‘1883’ Star Sam Elliott Calls His SAG Upset “The Most Meaningful Acknowledgement Of My 55-Year Career”

Industry veteran Sam Elliott won his first-ever Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or limited series, beating out category frontrunner and horror darling Evan Peters during Sunday’s (Feb. 26) awards show. 

“After seeing the work of my fellow nominees, I’m not sure I should be standing up here, but I’m sure I’ll get over that,” Elliott said in his acceptance speech, which he read off a piece of paper because he “​​didn’t expect to be up here.”

The actor, 78, plays Shea Brennan in 1883, a Yellowstone prequel series that tells the story of how the Dutton family established what would later become Yellowstone Ranch. 

“What can I say in 45 seconds, after just receiving the most meaningful acknowledgement of my 55-year career from a group of my peers?” Elliottt said. “Many of whom I don’t even know, or know only from afar as a fan who respects their work.” 

This is the first SAG award he’s received in his decades-long career spanning television and movies, including A Star is Born, Family Guy and The Ranch, among others. This is also the first award he’s received so far for his performance as Shea Brennan.

He also thanked his castmates and Yellowstone and 1883 creator Taylor Sheridan, saying, “There’s a piece of this for all of you. Not only for who you are but your beautiful work that helped me find the way. I love you all for that.”

Elliott’s victory came as a surprise to the audience as well, since Peters was largely considered the category frontrunner for his work in Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Peters’ stoic performance as one of the country’s most notorious serial killers lead the true crime series to become a hit in 2022. It went on to surpass Bridgerton as Netflix’s second-most popular English language show, right behind Stranger Things.

The other category nominees included Steve Carrell for The Patient, as well as Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser, who were both nominated for Black Bird.

Viewers online seemed divided over the news of Elliott’s surprising victory.

“Sam Elliott, you said some dumb shit towards Power of the Dog, but you deserve every Best Actor award for 1883,” one Twitter user wrote, referring to the comments Elliott made in 2022 about Jane Campion’s Academy-Award winning film in which he criticized its “allusions of homosexuality” and called it a “piece of shit” movie.

“It’s sad that the SAG awards preferred to just give awards to veteran actors instead of the real talent like Evan Peters,” another person tweeted. “And Sam Elliott of all people who made homophobic comments a few years back about the movie Power of the Dog. Politics gets in the way again.” 

Peters has become a staple in horror television since starring in American Horror Story. While this may have been a monumental win for the veteran actor, there are certainly more wards down the road for Peters, as well.