Michael Keaton almost missed accepting his SAG Award for his performance in Dopesick due to a long line in the men’s room.
The 70-year-old actor, who won the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or limited series, made award presenter Salma Hayek wait for a couple of minutes before appearing on stage.
“Are you kidding me? I have stage fright,” Hayek joked, as soon as she spotted Keaton jogging through the audience. “Come on Michael, come on Michael.”
In a hurry, Keaton avoided taking the stairs and instead jumped up and rolled over the stage in a makeshift somersault to get up there quickly.
“Thank you very much,” the Spider-Man actor said, after finally accepting the award from Hayek. “Sorry, quick trip to the men’s room. It’s packed, by the way.”
In his acceptance speech, Keaton lauded Ukraine’s president and “fellow actor” Volodymyr Zelensky for “fighting the fight”. He also spoke about the “privilege” that allowed him to become an actor.
“I am so fortunate. We could spend a week here talking about how fortunate I am, and I know you would all love that,” Keaton said. “Everyone wants to hear Mike ramble on for a couple of hours.”
“I’m so blessed to do what I do, and so fortunate. I have a job where I can be part of a production like Dopesick, that actually can spawn thought, conversation, actual change. Who gets to have that job? How fortunate am I that good can come from something I do just because I wanted to become an actor?” he added.
Keaton also spoke about the “massive inequity” in the world.
“In Dopesick, when you talk about addiction, the way to heal the problem is to accept that you have a problem. Not our country – the entire world,” he said. “Economically, racially, socially, financially. There’s massive inequity in the world. There just is. There’s fair, and there’s unfair. There’s not a lot of room in between.”
He then gave a moving tribute to his nephew Michael, who died of fentanyl and heroin use in his thirties, by dedicating his award to him.
“Given the subject matter, this is for my nephew, Michael, and my sister, Pam,” he said. “I lost my nephew Michael to drugs, and it hurts. To my sister Pam, thanks.”
