Actor® Statuettes Cast for 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®

SAG Awards® will be simulcast on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 19, 2016) – The Actor® statuettes—which this year’s 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® honorees will receive for outstanding performances in 2015—have been cast in solid bronze at the American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank, California.

In attendance were SAG Awards Committee Vice Chair Daryl Anderson, SAG Awards Committee member Jason George (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and SAG Awards nominee Emily Robinson (“Transparent’).

The Actor® was sculpted by Edward Saenz and designed by Jim Heimann and Jim Barrett. Each statuette is produced at the American Fine Arts Foundry under the supervision of Brett Barney and Angel Meza. One of the most popular interpretations of the sculpture is that The Actor is pondering the two masks he holds, wondering which he will be called upon to wear.

Each Actor® statuette is individually cast in solid bronze using the lost wax process, then is given a green-black patina finish and mounted on a base of polished black granite by a small team of fine arts professionals. The completed work of art weighs 12 pounds and stands 16 inches tall.

Each Actor® statuette carries a serial number engraved at its base, with The Actor No. 1 kept on display at SAG-AFTRA headquarters in Los Angeles. Since 1995, when the first Actor® statuettes were presented, over 1,000 have been made and 952 statuettes have been awarded.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards will not know how many of The Actor® statuettes it will need until the awards presenters open the envelopes on Jan. 30. Though the number of categories is known ahead of time, the possibility of multiple recipients sharing awards in the Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series categories makes the total number of statuettes that will be awarded unpredictable. Any surplus Actor statuettes will find a home in the SAG Awards vault until next year.

Five 10-foot, 200-pound likenesses of The Actor® statuette, that were introduced at the 9th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, will grace the red carpet, the stage, the media rooms and Post-Awards Gala at the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. Scenario Design in Los Angeles constructed the painted fiberglass statues under the supervision of Scenario Design President Paul Buckley and Scenic and Sculpting Department Head Daniel Lucas.

Additional Statuette Facts: 

• About 93 pounds of wax will be used to create the molds in which the statuettes are cast, and the process incorporates 225 pounds of ceramic mold material. 

• Ten craftspeople produce the awards from scratch in a period of 3 to 4 weeks. 

• There is a tie for the individual record holder for most Actors. Both Julianna Marguiles and Alec Baldwin have been awarded eight actors each. Marguiles received four for individual performance and four for ensemble performances, while Baldwin received seven for individual performances and one for ensemble performances. 

• Five actors have been awarded Actor statuettes for two different roles during the same year: Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Albert Finney, Helen Mirren and Gary Sinese.