Bardem, Vergara, and Louis C.K. get the nod–just three out of fifty noms
The SAG Award nominations for 2012 were announced recently, and Latinos were represented–a bit–in its long, long list. Still, there’s a sense of “the usual suspects” here, in a year where breakout performances and surprises could have used a little more light.
In the movie category, the total of 20 single-actor nominations, included just one Latino name: Javier Bardem for his remarkable work in Skyfall. SAG also offers up the welcome and innovative notion of nominating whole casts. Argo was one of those five nominations, starring Ben Affleck as Latino super-spy Tony Mendez (though the film actually had no Latinos in the cast at all). None of the other nominated casts included Latinos.
Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem in “Skyfall”
Out of the thirty single-actor nominations for television performances, comedy and drama combined, there were not Latinos nominated for the drama categories, and two for comedy: Louie C.K. for his own series on FX, Louie, and Sofía Vergara for Modern Family. In a fairly accurate representation of the 2012 TV year, Latino names appear in many of the ensembles that were nominated: Bobby Cannavale in Boardwalk Empire, Steven Michael Quezada for Breaking Bad, Morena Baccarin in Homeland puts three Latinos in three of the five nominated dramatic series, while 4 of the 6 nominated comedy series include Latino performers: Lea Michele, Naya Rivera, and Harry Shum, Jr. on Glee, Sofía Vergara and Rico Rodriguez in Modern Family, Bobby Cannavale and Jake Cannavale in Nurse Jackie (which most wouldn’t necessarily see as a comedy), and Oscar Nuñez on The Office.
Three individual nominations out of fifty names is thin, to say the least, while stand-out work by a wide range of other Latinos in TV comedy and drama went unnoticed, in favor of yet another set of awards for the same folks who’ve been honored elsewhere, and will be again, over and over. It would have been nice to see the work of accomplished actors like Aubrey Plaza, Lauren Vélez, Carlos Gómez, David Zayas, Jon Huertas, Jimmy Smits, Sara Ramirez, Eva Longoria, and so many others get even a little of the notice they deserve.
In any event, the 100,000 members of SAG-AFTRA will be voting online and by mail over the next few weeks, and revealed at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® ceremony on Jan. 27, 2013. We’ll let you know the results.
Just don’t expect any surprises.
