Black Panther cast makes up for Oscars snub with win at the SAG Awards

Black Panther’s cast took home the SAG award for best cast, and Chadwick Boseman shared an inspiring speech to celebrate their victory.

Things are finally picking up for Black Panther this awards season, with the big news of its nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars, and now a win from the SAG Awards Sunday night. And where the Oscars slept on the cast of Black Panther,  the SAG Awards recognized the cast in all its glory.

During the award show, the film took home the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, making it yet another win for the monumental movie. Accepting the award that night was the lead, Chadwick Boseman, as well as co-stars Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael B. Jordan, Danai Gurira, and others.

While a majority of the movie’s cast gathered on stage to accept the award, it was Chadwick Boseman who gave the acceptance speech for the ensemble. And of course, because this is Chadwick Boseman, he spoke from the heart and gave one inspiring speech.

He began by recalling two questions he has been asked the most during promotional interviews for the movie: Did they know the movie was going to receive that kind of response that it did? And has it changed the industry?

To that, Boseman began by outlining what it was like to work in the industry, and how the cast hoped to change that with Black Panther. Here’s an excerpt of his speech, and you can find the clip of the speech below:

"To be young, gifted and black, we all know what it’s like to be told that there is not a place for you to be featured. Yet, you are young, gifted and black. We know what’s it’s like to be told “there’s not a screen for you to be featured on. A stage for you to be featured on. We know what it’s like to be the tail and not the head. We know what it’s like to be beneath and not above.And that is what we went to work with every day. Because we knew — not that we that we would be around during awards season or that it would make a billion dollars. But we knew that we had something special that we wanted to give the world. That we could be full human beings in the roles that we were playing. That we could create a world that exemplified a world that we wanted to see… That is something I wish all actors had the opportunity to experience."

Of the two questions Boseman recalls being asked, the latter is the most difficult to answer. To say one movie has the ability to change the entire industry would be a bit far fetched. But in the case of Black Panther, we are definitely working with something unique.

The impact of the movie is beyond measurable. And at this rate, how could movie studios not take cues from Black Panther and its success? Anything less, and we’ll be taking a huge step backward when it comes to making progress in Hollywood.

Hopefully, this win (and speech) will inspire the Oscars to follow through with handing the Best Picture award to Black Panther. I can’t tell if the Oscars have given Black Panther the nomination as fanservice, or legitimately for its merit.

Nonetheless, Boseman and the rest of the cast have made it clear that they worked hard on this movie. And I’d wager this film has been much more impactful and meaningful than any other film nominated for Best Picture this year.

Despite the cast being snubbed at the Oscars, this SAG award is truly a well-deserved win for them. We just hope it’s not the last the award Black Panther will receive.