Catherine O’Hara was posthumously honored Sunday at SAG-AFTRA’s Actor Awards.
O’Hara, who died in January at 71 after a brief illness, won for outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series for Apple TV’s “The Studio.” She also won as part of “The Studio” cast in the outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series category.
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O’Hara received a standing ovation as her “The Studio” co-star, Seth Rogen, walked onstage to accept the award on her behalf.
“I know she would have been honored to receive this award from her fellow performers, who I know she respected so much — she was such big fans of all of yours,” Rogen said. “I obviously you know, have been reflecting on the time I was fortunate enough to spend with her, working with her, and something that I’ve just been marveling at over the last few weeks was really her ability to be generous and kind and gracious, while never ever minimizing her own talents and her own ability to contribute to the work that we were doing. She knew she could destroy, and she wanted to destroy every day on set. And I haven’t said this to the other actors, because I didn’t want them to get ideas, but pretty much, every evening before she had a shooting day on our show, she would email me and Evan [Goldberg], an email that always was pretty similar, and said, ‘Hello, I hope you’ll consider the following.’ And then there would be a completely rewritten version of the scene she was in.”
Rogen continued, “And literally, 100% of the time, it made not just her character better, but it made the scene better and the entire show better as a whole. And she really showed that you can be a genius and be kind, and one of those things does not have to come at the expense of the other in any way, shape or form.”
Her nomination was for playing former studio chief-turned-producer Patty Leigh on “The Studio.” She was nominated alongside her “Studio” co-star Kathryn Hahn (as Maya Mason), as well as Jenna Ortega (Wednesday Addams on “Wednesday”), Jean Smart (Deborah Vance on “Hacks”) and Kristen Wiig (Maxine Simmons on “Palm Royale”).
During Rogen’s tribute to O’Hara, the camera panned to a teary-eyed Ortega, who worked with the late actress on Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Hahn was also visibly emotional upon hearing O’Hara’s name.
At the end of Rogen’s speech, he said, “I guess I’ll just leave you with this. If you have people in your lives that don’t know her work — if they’re kids in your lives, or just people who are out of touch or stupid or something, just show them O’Hara dancing to Harry Belafonte in ‘Beetlejuice.’ Show them O’Hara hurting her knee in ‘Best in Show’ and doing that amazing thing where she hobbles around, and tell the people as they are laughing, that that’s Catherine O’Hara — and we were lucky that we got to live in a world where she so generally shared her talents with us.”
Along with the Actor Award, O’Hara received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her role on “The Studio.” She previously won Actor Awards (then known as the SAG Awards) in 2021 for actress in a comedy series and as part of the comedy series ensemble, both for “Schitt’s Creek.”
O’Hara, of course, was a constant, beloved presence in film and television for five decades, starting with “SCTV” and later in films such as “Beetlejuice,” “Home Alone” and Christopher Guest mockumentaries like “Best in Show,” “For Your Consideration,” “Waiting for Guffman” and “A Mighty Wind.”
The star also received an Actor Award nom in 2011 in the outstanding female actor in a miniseries or TV movie category, for “Temple Grandin.” Her role as Moira Rose on “Schitt’s Creek,” of course, brought her more recognition and awards in recent years. Last year, besides her Emmy nom for “The Studio,” O’Hara was also recognized at the Emmys with a guest drama actress nod for her part in “The Last of Us.”
O’Hara’s death hit hard in Hollywood, where friends and fans shared tributes to the star: “Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you but I had so much more to say,” “Home Alone” star Macaulay Culkin wrote on Instagram. “I love you. I’ll see you later.”
“Really don’t know what to say… I told O’Hara when I first met her I thought she was the funniest person I’d ever had the pleasure of watching on screen. ‘Home Alone’ was the movie that made me want to make movies,” Rogen wrote on Instagram.
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