candidate, partly as a result of these thoughtfully articulated doubts, but he may not have the stomach for the job. Read more. — Stephen Farber
Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
All this [elements of the film] is wrapped seamlessly around a sensitive core exploration of gender identity and trans liberation, channeled through a magnificent performance by Karla Sofia Gascón, a wonderful discovery in the title role. The warmth, the joyous self-realization, the complexity and authenticity, perhaps even the purification that illuminate her characterization no doubt owe much to the parallels in the Spanish star’s life — in her own words, she was an actor before becoming an actress, a father before becoming a mother. Read more. — David Rooney
Mikey Madison, Anora
As a character, played by Mikey Madison with a sweetness that humanizes even the most transactional situations and a defensiveness that makes her dangerous when threatened, Anora, who goes by Ani, stands alongside the defiantly resilient protagonists of [Sean] Baker’s last handful of films, from Starlet and Tangerine through The Florida Project and Red Rocket. Read more. — David Rooney
Demi Moore, The Substance
Moore imbues her character with a visceral desperation, one that enriches the unsettling undercurrents of [Coralie] Fargeat’s film. She plays a woman who can’t quit the addiction of having youth at her fingertips despite its lacerating effect on her psyche. In one particularly strong scene, Elisabeth, haunted by a giant billboard of Sue outside her window, struggles to leave the house for a date. She tirelessly redoes her makeup and each attempt reveals the layers of anguish behind the actress’s pristine facade. Read more. — Lovia Gyarkye
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