LOS ANGLELES: Chadwick Boseman won a posthumous award for his role as in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” at the 27th Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards 2021.
Boseman’s wife Simone Ledward accepted the award and thanked the film’s cast and crew for her husband’s achievement. “If you see the world unbalanced, be a crusader that pushes heavily on the see-saw of the mind.”
The 27th Screen Actors Guild Awards 2021 took place on Sunday to acknowledge the best achievements in film and television performances for the year 2020.
Boseman beat out Riz Ahmed (‘Sound of Metal’), Anthony Hopkins (‘The Father’), Gary Oldman (‘Mank’) and Steven Yeun (‘Minari’) for the trophy, which is voted on by roughly 160,000 actors. The SAG win positioned him as front-runner for his first Oscar at the Academy Awards on April 25.
In ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, directed by George C. Wolfe, Boseman plays Levee Green, a troubled trumpet player who sets his sights on bigger dreams outside of just being a band member for Ma Rainey (Viola Davis).
A legacy that continues to live on in our hearts and on our screens. Thank you, @chadwickboseman, for your lasting gift. #sagawards @MaRaineyFilmpic.twitter.com/0lnA6luxkS
— SAG Awards® (@SAGawards) April 5, 2021
The late actor is the second posthumous nominee recognized in the lead male category after Massimo Troisi for 1996’s ‘The Postman’. This marks his second SAG Award win following the ‘Black Panther’ cast winning for best cast in 2019.
Boseman, the star of ‘Black Panther’, died in August 2020, at the age of 43 after a lon battle against colon cancer. ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ is Boseman’s final screen performance, one that has won him many prizes throughout this year’s awards season, including a Golden Globe in February.
‘The Trial of the Chicago 7,’ set during a Vietnam War protest in 1968, took the prize for best ensemble with a cast that includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Frank Langella and Mark Rylance.
All four of the winning film actors were people of color, the first time this has happened in the SAG awards’ 27-history.
Viola Davis won best actress for playing a jazz diva in ‘Ma Rainey’, beating presumed favorites Frances McDormand for ‘Nomadland’ and Carey Mulligan in revenge drama ‘Promising Young Woman’.
British actor Daniel Kaluuya won for his supporting role as the late Black Panther activist Fred Hampton in ‘Judas and the Black Messiah.’
