Depp, Theron top Guild Awards

A cast of Hollywood hobbits and a Monster killer played by Charlize Theron won top honours at the Screen Actors Guild awards on Sunday, but ...

A cast of Hollywood hobbits and a Monster killer played by Charlize Theron won top honours at the Screen Actors Guild awards on Sunday, but a fishy pirate played by Johnny Depp stole the show in an upset best actor victory.

The award for best film actress solidified Theron8217;s position as a front-runner for an Oscar. It also cemented the bid for the best movie Oscar from the hobbits of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. But Depp8217;s victory added suspense to next week8217;s Oscars by giving him an award no one expected over favourites Bill Murray and Sean Penn. The actors of Rings were named best cast.

Onstage, Theron thanked 8216;8216;My angel and my date tonight, my mom, who put me on a plane with a one-way ticket to Hollywood when I was 19 years old. Thank you for being so brave and for letting me go to make my dreams come true.8217;8217;

In the low-budget film Monster, South African-born Theron plays serial killer and former prostitute Aileen Wuornos, who was executed for murdering men who picked her up. Theron gained 30 pounds for the part, and her makeup and posturing masked her true beauty. 8216;8216;I knew we were working on something very special. It felt different than anything I have ever done before,8217;8217; Theron said later.

Speaking for Rings, John Rhys-Davies, Gimli in the movie, said, 8216;8216;At the risk of sounding immodest, we deserved this award. This is the most enormous undertaking in film history.8217;8217;

Bill Murray in Lost In Translation and Sean Penn in Mystic River were believed to have had a lock on the favourite8217;s position for best actor after earning Golden Globe awards for acting in January. Depp, who played the wild-eyed and fanciful Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, was not on hand, but backstage Al Pacino, who won the actor award for his role in cable TV mini-series Angels in America, amplified the shock of everybody in the crowd. He lifted an eyebrow and declared himself 8216;8216;really surprised8217;8217; and 8216;8216;really thrilled8217;8217;. 8216;8216;He8217;s done so many interesting parts over the years that he got a reputation for being quirky, but he really wasn8217;t. He8217;s a fine actor,8217;8217; Pacino said. Tim Robbins won best supporting actor for crime thriller Mystic River and Renee Zellweger won supporting actress in Civil War drama Cold Mountain. It was her second straight SAG award after winning best actress for Chicago.

SAG also gives out trophies for television and HBO8217;s shows earned five awards, including Sex and the City, which won the best ensemble cast in a TV comedy on the very night it was airing its last episode.

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8216;8216;We will all miss you so much,8217;8217; said Sex star Kristin Davis. HBO drama Six Feet Under earned the award for best cast in a drama for the second consecutive year. Meryl Streep was named best actress in a TV movie or mini-series for cable TV network HBO8217;s Angels in America, about the AIDS epidemic in New York in the early 1980s. Tony Shalhoub won the SAG trophy for best actor in a TV comedy, and Megan Mullally earned the honour of best actress in a comedy. Kiefer Sutherland earned the SAG award for best actor in a TV drama for 24, and Frances Conroy was named best actress in HBO8217;s Six Feet Under.

8212; Reuters