See Rita Moreno Steal the Show from SAG Life Achievement Winner Morgan Freeman
What can we say? Rita Moreno steals the show wherever she goes, whatever she does. On Sunday night, ..
What can we say? Rita Moreno steals the show wherever she goes, whatever she does. On Sunday night, the legendary actress did just that at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where she presented her onetime Electric Company co-star Morgan Freeman with the night’s Life Achievement award—a decoration he once presented to her.
As Moreno took the stage, she received a standing ovation—to which she responded with no shortage of gratitude. And even as Freeman accepted his award, the actress’s presence was unrelentingly charismatic. As he began his speech, she couldn’t help teasing him, instructing, “Morgan, lift up your hat! Lift it up!” Freeman did, indeed, push his baseball cap upward. “There you go,” she said approvingly once he did so. “Now we can see you.”
“You have no idea how long I had to put up with that,” Freeman joked before launching into his speech. “These moments in one’s life usually will call for an entire litany of thank-yous. I can’t do that because I don’t know all of your names. So I won’t try.” Freeman did thank SAG-AFTRA, his family, his business partner, his life partner—and, of course, Moreno herself. “This is beyond honor,” Freeman said. “This is a place in history. Oh, and one more thing: I wasn’t going to do this. I’m going to tell you what’s wrong with this statue. It works from the back. From the front, it’s gender specific. Maybe I started something.”
As Freeman prepared to leave the stage, Moreno also offered to help him carry his new award. (Freeman’s hand was injured and paralyzed years ago in a car crash.) “Do you want some help, dear?” she asked, before making one last quip: “You have no idea how heavy these things are.”
Get Vanity Fair’s HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Full ScreenPhotos:The Must-See Looks from the 2018 SAG AwardsLaura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com. She was formerly an editorial assistant at Slate and lives in Brooklyn.
