The 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards took place Sunday, commemorating the entertainment industry’s best film and television performers. However, this year it seemed that politics transcended prizes.
STARS: 2/5
The SAG Awards have been one of Hollywood’s biggest award events since 1995. The guild consists of film and television performers, journalists, recording artists and radio personalities from all around the world. The show sets itself apart from other award shows in that peer groups vote on their fellow actors, as opposed to a small, superior committee selecting the winners.
With this distinction, the night becomes more of a celebration of talent rather than a competition, which makes the overall mood far more fun and relaxed than the fancier award shows.
For this reason, the SAG Awards are always one of my most anticipated events of the award season. This year, though, I struggled to make it halfway through.
It seems this year’s show came at a bad time for America. Only two days before, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to suspend entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, block Syrian refugees indefinitely and deny entry into the country for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries.
This immediately caused widespread protests and media coverage by every outlet available,—including the SAG Awards.
Winner after winner took the stage to take a stand against Trump, rather than simply accepting their award and saying thanks. From the first recipient Julia Louis-Dreyfus to the cast of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” seemingly every entertainer took advantage of the platform to share their opinions on the president and his travel ban.
This complaint does not speak to my own political views, but I couldn’t help but feel robbed of the joy and escapism award shows usually promise.
While I appreciate the efforts of those in the entertainment industry using their status to speak out against what they feel are injustices, one or two speeches would have sufficed.
Award shows are supposed to be entertaining and feature entertainers in the entertainment industry. That’s all.
With every media outlet constantly shoving news and politics down our throats, hearing all of our favorite actors and actresses take on each political subject is redundant and unnecessary.
As much as it pains me to say, this year’s SAG Awards were disappointingly monotonous. I can only hope that next year’s award season proves to be full of life, laughs and fun once again.