Morgan Freeman has used his acceptance speech at the SAG Awards to make a brief, pointed-ish comment about sexism in the film industry, taking aim at the statuettes given out with acting awards.
Freeman was the recipient of a Life Achievement Award (something he’s definitely earned between his near 50 years of stellar work in the industry and having a voice like warm gravel wrapped in crushed velvet) and took t0 the stage to thank his family, get the attention of a single audience member, and point out that the statuette (imaginatively called ‘The Actor‘) is gendered.
Just before leaving the stage, Freeman took the time to make one last comment:
I wasn’t going to do this; I’m going to tell you what’s wrong with this statue. It works from the back, but from the front, it’s gender-specific. Maybe I started something.
There’s a case to be made that the statuette is not, in fact, gender-specific, as that requires drawing a definitive line between anatomy and gender, something that erases the experience of trans and other gender-non-conforming people, but it’s easy enough to see the point he’s making. I guess time will tell about whether or not he has “started something“.
You can watch his full speech below:
Morgan Freeman Receives the Life Achievement Award at the #sagawards pic.twitter.com/SJ4WeoAyKc
— SAG Awards® (@SAGawards) January 22, 2018
