Ahead of the Screen Actors Guild Award ceremony on April 4, nominations were announced for the ceremony with HBO receiving seven nominations and its newly launched streaming service, HBO Max, garnering its first two nominations ever, according to a WarnerMedia Press Release. The SAG nominations for HBO saw a trend of new series procuring the bulk of the nominations with series such as Lovecraft Country, I May Destroy You, and The Undoing standing in the front. Regardless of the origin of the series, HBO originals that are aired on the premium network are also available for streaming on HBO Max.
For the HBO channel, The Undoing and Lovecraft Country led the network field in two nominations with The Undoing landing Outstanding Performance by a Female and a Male in a Limited Series while Lovecraft Country achieved nominations in Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and Outstanding Stunt Ensemble for a Comedy or Drama Series. The Undoing is a limited series that centered on a New York therapist who gets entangled with a murder case in a public manner. The series saw Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies) as Grace Fraser and Hugh Grant (Notting Hill) as Jonathan Fraser with both actors being the individuals who were nominated this year.
Lovecraft Country premiered its first season in late summer 2020 and centered on 1950s America and segregation laws while simultaneously following a black man conducting a mission to find his missing father. The series hails from Misha Green (Underground, Sons of Anarchy) and received executive producer credits from Jordan Peele (Us, Get Out) and J.J. Abrams (Super 8).
In addition to these series, the HBO network also received one nomination each for I May Destroy You, I Know This Much Is True, and its sci-fi hit Westworld. I May Destroy You is a collaboration between BBC and HBO and follows the aftermath of a sexual assault through the victim’s own experience. Created by, written by, directed by, and starred by, Michaela Coel (Black Mirror) received critical acclaim for her credits, but also recently made headlines due to her series being snubbed of a Golden Globe nomination. Regardless, SAG nominated the series for her performance as a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series.
I Know This Much Is True is a miniseries that also premiered in the year 2020 and follows Mark Ruffalo’s (Avengers: Endgame, Spotlight) as the identical twins Thomas and Dominick Birdsey with the former suffering from schizophrenia. The series was nominated for an Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series for Ruffalo’s role, or roles.
Westworld premiered its third season in spring 2020 to further critical acclaim. The sci-fi drama series centers on the artificial intelligence amusement park world where wealthy people can visit and interact with these supposed fake human beings. The HBO drama series landed a SAG nomination for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series.
For HBO Max, the streaming service gained its first-ever nominations from SAG with its hit original series The Flight Attendant. The original series saw Kaley Cuoco’s (The Big Bang Theory) Cassandra Bowden wake up hungover next to a dead body before continuing her job as an airline flight attendant. Due to this, Bowden has no recollection of the night’s events and is consumed with the unknown of what happened and if she was responsible. The SAG Awards nominated The Flight Attendant for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for Cuoco’s role in addition to a second nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.