SAG miscellany

Going into the fall festival season, everyone was leaving room for Luca Guadagnino’s Queer to be a major awards contender, not least because Daniel Craig is a candidate for an “it’s his time” Oscar campaign. Well, that did not pan out (we all should have remembered the Academy is still pretty conservative and a very sexual and strange film about gay men is Too Much for the old fart brigade. Ditto for Babygirl and films about middle-aged women having sex). The film proved to be quite divisive—though I liked it—and Craig never fully committed himself to an Oscar campaign. 

But that didn’t stop his peers from nominating him for a SAG Award, and he turned up at the show last night working his post-Bond lounge daddy look in Armani Made to Measure. He certainly has developed a love for colored/tinted glasses. I’m not going to lie, my interest in Daniel Craig is founded on my forever love for Rachel Weisz, who did not attend the SAGs, and I also vastly prefer Benoit Blanc to Bond, so I am just marking time until Wake Up Dead Man. If and when Daniel Craig wins an Oscar, I hope it’s for Benoit Blanc, his best character. 

Also in attendance was Craig’s Queer co-star, Drew Starkey. I appreciate that he took a swing with his look (by Valentino), but he seems underdressed. Even on a night when a lot of men went tie-less—like Craig—or opted for patterned suits over a tux, Starkey’s two-tone getup with the scarf…tie…ascot?...thing looks just a touch too casual, like he’s headed to the marina, not an awards show. 

Another screen duo in attendance were Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, who presented Shōgun with the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Anderson looked incredible with a low pony and an ankle-length floral Carolina Herrera dress. It’s my second-favorite look of the night, after Keke Palmer.

And another duo, this one in real life, is Jodie Foster, who brought her son, Charlie, to the SAGs. Charlie is an actor, with his first screen credit being an episode of The Garcias, a sequel to The Brothers Garcia which streamed on Max in 2022. So Charlie is just starting out, we’ll have to see where he goes, but he does look like a guy who would be cast for a three-episode arc as a serial killer on a network procedural, so he’s got that Evan Peters thing going for him.

Finally, Lily Gladstone received her second consecutive SAG nomination, this time on the TV side for Under the Bridge. She pulled the ultimate power move in red carpet sustainability—she re-wore a gown from last year. In a second power move, she pulled the dress from the Smithsonian, where it is being displayed in an exhibit about Indigenous fashion.

She first wore this dress, a collaboration between Gucci and Indigenous artist Joe Big Mountain, at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar party. Repeating dresses has traditionally been a red carpet no-no, but I wonder if the desire for more sustainability in fashion will lead to more people re-wearing red carpet looks (see also: Rita Moreno repeating her 1962 Oscar dress in 2018). Like if you have a major look in your red carpet repertoire, why not repeat it? Dress in your own archive!

I know most people don’t keep their red carpet looks—Lily didn’t keep this one, she had to borrow it back—but I wonder if stylists will start keeping track of the whereabouts of key pieces in their clients’ look books for recycling opportunities. Sustainability in fashion is an ever-growing conversation, but the easiest way to be sustainable is just to wear the clothes you already have.