(TNT)
Lily Tomlin received the Life Achievement Award at Sunday’s 2017 SAG Awards from Dolly Parton. Watch below!
The presentation began with Parton getting a standing ovation from the star-studded crowd, prompting her to exclaim, “I’m not getting the award!” After rattling off some jokes about chest size and “hog[ging] the show,” Parton said “actors and audiences” love Tomlin, but stressed her activism with “civil rights, animal welfare, issues facing the homeless and the LGBT” as just as important. Following a montage, Tomlin herself received a standing ovation as she took the stage.
“Thank you all so much,” Tomlin said. “How can I possibly express myself after Dolly and you guys?! What a week this has been, though.” She noted the Doomsday clock was moved up, cracking, “This award, it came just in the nick of time.”
Tomlin went on to describe her teen years as a trouble-maker, and said now that she’s older, younger stars are looking to her for advice. So, she suggested, “Don’t leave the house when you’re drunk.” She continued to crack up the audience, and urged, “Live your life so that when you’re honored for your achievement, the people called upon to make laudatory remarks can feel reasonably honest,” and don’t have to give “alternative facts or, worse yet, fake news.”
“I feel like I’m just getting started. What sign should I make for the next march?” she asked, rattling off causes. She then quipped, “I’m so glad this speech is almost over. We can all go out and really change things. As long as I don’t have to audition, I just may be back. Thank you all.”
It was revealed in early December that Tomlin would be the 2017 recipient of the SAG Awards’ biggest honor. It was later announced that her 9 To 5 co-stars, Jane Fonda and Parton, would bestow the award. Although Fonda ended up being sick and unable to attend the show, the country singer’s participation was particularly fitting as Tomlin helped celebrate Parton with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award at the CMAs last November, as Gossip Cop reported at the time.
Tomlin also went into tonight’s 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series, thanks to her starring role on “Grace And Frankie.” Co-lead Fonda was nominated in the category, too, but both lost to Julia Louis-Dreyfus. As this year’s Life Achievement Award honoree, Tomlin follows Carol Burnett (2016), the late Debbie Reynolds (2015), and Rita Moreno (2014). Check out the full video below!
