Uzo Aduba won the first award of the night for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for her work on the Netflix show. And her heartfelt speech revealed that she had actually quit acting on the day she got the role as “Crazy Eyes”. Clearly the universe had other plans for her.
Read her er speech is below:
Oh, my God! I really truly do not know what I want to say. I just – I want to say thank you so much to the Screen Actors Guild for this incredible honor. I want to thank Jenji Kohan for writing a show like this and putting something like this on television, not just for myself, but for our incredible team of actors, to be seen in such a beautiful way.
I want to thank Netflix and Lionsgate – oh my gosh – specifically Ted Sarandos, Cindy Holland, Nina, Lisa, Trim, Neri, Kevin, Sandra. I want to say a huge massive thank to our cast, without whom… without whom this is not possible. I love you guys so desperately, so much. This is not done without you, at all, any step of the way.
I want to thank my friends. I want to thank my family, and finally, I just really, really, really truly want to say that the day I got this job was the day I had stopped acting. And to be in a room with all of you amazing human beings, amazing talents… for what I respect and love so much, is really truly the greatest honor. Thank you so very much. God bless you all.
And that wasn’t all. Uzo and her co-stars Laverne Cox, Danielle Brooks (above) and more won the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Uzo gave yet another heartfelt acceptance speech on behalf of the entire group who was also on stage:
Thank you so much. Thank you so much to the Screen Actors Guild. Thank you so much. We want to say a big massive, massive thank you to Jenji Kohan, without whom this is not at all possible. We want to say a massive thank you also to Netflix, Lionsgate, to the family there. We want to thank you everyone who’s tuned into our show, who have watched our show and supported it in such a brilliant way. We are incredibly grateful for this tremendous honor.
Photo by Getty Images