This year’s Actor Awards (previously known as the SAG Awards) saw three Filipino actresses take the stage to receive one of the evening’s most important accolades.
The Pitt’s Isa Briones, Kristin Villanueva, and Amielynn Abellera joined their cast members to accept the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.
“I’ve never been more proud of a group of people in my life,” said The Pitt star Noah Wyle as he accepted the award on behalf of the ensemble. “It’s been challenging and difficult and rewarding in ways that I couldn’t possibly fathom. But I look at your faces and every second of it, I wouldn’t change one thing.”
The HBO medical drama, now on its second season, follows the healthcare professionals of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s ER as they navigate high-stakes surgeries, droves of incoming patients, and their own internal struggles. Abellera and Villanueva play Filipina nurses Perlah and Princess respectively, and this latest season has seen both of them step up to take charge in the medical bay and make sure that the people of the Pitt stay afloat. Briones plays Dr. Trinity Santos, an ambitious but stubborn second-year resident doing her best to survive her ever-growing pile of cases, charts, and responsibilities.
This is not the first time that Filipinos have graced this particular award ceremony’s stage. In 2019, Darren Criss took home the award for Best Actor in a Limited Series, making him the first Filipino to be recognized by the award-giving body.
“The fact that I get to be able to represent… it’s so special,” said Briones in a red carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight. “When we have the opportunity to show who we are, we have to take that moment, because unfortunately it doesn’t come very often. We’re here to be like, ‘There needs to be more of this. We’re not going away.’”
Briones’ father, the acclaimed actor Jon Jon Briones, was also there to support his daughter. “Everyone in the Philippines right now [is] crying and their hearts are so full and very proud of this little one,” said Briones in the same interview. “We have very little to be proud of sometimes, but what we have is heart and talent and love, and that’s what we’re hanging onto.”
