Sterling K. Brown couldn’t contain his SAG Awards excitement in just one suit jacket! The 41-year-old This Is Us actor made history as the first black man to win in the category of Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series. And he was over the moon when his cast won the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Award – a shocking upset.
“I think for the whole season, we heard the shine has been going to The Handmaid’s Tale and The Handmaid’s Tale is a wonderful, wonderful show, deserving,” Brown told ET’s Cameron Mathison after his big wins. “That they called us -- we looked around at each other. We were like, ‘This is happening.’”
In fact, Brown was so elated by the win that he ripped his own jacket!
“Oh I totally ripped my jacket. I think I sweated through my shirt. It’s right here!” he said, pointing out the rip. “No joke, it’s like sorry to Mr. Armani for ripping your clothes, but…”
The rest of the cast was equally excited by the honor, with Mandy Moore posting an Instagram Stories video with co-star Chrissy Metz, calling the win “bonkers!”
The ladies of This Is Us, including Moore, Metz, and Susan Kelechi, all happened to show up to Sunday’s show in almost identical royal blue hued dresses. Brown revealing the matching was unintentional.
“They didn’t even call each other!” he insisted. “We all show up and I was like, ‘Are we blue tonight? So that’s what’s going on, it’s blue?’ And they didn’t know – they had no idea.”
As excited as the cast is for their big win, Brown’s own personal accomplishments and his history-making Male Actor win aren’t lost on him.
“It’s a big deal and, you know, I feel like there’s something about our show,” he said, noting that no other black man has won the award in the award show’s 24 years. “I appreciate folks saying job well done to me, but there’s something about the show, there’s something about the character of Randall in particular. This young man raised in a white family who’s trying to figure out his space in life, who has anxiety, who’s a perfectionist, but who’s a family man. There’s something really beautiful about the character that can be relatable to African Americans, but he’s [also] relatable to everybody. I just feel like I got the blessing that I got a chance to play him.”
True to form, Brown stayed tight-lipped on the mystery surrounding Jack’s death, but he did give fans some clues as to how the rest of the season will pan out.
“It’ll happen before the end of the season,” he said of the reveal. “And I feel like the anticipation that has been built up over it – Dan Fogelman wrote a hell of a script for it to be a great pay off so folks won’t be disappointed. There will be tears. It will be sad, but as we already know, life goes on.”
