Helena Bonham Carter urged people to get a job on ‘The Crown’ as she accepted the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series on Sunday (19.01.20).
The 53-year-old actress – who portrays Princess Margaret in the Netflix regal drama series – admitted she’d had the "time of [her] life working on the programme and felt "amazed" to also have an award for working on such a "fun" set.
Accepting the accolade on behalf of her castmates, Helena said: "I’m sorry there’s only three of us here, there’s 249 members of the cast. We’re all working tomorrow and are leaving in about five minutes.
"Thank you so much, obviously we’re all here because of other people’s really good work.
"I think it would be nice to thank Nina Gold, who cast us. We wouldn’t be anywhere without the words of Peter Morgan,thank you for his genius Left Bank, Netflix.
"It’s the most fun job and I’m amazed we get a prize on top of the funness of doing it, it’s our privilege to be in this great show. I’ve had the time of my life, I think we all have, I really recommend it if you want a job, it’s amazing how well produced this is."
While ‘The Crown’ beat out ‘Big Little Lies’, ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘Stranger Things’ for the ensemble prize, both Helena and her co-star, Olivia Colman, lost out on the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series award to ‘The Morning Show’ star Jennifer Aniston.
Jennifer – who also beat out Jodie Comer (‘Killing Eve’) and
Elisabeth Moss (‘The Handmaid’s Tale’) to take the honour – hailed working on the programme as the best "therapy" session she’s ever had as she accepted the accolade at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium.
She said: "I’m so grateful. First of all, Kerry Ehrin, our head writer who created so many extraordinary characters, boy did we get to dive deep into our own experiences and our own history and really breathe life into these extraordinary characters.
"Who knew emotional breakdowns felt that good? It was like seven months of therapy covered 20 years of work, so thank you for watching that."
Meanwhile, after six nominations, Peter Dinklage scooped the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series award for his final season of ‘Game of Thrones’.
Peter – who won ahead of Sterling K. Brown (‘This Is Us’), ‘The Morning Show’ stars Steve Carrell and Billy Crudup, and David Harbour of ‘Stranger Things’ – kept his speech brief but paid a special tribute to his wife, Erica Schmidt.
He said: "I would like to thank the people of Northern Ireland, who put up with us for nine years and then I’d like to thank everyone at table 9 and 10 and beyond over there because we put up with each other for nine years.
"Finally and most importantly I’d like to thank my wife who put up with me for more than nine years but lived away from home but made it home because we were together."
The Crown wins Drama Ensemble SAG
