‘How I Got My SAG-AFTRA Card’
Rami Malek
Nominated (2016): Outstanding Actor in a Drama, Mr. Robot“I officially got my SAG card on Over There, a Steven Bochco war series for FX. But I was Taft-Hartley-ed [a federal labor law precursor to becoming a SAG-AFTRA member] for Gilmore Girls. I think I had two lines.”
Ellie Kemper
Nominated (2016): Outstanding Actress in a Comedy, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
“I earned my SAG card doing a commercial for Kmart for a one-week sale on tents. I was camping with my on-screen husband, and there was a tarantula crawling across my face. Weirdly, I felt overwhelmingly calm while filming this. I guess you could say I had tarantula Zen. Maybe it was the knowledge that I was earning my SAG card. For whatever reason, it was an excellent experience.”
Reid Scott
Nominated (2016): Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy, Veep
“I got my SAG card in 2002 for a pilot called With You in Spirit. I remember thinking that the money from the pilot was a fortune. It wasn’t. After renting a car to get around L.A., paying off some debt and maybe buying a new pair of shoes, I was broke. I had to borrow money from my father just to join SAG.”
Christina Ricci
Nomianted (2016): Outstanding Actress in a TV Movie or Miniseries, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles
“I got my AFTRA card when I was 7 years old. I did a couple of those fake commercials for Saturday Night Live. At the time, there was a whole thing about medical waste being dumped in one of the rivers on the East Coast. My vignette was kids at a birthday party breaking open a piñata that was actually a cast and then playing in the used medical waste that fell out. Apparently I was really good at it, because I got featured!”
Amy Landecker
Nominated (2016): Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy, Transparent
“I got my SAG card doing a voice-over for a Tampax commercial where I echoed the voice of an on-camera actress with just one word: ballet. I made $10,000 in residuals. I never saw money like that in my life and it didn’t even matter what I looked like! I was hooked on [voice-over] from then on!”
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Nominated (2015): Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama, Game of Thrones
“Finally getting my SAG card in 2007 was huge for me. I did a pilot in New York for the Fox show New Amsterdam. I got so excited I went straight to the SAG online shop and bought four mugs with the SAG logo. Still have those mugs!”
Viola Davis
Winner (2015): Outstanding Actress in a Drama, How to Get Away With Murder
“I got my SAG card doing one day of work on a [1996] movie called The Substance of Fire. My character’s name was Nurse. I had to pass [Timothy Hutton a vial of] blood, and I got paid $518. I did my first take and thought, ‘Oh, my God, that was so easy!’ I started taking my wardrobe off and they said, ‘You’re not done.’ I said, ‘This is going to be hard work for $518—you got more money?’ But it was fabulous. I thought I had made it.”
William H. Macy
Winner (2015): Outstanding Actor in a Comedy, Shameless
“I got my AFTRA [American Federation of Television and Radio Artists] card first. I was in Chicago, I was in my twenties, and I did a commercial. They told me I had to join and I said OK, secretly going, ‘Wee, wee, wee’ all the way home. [Within the year, I got] the SAG card. You’re in the tribe, man.”
Uzo Aduba
Winner (2015): Outstanding Actress in a Comedy, and for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy, Orange Is the New Black
“Orange Is the New Black is when I got my SAG card. I was just like, ‘Wow, this means I’m a full actor now.’ It was such a big deal, and I remember being so thankful and feeling so proud.’
Jason Biggs
Winner (2015): Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy, Orange Is the New Black
“I received my SAG card in 1988, when I was 10, for a Pathmark supermarket commercial. I remember I had to eat a doughnut in one of the shots. Over and over again. Awesome.”
Richard Jenkins
Nominated (2015): Outstanding Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries, Olive Kitteridge
“It was Theater in America, which was a PBS series under Great Performances, in 1974. I was with Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, and we did a play about Oscar Wilde called Feasting With Panthers. I had a small part. We filmed it and were told we could join SAG—or not. I knew that it wasn’t easy to join, so immediately I said yes.”
Even Hollywood’s most celebrated stars have to pay their dues. Nominees for the 22nd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (plus some past noms and winners) reveal the gigs that granted them union membership in the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), two union organizations that merged in 2012.
Screen Actors Guild Awards, Sunday, Jan. 30, 8/7c, TNT and TBS
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