ShōgunSweeps Award Season with 2025 SAG Win as Star Hiroyuki Sanada Celebrates the 'Universal Language' of Acting

Mar. 15, 2025

Shōgundominated at the 2025Screen Actors Guild Awards.

As the cast gathered onstage to accept the award,Hiroyuki Sanadathanked the room for “recognizing” the show. He added, “This is so special because this is from you guys.”

He gave a shoutout to the team behind the show, as he thanked them for “respecting our culture and believ[ing] in us. It was a great journey.”

Sanada specifically called out how the series “must have been a big gamble” as it was “70% japanese and with subtitles.”

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

“They were so brave,” he said. “ButShōgunand this award [is] showing us that acting is a universal language. Thank you so much!”

His costars Tadanobu Asano, Anna Sawai, Hiroto Kanai, Ringo Sheena, Tommy Bastow and Shinnosuke Abe joined him onstage to accept the award.

From left: Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai in ‘Shōgun’.Katie Yu /FX / Courtesy of FX via Everett Collection

Katie Yu /FX / Courtesy of FX via Everett Collection

“A mixture of creation and real history. Of course it’s international entertainment so let’s see how we can create an original script and share it with the world,” Sanada said.

From left: Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton and Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington in Season 3 of ‘Bridgerton’.Courtesy of Netflix

Courtesy of Netflix

The other nominees includedBridgerton, which premiered in 2020. The hit Netflix show’s third season followedNicola Coughlan(Penelope Bridgerton) andLuke Newton’s (Colin Bridgerton)friends-to-love romance, which is detailed in the fourthBridgertonbook,Romancing Mister Bridgerton.

Newton, 32, told PEOPLE ahead of the release of season 3 that “ultimately the goal was for it to seemreally authentic to those two characters” when it came to the show’s much-talked-about steamy scenes.

“We just wanted to honor that because people have a lot of love for their relationship, and we wanted to keep it really true to that,” he explained. “So we would have discussions about how their first encounter would be and what the intimacy would be like, and if it would be, and we talked to the intimacy coordinator even [about] the intensity of the scene.”

He added that he and Coughlan, 38, discussed “how gentle they would be with each other when it’s the start of something and where we can take it from there.”

The ensemble cast also includes Luke Thompson (Benedict Bridgerton),Simone Ashley(Kate Sharma),Jonathan Bailey(Anthony Bridgerton), Harriet Cains (Philippa Featherington), Polly Walker (Lady Portia Featherington), Bessie Carter (Prudence Featherington), Jessica Madsen (Cressida Cowper), Adjoa Andoh (Lady Danbury), Jessica Madsen (Cressida Cowper), Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte), Emma Naomi (Alice Mondrich), Hugh Sachs (Brimsley), and Ruth Gemmell (Lady Violet Bridgerton).

Eddie Redmayne as the Jackal in ‘The Day of the Jackal’.Marcell Piti/Carnival Film & Television Limited

Marcell Piti/Carnival Film & Television Limited

The Day of the Jackal —starringEddie Redmayne— is a remake of Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel and the 1973 film, in which Edward Fox played the titular assassin.

“I’m an actor — what I love is doing different things, and if that can subvert people’s expectations a bit, then that’s thrilling,” Remayne, 43,told PEOPLEin December.

It helps that the Jackal himself is “fundamentally” an actor, too. “[That was] one of the things that I enjoyed most about this part,” he explained. “Rather than reaching out for the character, I kept saying, ‘Hey, if I was this guy’ — other than having one eye stronger than the other so I’m a really s— shot — I was like, ‘How would I go about this? How would I manipulate the situation?'”

“I kept drawing him back to me, and so it’s been a ton of fun,” he added. “It’s also played into… I’m quite obsessive and meticulous, and so is the character, so I think they cast quite well on that.”

The Peacock series also starsLashana Lynch, Charles Dance, Khalid Abdalla, Richard Dormer, Chukwudi Iwuji, Lia Williams, Eleanor Matsuura, Jonjo O’Neill, Nick Blood, Sule Rimi, and Florisa Kamara.

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in episode 103 of ‘The Diplomat’.Netflix

Netflix

The Diplomat —which premiered in April 2023 — chronicles Kate, the U.S. ambassador to the U.K., attempting to prevent another world war after a British aircraft carrier was bombed. During the show’s first two seasons, she worked to uncover who was behind the bombing.

Russell, 48, toldHarper’s Bazaarin October that the hit Netflix series is “letting us peek inside and behind the curtain of the diplomatic world of the State Department. It is a very private world, probably for good reason.”

“All of those things were exciting, but specifically the fact that she was creating this character who did not necessarily fit the mold [of a typical diplomat]—with the way she looks, her hair and clothes; she is too bold and not polished. That was the fun stuff for me,” she said of show creator Debora Cahn.

In addition to Russell, the cast ofThe Diplomatalso includes Rufus Sewell (Hal Wyler),Allison Janney(U.S. Vice President Grace Penn), Ato Essandoh (Stuart Hayford), Ali Ahn (Eidra Park),David Gyasi(Austin Dennison) andRory Kinnear(Prime Minister Trowbridge).

“You know, to be able to sort of wrap it all up playing Jackson Lamb, I would consider myself very honored and very lucky to be able to do that,” he told the outlet.

The cast ofSlow Horsesalso includesKristin Scott Thomas,Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Kadiff Kirwan,Jonathan Pryce, Hugo Weaving, Joanna Scanlan, Ruth Bradley, Tom Brooke and James Callis.

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SeePEOPLE’s full coverage of the 31st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, airing on Netflix.

source: people.com