What makes an actor? Since the very first Screen Actors Guild Awards in 1995, actors have shared what it means to work in Hollywood with the “I am an actor” speech.
The tradition began with Angela Lansbury, who detailed her accomplishments on screen at the inaugural SAG Awards: “I’ve been Elizabeth Taylor’s sister, Spencer Tracy’s mistress, Elvis’ mother, and a singing teapot,” she said. She reminded her peers that, “at one time or another, everyone loves the opportunity to act,” even a child with a creative imagination for playing pretend. And she embraced the spirit of the SAG Awards as a night dedicated to “the art and craft of acting by the people who should know about it.”
In celebration of the 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards streaming live on Netflix on Sunday Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, join us on a trip down memory lane as we visit some of the greatest “I am an actor” speeches of the last 30 years.
Lansbury was just the first of more than 100 actors who’ve shared their stories over the years. The first eight years of the awards show opened with an actor offering an anecdote about what it really means to be one.
“I’m an actor because I act, or maybe I act because I’m an actor,” Dennis Hopper said at the 3rd Annual SAG awards in 1997. “Either way, the point is, I am an actor. Or am I?” It’s the age-old question — are actors acting all the time? Hopper joked that there’s no way for anyone to prove he’s an actor. “The only way you can know that I’m really an actor is because I told you I was.”
At the 4th Annual SAG Awards, John Lithgow spoke of the “chemical reaction [that] can take place between an actor and an audience” when “life is momentarily lived a little more vividly.”
And at the 6th Annual SAG Awards, Whoopi Goldberg shared stories of who she was in a past life that led to her becoming an actor: a bank teller, a bricklayer, a mother relying on food stamps. “We’re observers,” she said. “Collectors of bits and pieces of nuance and speech and attitude and all the tiny little morsels of trivia that add up to the truth if we do it right.”
By 2003, the show’s producers decided it might be compelling to mix up the formula a little bit. That year onward, the show began with several actors of varying backgrounds sharing their stories, all ending with the memorable catchphrase: “I am an actor.”
Throughout the years, the stars joked about their parents not taking them seriously. Alfred Molina said his mom gave him business cards when he graduated from drama school that said actor in quotation marks. Many also poked fun at the whole concept of “becoming” someone else. “My favorite thing about acting is that it truly allows you to transform yourself into another person. I’m Johnny Depp, and I am an actor,” Jane Krakowski said. 30 Rock won a SAG Award every year from 2007 to 2013.
Steve Carell shared an anecdote about Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who performed an emergency landing on the Hudson River. “It’s a good thing that I was not behind the controls of that plane because I am Steve Carell, and I am an actor,” he said. Meanwhile, David Hyde Pierce used his speech as an opportunity to find work: “I’m still looking for a movie to do this summer. My name is David Hyde Pierce, and I am an actor.”
From Mahershala Ali, Tracee Ellis Ross, Millie Bobby Brown, Geoffrey Owens, and Uzo Aduba (who got her SAG card working on Orange Is the New Black) to Robert Duvall, Sofía Vergara, and Eugene Levy, stars of all stripes shared unique and powerful stories.
Many spoke about using their platform to spread awareness about social causes. “Actors are activists no matter what because we embody the worth and humanity of all people,” Kerry Washington said. During the last decade, SAG awards have gone to performers in films and shows like Black Panther, VEEP, and Game of Thrones, often showcasing cultural movements through moments in history.
But in a moment of levity, in his anecdote, Jeff Bridges admitted that being a successful actor involves quite a bit of luck. “I’ve been very lucky to have worked with some wonderful artists — and to have been born into the bed of Dorothy and Lloyd Bridges,” he said.
The “I am an actor” speech is timeless and embodies the spirit of what it really means to bring stories to life on screen for fans of the arts. Over the years, the speeches have run the gamut of being fun, imaginative, creative, earnest, and silly, but always with the audience in mind. Don’t miss out on your favorite actors at this year’s event.
Watch the 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards live on Netflix at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024.
