Los Angeles – Rachel Weisz won the Screen Actors Guild Award as best supporting actress Sunday for her role as a rabble-rousing humanitarian-aid worker in the murder thriller “The Constant Gardener.”
The triumph at the guild honors, the last major acting prizes before the Academy Awards, boosts Weisz’s prospects at the Oscars, whose nominations will be announced Tuesday.
“It’s so special to be honored by fellow actors, so thanks very much to the tribe,” said Weisz.
Among those Weisz beat out was Michelle Williams of the cowboy romance “Brokeback Mountain,” which is favored for a big night at the Oscars and was the odds-on front-runner for Sunday’s best cast-performance prize, the guild’s equivalent of a best-picture award.
The other nominees for cast performance were the film biographies “Capote” and “Good Night, and Good Luck,” the ensemble drama “Crash” and the rap music tale “Hustle & Flow.”
“Brokeback Mountain” led the guild’s film contenders with four nominations. Along with Williams, Heath Ledger was nominated for lead actor, and Jake Gyllenhaal was in the running for supporting actor.
Ledger and Gyllenhaal faced strong competition. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays author Truman Capote in “Capote,” beat Ledger for the dramatic-actor prize at the Golden Globes and was considered a favorite for both the guild honor and the best-actor Oscar.
Gyllenhaal faced supporting- actor Globe winner George Clooney for “Syriana.” Felicity Huffman, the Globe winner for dramatic actress for the transsexual comic drama “Transamerica,” was a safe bet to take the same honor at the guild awards.
Kiefer Sutherland won as best actor in a TV drama for the action series “24,” while the airplane-disaster show “Lost” won for TV dramatic ensemble.
