USA: Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Lupita Nyong'o and Helen Mirren hit the SAG Awards backstage after winning top prizes

Record ID: 205960

  • Title: USA: Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Lupita Nyong'o and Helen Mirren hit the SAG Awards backstage after winning top prizes
  • Date: 19th January 2014
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 18, 2014) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) CAST OF "AMERICAN HUSTLE" (SOUNDBITE) (English) JENNIFER LAWRENCE, SAYING (CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE): "All right. Um, it really just felt like one seamless kind of... Fuck you, Cooper... Movie, because once you work with David and you understand how he works, and you fall in love with it, as I did, and then you go and you do 'American Hustle,' I mean, he doesn't change, it's always going to be the same thing." (SOUNDBITE) (English) CATE BLANCHETT, SAYING: "I've had this experience when you win these things, and you come off stage and people take them away from you straight away, so I don't even know that they're actually in my possession, but I hope Australian customs will be kind to me. Oh that's it? OK, obviously extremely interesting, thank you very much." (SOUNDBITE) (English) MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, SAYING: "I never knew, I found tapioca pudding, and that was... I got the tiniest little, we were in New Orleans, and I found the tiniest little antique spoon, it was a little bitty sugar spoon, and I would eat it with that so it would last longer, oh, it was great, my morning, when I would sit there and write from four to six with my tapioca pudding, I could make that last an hour." (SOUNDBITE) (English) LUPITA NYONG'O, SAYING: "I couldn't sentimentalize the pain, that I would have to go through, because I had the privilege of doing it in an imaginary world, and I was representing someone who actually lived through those atrocities, so being aware of that made it very practical and very do-able, not to say that it was easy, but I was privileged to do so." (SOUNDBITE) (English) JARED LETO, SAYING: "You know, I found the voice because of working with transgender people, they really showed me the way, they were my mentors, and it was through experimentation, trial, and error, and a lot of education, it was a research-heavy role, and it was a wonderful part, a role of a lifetime, obviously." (SOUNDBITE) (English) HELEN MIRREN, SAYING: "Well, you know, I came upon this role in a very unexpected way, Bette Midler was originally playing the role. Now would anyone cast Bette Midler and then think 'if she can't do it, who can we get?' Helen Mirren."
  • Embargoed: 3rd February 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts
  • Reuters ID: LVA3BZWAXCX89WCEO3YUSWURXFCV
  • Story Text: The cast of the 1970s crime caper "American Hustle" took the top prize from the Screen Actors Guild on Saturday (January 18) in a key test of the film's Oscar position in the competitive race for the Academy Awards.
    "American Hustle" from director David O. Russell has been hailed for its performances, although it won no individual acting awards on Saturday and only Jennifer Lawrence was nominated for her supporting role. It prevailed over another presumed Oscar frontrunner, "12 Years a Slave."
    Backstage after accepting the prize, star Jennifer Lawrence told journalists what it was like to work with director David O. Russell on her second film with him, after 2012s "Silver Linings Playbook," for which she won the best actress Oscar.
    "Once you work with David and you understand how he works, and you fall in love with it, as I did, and then you go and you do 'American Hustle,' I mean, he doesn't change, it's always going to be the same thing," said Lawrence in a bluish-black shimmering Christian Dior gown.
    Australian Cate Blanchett won best actress for her role as a socialite who suffers a reversal of fortune in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine," while best actor went to Matthew McConaughey for his turn as an unlikely AIDS activist in "Dallas Buyers Club."
    Blanchett says she hopes the miniature "actor" statuette will pass customs on her return home.
    "I've had this experience when you win these things, and you come off stage and people take them away from you straight away, so I don't even know that they're actually in my possession, but I hope Australian customs will be kind to me," says Blanchett.
    McConaughey told media about the lengths he had to go to lose weight for the role of Ron Woodruff, a man sickened with AIDS who helps himself and others get medication they need, in "Dallas Buyers Club."
    "I found tapioca pudding, and that was... I got the tiniest little, we were in New Orleans, and I found the tiniest little antique spoon, it was a little bitty sugar spoon, and I would eat it with that so it would last longer, oh, it was great, my morning, when I would sit there and write from four to six with my tapioca pudding, I could make that last an hour," says McConaughey.
    McConaughey's co-star Jared Leto won best supporting actor for his turn as his transsexual side-kick, while another first-time winner, Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong'o, was recognized for her supporting role as the hardworking slave Patsey in "12 Years a Slave."
    "You know, I found the voice because of working with transgender people, they really showed me the way, they were my mentors, and it was through experimentation, trial, and error, and a lot of education, it was a research-heavy role, and it was a wonderful part, a role of a lifetime, obviously," says Leto, on his inspiration for his role.
    "I couldn't sentimentalize the pain, that I would have to go through, because I had the privilege of doing it in an imaginary world, and I was representing someone who actually lived through those atrocities, so being aware of that made it very practical and very do-able, not to say that it was easy, but I was privileged to do so," says Lupita Nyong'o, on taking on a role as a slave in "12 Years a Slave."
    And Helen Mirren, who won an award for outstanding female actor in a TV movie or miniseries for her role in "Phil Spector," shared with journalists that she wasn't the first actress considered for the part.
    "Well, you know, I came upon this role in a very unexpected way, Bette Midler was originally playing the role. Now would anyone cast Bette Midler and then think 'if she can't do it, who can we get?' Helen Mirren."
    The SAG ceremony is one of the most closely watched shows of the Hollywood awards season because it makes up the largest voting group, or around 20 percent, of the 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that vote for the Oscars, which will be handed out on March 02.
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