Actor Michael Keaton surprised everyone with a delay in taking the stage during the 2022 SAG Awards, after winning the SAG Award for the best actor in a series or TV movie for ‘Dopesick’.
“Sorry! Quick trip to the men’s room. It is packed, by the way,” he said after rushing to the podium. The moment resembled that of American actress Christine Lahti who, after winning during the 1998 ‘Golden Globes’, admitted taking a restroom break minutes before winning the best actress in a TV drama series for ‘Chicago Hope’.
Keaton became emotional while talking about his late nephew, who died from a drug overdose. He opened his speech on a note, he quickly began offering deep reflections on the night, acting and his ‘Dopesick’ role.
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“There is an argument to be made … that a night like tonight is self-serving, narcissistic, it’s a legitimate argument to be made … But I’m so blessed to do what I do,” he said.
The actor further explained how being a part of a production like ‘Dopesick’ or ‘Worth’, could spawn thought, conversation and actual change. “Who gets to have that job? Seriously? How fortunate am I that good can come from something that I do just because I wanted to become an actor?”
“There’s massive inequity in the world. In ‘Dopesick’, when you talk about addiction, the way to heal the problem is to accept that you have a problem,” he continued. “Not our country, the entire world, economically, racially, socially, financially, there’s massive inequity in the world. There just is. There’s fair and there’s unfair. There’s not a lot of room in between. I can feel right now the rolling thunder of eye rolling coming across people saying to me things like, ‘shut up and dribble,’ ‘shut up and act.’ The acting I’ll quit. The shutting up, not so much. I’m blessed to do something that might improve someone’s life.”Keaton took a moment to pause as he choked back tears. “Given the subject matter, this is for my nephew Michael and my sister Pam. I lost my nephew Michael to drugs, and it hurts.” When the camera showed those in the audience even they could be seen visibly emotional.
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In his Hollywood Reporter cover story, Keaton had explained how he was drawn to ‘Dopesick’, which explores the marketing techniques Purdue Pharma used to recruit OxyContin users and doctors, because of his nephew, who died from fentanyl and heroin use a few years ago. “I thought, ‘Well, if this is even remotely good, I have to do this,'” Keaton told THR. “It happens to be real good,” he had added.
The 28th annual SAG Awards ceremony took place at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California.
