SAG Awards nominee profile: Reese Witherspoon (‘The Morning Show’) looking for 2nd victory after ‘Walk the Line’
In 1998, past Screen Actors Guild Award winner Helen Hunt (Best TV Comedy Actress, “Mad About You,” 1994) was honored by her acting peers a second time for the film “As Good As It Gets.” This made her the first woman to earn individual SAG Award prizes for both film and TV performances. She has since been followed by a dozen others, including both Patricia Arquette and Glenn Close in 2019. Now, 2006 Best Film Actress champ Reese Witherspoon (“Walk the Line”) is looking to become the 14th entrant on the list by prevailing for the drama series “The Morning Show.”
In this year’s drama actress race, Witherspoon faces her costar, Jennifer Aniston, as well as Jung Ho-yeon (“Squid Game”), Elisabeth Moss (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) and Sarah Snook (“Succession”). For only the second time in SAG Awards history, all five women are also included in the drama ensemble lineup, the final slot of which is filled by the cast of “Yellowstone.” This is Moss’s fourth solo nomination for “Handmaid’s”; she also competed here twice for “Mad Men” and bagged two cast awards for that show in 2009 and 2010. Aniston won for “The Morning Show” in 2020 and also has a 1996 comedy ensemble victory for “Friends” under her belt.
SEE SAG Awards nominations: Full list in 6 film and 9 TV categories
On the second season of “The Morning Show,” Witherspoon continues in the role of Bradley Jackson, a morning TV host employed by the fictional, Manhattan-based UBA network. Following the departure of her former cohost, Alex Levy (Aniston), she is shown struggling to keep her job amid falling ratings. Additionally, her personal life becomes a source of stress as she gets caught in a romantic triangle with UBA CEO Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) and news anchor Laura Peterson (Julianna Margulies).
Aside from her 2006 win, Witherspoon has three previous SAG Award bids to her name, including individual (2018) and ensemble (2020) ones for “Big Little Lies.” In those cases, she lost to her costar, Nicole Kidman, and then to the cast of “The Crown.” She was also nominated in 2015 for her lead role in the film “Wild,” but was bested by Julianne Moore (“Still Alice”), as was Aniston (“Cake”).
SEE SAG Awards predictions odds in all 9 TV categories
Included among the 22 nominated “Morning Show” cast members are three more past SAG Award champions. The one with the most trophies is Margulies, who boasts two drama actress wins each for “ER” (1998, 1999) and “The Good Wife” (2010, 2011) as well as four consecutive ensemble victories for the former show (1996-1999). Current drama actor nominee Crudup triumphed as part of the cast of the film “Spotlight” in 2016, while Steve Carell has conquered the film and comedy ensemble categories with respective wins for “Little Miss Sunshine” (2007) and “The Office” (2007, 2008).
Witherspoon and Aniston’s head-to-head battle is the 11th such instance in the 28-year history of their category. The first drama series to produce multiple actress nominations in a single year was “The Sopranos,” for which Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco and Nancy Marchand were all recognized in 2000. Bracco and Falco faced each other again in 2002 and 2003, as did Falco and Drea de Matteo in 2005. More recently, “The Crown” stars Helena Bonham Carter and Olivia Colman were concurrently nominated in 2020, one year before Colman became part of the category’s second same-show trio along with cast mates Gillian Anderson and Emma Corrin.
The other four series to have produced pairs of drama actress bids are “The West Wing” (Stockard Channing and Allison Janney in 2002 and 2004; Janney and Lily Tomlin in 2003), “Downton Abbey” (Michelle Dockery and Maggie Smith in 2013), “Stranger Things” (Millie Bobby Brown and Winona Ryder in 2017), and “Ozark” (Julia Garner and Laura Linney in 2019 and 2021).
This article is a part of Gold Derby’s “SAG Awards nominee profile” series spotlighting the 2022 contenders in film and TV.
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