American Hustle danced off with the big honor of the evening at the 20th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles, winning outstanding cast in a motion picture.
Bradley Cooper dedicated his co-stars’ win to filmmaker David O. Russell. “He is an actor’s director,” Cooper said. “He is the reason why we all wanted to become actors as children.”
Cate Blanchett followed up on her win at last weekend’s Golden Globes with the best actress honor for Blue Jasmine.
“Thank you to those who voted for me,” she said. “For those who didn’t, better luck next year.”
Dallas Buyers Club co-stars Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto added to their own Golden Globe wins, and Lupita Nyong’o, who plays an abused plantation worker in 12 Years a Slave, took the trophy for supporting actress.
“I’ve been able to recently find some characters I could humble myself to their humanities and then get feverishly drunk on their obsessions,” McConaughey said after winning for best actor.
PHOTOS: The 2014 Screen Actors Guild Awards show
LIST: The SAG Awards winners
PHOTOS: From the red carpet
Leto dedicated his supporting actor award for his portrayal of a transgender AIDS patient to “the Rayons of the world, the people who made a choice to live their lives not as others would have them live it but as they have chosen to dream it.”
The SAG Award marked his third prize in a week for the role — he also won a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award, and is also up for an Academy Award on March 2.
Fellow Oscar nominee Nyong’o — also a recent Critics’ Choice winner — acknowledged Solomon Northup, the real-life inspiration for the movie: “Thank you so much for a life well lived and a story hard to tell but told so well.”
In the TV categories, best actress in a drama series went to Downton Abbey star Maggie Smith, and Bryan Cranston added to his Breaking Bad trophy case with an award for best actor. The series also won for best ensemble in a drama.
“I’ve had so many crappy jobs in my life,” he said, “and the only thing that got me through was dreaming that I could make a living as an actor.”
Phil Spector star Helen Mirren won her fifth SAG Award, this time for outstanding actress in a movie or miniseries, while outstanding actor honoree Michael Douglas added to his Emmy and Golden Globe victories for playing Liberace in Behind the Candelabra.
“I’ve got a 97-year-old member of SAG back at home who I know is particularly proud of me getting this award,” he said, referring to his actor father Kirk Douglas. “But I want to thank all of you here tonight for helping me get out of his shadow for a little bit.”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus did a comic turn with her Veep co-star Matt Walsh when accepting for best actress in a comedy, while Modern Family‘s Ty Burrell imparted lessons from his fictional book, Acting: How to Do It Good, after winning his first SAG Award for best comedic actor.
Lesson No. 4, he joked, is “Have no skill set other than being a needy extrovert.”
Burrell’s show won for best comedy ensemble — the fourth in a row for Modern Family.
The Screen Actors Guild also honored Rita Moreno with a life achievement award, presented by Morgan Freeman.
“A world-class actress, singer and dancer,” he said, “Rita’s also a fighter who battled to break free of racial and sexual barriers that plagued Hollywood’s golden age.”
Moreno, 82, accepted the award with singing, dancing and even a bleeped-out four-letter word. “Hopefully, it’s early in the third act of my life. The truth is, I still can’t believe it.”
