SAG Awards Recap pt 3

The food there was a little better. It was super crowded in the after party and I have a feeling that they opened it up to more people because there were a lot of people I didn't recognize. Eventually I found out that there was a reserved table for people from The Big Short and I got to sit and talk with Adam McKay and Maria Tomei a bit. It was there that I found out that there was a cooler after party that was happening at Sunset Tower. They didn't stay long and eventually they left and I decided to walk around and try to talk to random people as well.

A video posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Jan 30, 2016 at 7:48pm PST

Going to mainly hurry it up since I've taken forever on this....

So basically I walked around and got to talk to random people here and there. We eventually met up with these people who were producers/actors who were really cool and actually interested in what we had to say. They eventually asked us if we wanted to go out with them to dinner and then partying afterward or something. Jeffry said we shouldn't leave the party just yet, so we decided to meet up with them later. We basically stayed at the party for another hour or so and then called the private car to go meet up with those people. On the way we got our SAG Swag bag though. It mostly had makeup and stuff we really couldn't use though.

A photo posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Jan 30, 2016 at 10:21pm PST

So then we started heading to the restaurant where they were at. When we got dropped off, there was like a lobby that we had to check in with and they asked us which party we were with. We told them the name of the person we knew and they said it wasn't on record, so then I had to text the person and ask them under who's name it was and eventually they told us. So we finally go up there and tell them who it was and they say we're only allowed to bring one person down, but we could get in contact with them to see if they wanted to bring more than one. So, I texted them again telling them those details and waited even longer. While we were waiting, we were talking to these girls who were also waiting to hear from their party to allow them to go up. They asked us why we were in tuxedos and we started cheesing and saying we just came from the SAG awards and we were in the big short and they started geeking out and asking to take pictures. The host came up to us and said we were allowed to up now and we told them we wanted to sit back and talk to these ladies a little longer. Eventually they got the confirmation to go up and we were like oh, we'll follow you. Then the host was like "Actually, your party is leaving and you're not allowed to go up anymore." So we had to stay in the lobby, which was embarrassing. Eventually the people we met came down and apologized and said that they were tired and going to go home. So, me and Jeffry attempted to go to the next party.

We had heard from Adam McKay earlier about the exclusive party at Sunset Tower so we asked our driver to take us there. We got dropped off and tried to walk in, but we were stopped by a guard who asked for our name. So I gave my name and he said we weren't on the list. I told them the director of The Big Short said we could get in blah blah and he basically just cut me off and said that's not how it works. So we kind of got double rejected, so at this point we didn't really have anywhere to go, which was disappointing because I didn't want the night to really end. We didn't really have any ideas at this point so I remembered that one of my friends was having a karaoke birthday thing at a bar so we drove to there. We walked in and just sang Karaoke with some friends. Some people were wondering why Jeffry was in a tuxedo and he would say he came from an awards show. Other people just asked me if I worked at the karaoke bar since the owner was Korean or something.... eventually we all left from there and I told my friend if he needed a ride back to our apartment building we all shared in a private car since they walked and we "rode back in style".

Anyways, that's basically it. Oscar party is tomorrow. Hopefully there's something interesting to say about that.

SAG Awards Recap pt 2

Picking up where the last one left off. Been really busy because Pilot season has been starting and I've been getting a lot more auditions. That and I'm shooting Hand Fart this weekend, which will be the biggest shoot I've done in pretty much my whole life. Anyways...

So, the award show kind of starts. I hadn't really watched award shows lately, so I didn't really remember what to expect. But when people ask me what it was like to be at the actual award show, I mostly just tell them that it's like watching it at home except you get to eat really bland food. I would say that only about half the people there were eating the food. The portions were really small too. I actually finished all of my food before the first award even got announced. I remember Steve Carell's wife, Nancy Carell, immediately noticed and asked if I wanted her food because she wasn't going to be eating it and I said no I shouldn't. Then she just plopped her plate down on top of mine and I was like ok....

Awards show food... Disappointed.

A photo posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Jan 30, 2016 at 7:14pm PST

Apparently the big moment when The Big Short was announced as a best cast ensemble nominee, the camera did a sweeping pan on everyone at the table. I didn't even realize it was going on so I was just eating at the time. A lot of my friends said it looked rehearsed, but even if it wasn't, it was so "me" that they thought it was the great moment of the awards for them.

My big moment at the SAG awards captured in motion.

A video posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Feb 4, 2016 at 9:40am PST

An interesting thing, I remember the first time I left to go to the bathroom and came back there was this guy that was sitting at my seat. I didn't know what was going on so I asked him what was up and he said "Oh, someone told me sit here." I didn't know if I was being relocated or something, but we had assigned seats and my spot had my name on it and everything. Eventually I figure out that every time you get up they have professional seat fillers to take your spot. I was kind of wondering why when I first sat down the guy who was sitting at Ryan Gosling's spot was definitely not Ryan Gosling....

During commercial breaks is when people tend to get up and start talking to everyone else. Considering I don't really know that many other people in this elite crowd, I was mostly talking to Jeffry and the people at my table. At one point Steve Carell and I talked a bit and I mentioned that I ate his wife's food and he offered me his food, which I tried to refuse again, but then he put his plate on top of mine so I just ate his plate too. I made a point to try to talk to people who I knew were originally from the New Orleans area so I went up and talked to Anthony Mackie (Captain America, Hurt Locker) and Jay Duplass. Both were super nice and happy to see that another Louisiana guy was around. I introduced myself as Stanley, but they made a point to ask for my full name. I guess hopefully in the future we'll run into each other again. They were both disappointed to hear that I was actually from the Mandeville area instead of the "proper" New Orleans area though. I tried talking to Ellie Kemper since we both worked on 21 Jump Street together, but she was too busy talking to Tina Fey for me to get a word in at that time. Jeffry wanted to get a word in with Leonardo DiCaprio, but he usually had a line of people trying to talk to him during breaks.

What you see when your speech is going on too long. This was for Leo's speech #sagawards

A photo posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Jan 30, 2016 at 8:20pm PST

So coming into the award show, I had read some predictions on who would win the big award. The Big Short was favored, but it was still a bit of a coin toss between it and Spotlight. Unfortunately the award was announced and Spotlight got it. It was a huge disappointment because I was really looking forward to being able to go up on stage. Once that award was announced, it ended pretty quickly and everyone started shuffling towards the after party.

I'll make a pt 3. Too long again.

SAG Awards Recap pt 1

So this whole experience was pretty amazing. It had it's share of disappointments, but obviously overall it's just incredible to just be a part of. So, I got a call on Thursday asking if I was available to go to the SAG awards. I was allowed to invite a guest, so again I asked Jeffry Griffin (Ryan Gosling's assistant in The Big Short) to go with me. When they found out that I was asking him to be my guest they actually offered to buy his flight from New Orleans to Los Angeles and they thought it was awesome that we were keeping in touch. They told me they were providing me with a private car and I should dress up etc. It was all happening so fast.

The next day I was scrambling to get a haircut and grab a tuxedo. I personally thought that it seemed weird for me to rent a tux for the event. Or at least to rent the same kind of suit everyone else was wearing to look like I fit in. The stylist there recommended that I wear a white jacket with a black shirt and black pants. I showed a picture to my sister and she said it was a "hard no" and that I looked like I was going to prom. I took a look at the time and realized I was already running late for the hair appointment. The stylist assured me that it will catch people's eye without being too bold, so I decided to just go with it.

The next day Jeffry came in and I helped him pick up his tuxedo. Then we went back and got ready for the private town car to pick us up. Apparently there was some mix up and while we were sitting around waiting for the call to come on my phone, Jeffry realized that the driver had contacted him 20 minutes earlier. So we went outside and got in the car and started heading out there. The driver was nice and related to us because she has a lot of family from Louisiana as well. The drive took a long time though (about an hour), and we ended up getting to the venue about 4:00 PM.

As we got out of the car I could see a crowd of people already screaming at some of the other people coming out. I spotted Susan Sarandon, Jim Parsons, and a few other people getting out the same time as us. I didn't really have any idea what we were supposed to be doing so I called one of the paramount publicists and she told us to just walk up and try to find them. So we ended up checking in through security and then started approaching the red carpet. From my experience from 22 Jump Street, you still needed a publicist to get you through it though so we waited around for them to find us. When they eventually got to us, they told us that unfortunately there wasn't enough time to walk us down the red carpet anymore and we had to go around the side into the venue because we needed to be in our seats by 4:30 PM. It was pretty disappointing, but we just walked through the side and went inside.

In the shit.

A video posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Jan 30, 2016 at 4:13pm PST

Once inside, we were asked to show and scan our tickets like three times. We had assigned tables and seats and I was surprised to see that our seats was literally right up front next to the stage. I was sitting at the head of the table right next to Ryan Gosling, Marisa Tomei, Christian Bale, and Steve Carell. I had a more prominent spot than even the director and some of the other main co-stars. We were also seated at the table in front of the Game of Thrones table, but I don't watch the show so I didn't really recognize too many of them. I got to meet with Bryon Mann and Christian Bale for the first time and I had short conversations with each of them. Soon after the awards started and we were all asked to sit down



I'm going to make a pt 2 because this is taking too long. To be continued...