“Orange Is the New Black” and “Stranger Things” took the top television honors at the Screen Actors Guild awards, a show overshadowed by politics as stars slammed U.S. President Donald Trump for restricting entry for travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Netflix dominated the top television wins. Women’s prison show “Orange is the New Black” won best comedy ensemble. Star Taylor Schilling told the crowd, “And we know that it’s going to be up to us and all of you to keep telling stories that show what unites us is stronger than the forces that seek to divide us.”
1980s sci-fi mystery series “Stranger Things” won best drama ensemble, and its star David Harbour gave a lengthy speech about acceptance.
“We 1983 mid-westerners will repel bullies, we will shelter freaks and outcasts, those who have no home. We will get past the lies. We will hunt monsters. And when we are at a loss amidst the hypocrisy and the casual violence of certain individuals and institutions, we will, as per Chief Jim Hopper, punch some people in the face when they seek to destroy the meek and the disenfranchised and the marginalized. And we will do it all with soul, with heat, and with joy.”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who won best comedy TV actress for playing flawed fictional U.S. President Selina Meyer on HBO’s political satire “Veep,” called Trump’s ban a “blemish.”
“Because I love this country, I am horrified by its blemishes, and this immigrant ban is a blemish,” she said.
British royal family show “The Crown” took the best actor and actress awards for a drama, honoring its stars John Lithgow and Claire Foy.
