Michael Keaton wins the Screen Actors Guild Awards 2022 for Best Actor in a miniseries or Television series. Image Source: Nation World News
The 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards was held at The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California on Sunday i.e., 27th February 2022. The ceremony presented by SAG-AFTRA was memorable for actor Michael Keaton as he took home the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a miniseries or television movie for his work on ‘Dopesick’ as Dr. Samuel Finnix. Actress Salma Hayek honored him with the award.
Dopesick is a miniseries on Hulu that is based on the book of the same name and surrounds the topic of the impact of opioid addiction and big pharmacy company, ‘PruduePharma’s contribution to the issue. Michael Keaton got emotional towards the end of his acceptance speech as he revealed to the audience that his nephew, Michael had passed away from an accidental overdose of heroin and fentanyl in 2016.
Michael Keaton started by expressing his gratitude and said, “I am the most fortunate person that I have a job where I can be part of a production like 'Dopesick' . . . that actually can spawn thought, conversation, actual change — who gets to have that job? Seriously? How fortunate am I that good can come from something I do just because I learn to become an actor? There's massive inequity in the world. In Dopesick, when you talk about addiction, the way to heal the problem is to accept that you have a problem. Not our country. The entire world. Economically, racially, socially, financially. There's massive inequity in the world. There just is. There's fair, and there's unfair. There's not a lot of room in between. I can feel right now the rolling thunder of eye-rolling across people saying things to me like, ‘Shut up and dribble. Shut up and act.’ The acting, I’ll quit. The shutting up, not so much. I am blessed to be able to do something that might improve someone’s life. Given the subject matter, this is for my nephew, Michael, and my sister, Pam. I lost Michael...and it hurts. To my sister Pam, thanks."
The actor via his speech expressed that he is grateful to be a part of a project that can improve someone’s life. Showrunner Danny Strong revealed to the Metro UK that actor Michael Keaton was the only actor the makers had in mind when it came down to playing Dr. Samuel Finnix. Danny said, "Michael was passionate about the subject matter because his nephew had passed away from an overdose. So it was something he was personally connected to, as well. So yeah, we offered him the role and he accepted."
Michael Keaton spoke to USA Today previously about his role and said, "As I tell everyone, if the writing wasn't good and the quality of the people involved wasn't as high, I can't guarantee that I'd have done it, just based on losing Michael.” In his interview with The Times UK, Michael Keaton shared, “I was shocked almost every day. We live in a capitalist system, which is fine by me — I participate — but the utter nerve of how the company marketed this drug . . . Certain business practices just became accepted and margins stretched. When you make billions and you’re well known in terms of philanthropy, maybe you subconsciously don’t think in an ethical way?”
Sharing about how taking up this role after losing a closed one due to overdose, the actor shared, “I can answer real simply. It was a major factor and, after that, I don’t talk about it because, frankly, it’s like pimping somebody. Like people pimp their kids. Celebrities go, ‘Look what a wonderful parent I am! Look at my adopted child from some third world nation — aren’t I groovy?’ It’s all so pimpy to me. So I choose to say I know what my relationship is and I’m not going to use him to up my celebrity and that I don’t need to talk about it.”
Congratulations to Michael Keaton!
