You know what you can count on the SAG awards for, every single time? Great speeches. Why don’t they advertise themselves that way? 

I mean, it’s for the same reason the speeches are so good. They don’t need to advertise because this show is not for anyone but them – and for each other, they pull out the best speeches, right? I’m not imagining it? 

 

Jessica Chastain had a great speech. She casually throws in a reference to a revered, departed actor who haaaated the artifice of the business (ask me how I know), without seeming rehearsed or insincere or twee. Which is also why she’s a revered actor – she feels real. 

But even though the speech would have been a lot more pedestrian, I kept wishing it was Amanda Seyfried up there. I tweeted that The Dropout was genius, but I misspoke – the show was good. Seyfried’s performance, though? 

She didn’t just play a person, even a real person – she played a role who was, herself, playing a role, and who never got to be relatable or empathetic to the audience, and made her captivating. She also, not for nothing, was completely convincing as a 19-year-old when she was thirty-six. She got completely lost in the role, and I think we underestimate how often she does that … maybe because she always looks like herself? 

 

Anyway, lots of things slip by that shouldn’t (watch Severance already!), but it will be great to look back on when she gets her next major role. 

I loved this picture of Seyfried and Sally Field meeting (?) on the carpet: