In “The Help,’’ Davis and Spencer play black maids going public with uneasy truths about their white employers in 1960s Mississippi.
“I just have to say that the stain of racism and sexism is not just for people of color or women. It’s all of our burden, all of us,’’ Davis said, accepting the ensemble prize on behalf of her “The Help’’ co-stars.
Accepting her best-actress award, Davis singled out two performers in the audience who inspired her early in her career: “The Help’’ co-star Cicely Tyson and Meryl Streep, Davis’ co-star in the 2008 drama “Doubt’’ and one of the nominees she beat out for the SAG prize. Streep had been nominated as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,’’ a role that won her the dramatic actress award at the Golden Globes over Davis.
A French film star who is a newcomer to Hollywood’s awards scene with “The Artist,’’ Dujardin played a silent-era screen idol fallen on hard times as talking pictures take over in the late 1920s.
“I was a very bad student. I didn’t listen in class. I was always dreaming,’’ Dujardin said. “My teachers called me `Jean of the Moon,’ and I realize now that I never stopped dreaming. Thank you very much. Thank you for this dream.’’
Plummer would become the oldest actor ever to win an Oscar at age 82, two years older than Jessica Tandy when she won best actress for “Driving Miss Daisy.’’
Backstage, Plummer joked when asked if he would like to win an Oscar, an honor so elusive during his esteemed 60-year career that he did not even receive his first Academy Award nomination until two years ago, for “The Last Station.’’
“No, I think it’s frightfully boring,’’ Plummer said. “That’s an awful question. Listen, we don’t go into this business preoccupied by awards. If we did, we wouldn’t last five minutes.’’
Spencer, a veteran actress who had toiled in small TV and movie parts previously, had a breakout role in “The Help’’ as a brassy maid whose mouth continually gets her in trouble.
“I’m going to dedicate this to the downtrodden, the under-served, the underprivileged, overtaxed — whether emotionally, physically or financially,’’ Spencer said.
