How Stars Earned Their SAG Cards: Rami Malek, Jennifer Lawrence and More

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How Stars Earned Their SAG Cards: Rami Malek, Jennifer Lawrence and More

Whether predictable or totally out of left field, Rami Malek, Jennifer Lawrence, Kerry Washington and more stars gave fans an inside peek at their careers' beginnings, offering insight into how they earned their SAG cards. Every year the Screen Actors Guild Awards honors actors, voted on by actors and focusing solely on their TV and film work — but every celebrity has a different story of how they received their SAG card. The token marks acceptance into the union for actors and usually makes its appearance after stars get their first onscreen jobs. Nominees at the 2022 ceremony, for their part, gathered in-person at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. The awards were held virtually one year prior, after initially being postponed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "After such a long time apart [during the coronavirus pandemic], we’re excited to be together again this year at the 28th annual Screen Actor’s Guild Awards," newly elected SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said in January 2022, as nominations were announced. [jwplayer kSwMh0c7-zhNYySv2] The 2022 nominees included Ted Lasso castmates Jason Sudeikis and Brett Goldstein, The Great's Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst for The Power of the Dog and Andrew Garfield, who showed off his hidden musical talents in Tick, Tick ... Boom! "This honor and recognition from my peers and friends in the Screen Actors Guild means more than I’m able to express," the 38-year-old said in a statement at the time. “Anyone with a SAG card feels and knows the story of Jonathan Larson in Tick, Tick … Boom! because it is their story. It’s the story of an artist longing to express themself, an artist longing to sing as much of their song as possible while they are here alive and breathing. It’s a story about longing to bring our gifts to the world; about following the thread of our destiny in the face of failure and rejection.” Like the past few years, the 2022 event kicked off without a host. However, Hamilton stars Lin-Manuel Miranda, Daveed Diggs and Leslie Odom Jr. reunited to open the show. Celebrities including Rosario Dawson, Alexandra Daddario and Ross Butler presented awards, while Kate Winslet will honored five-time SAG awards winner Helen Mirren with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award. Scroll to find out how stars — from Betty White to Sophie Turner to Neil Patrick Harris — got their SAG cards.

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Amanda Seyfried

The Dropout star earned her SAG card with a fan-favorite role: Karen Smith in Mean Girls. "It was my first movie, and we all just really enjoyed being around each other," she told Backstage in July 2022. "I just remember just feeling like: 'If this is what making movies is like, I've just hit the jackpot.'"

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Sarah Paulson

"I got my SAG card in 1994 doing an episode of Law & Order, which is a rite of passage for any American actor, I think, or any actor of any kind," Paulson said in 2016. "It was called 'Family Values.' "

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Elle Fanning

The Great star earned her SAG card before she turned 3 years old, thanks to a role playing the younger version of sister Dakota's character in I Am Sam. "I played her at a younger age, so we weren't really acting together. I was so young," Fanning told Entertainment Tonight in May 2020.

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Lamorne Morris

"I did a McDonald's commercial. It was back in Chicago. It was a Chicken McNuggets commercial and I was changing a sign to say 99 cents," the New Girl star told Elle. "It made me feel horror because I had to pay those SAG dues. I was like, 'I booked a McDonalds commercial, not a TV show.' But I felt validated, like finally I'm a legit actor." However, Morris added, "I did not get free McNuggets and I just want to let McDonalds know that that's kind of effed up. Get it together, McDonalds."

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Meghan Markle

Though the former actress did not reveal how exactly she got her SAG card, she did note how much she appreciated the union during her and Prince Harry’s tell-all interview in March 2021.

“In my old job, there was a union, and they would protect me,” the Suits alum said while discussing how the royal family did not help her when she opened up to them about her mental health issues.

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Rami Malek

The Mr. Robot alum revealed in January 2019 that his one-episode stint on Gilmore Girls in 2004 landed him a SAG card. “One day I got a call from the casting director of the Gilmore Girls,” he recalled to reporters. “She asked to speak to my agent. I said, ‘Speaking.’ She said, ‘Is this really Rami?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She asked if I had an agent. I said, ‘No, but I can work on it.’ She asked if I was SAG. I said, ‘No, but that’s something we can figure out.’”

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Kerry Washington

The Scandal alum told E! News in January 2013 that “the ABC Afterschool Special Magical Makeover is what earned me my SAG card, and I’m back here at ABC still. I think I was a cheerleader in it.”

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Jennifer Lawrence

“I did an MTV promo for My Super Sweet 16,” the actress explained during her 2013 acceptance speech for Silver Linings Playbook. “I remember getting [the card] in the mail and it being the best day of my entire life because it officially made me a professional actor — which put me in a category with all of you. And now I have this naked statue that means that some of you even voted for me.”

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Sophie Turner

How fitting! The actress received her SAG card for Game of Thrones. “I felt really great. It felt I was actually a real actress. I was part of something, finally,” she told Elle in February 2016. “I don’t actually know where it is — I think I lost it. But it means so much to me! I keep it in my heart.”

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Neil Patrick Harris

The How I Met Your Mother alum revealed to TV Guide in January 2011 that he got his card on a show called Throb. “I played a little kid who was stalking Jane Leeves,” he said.

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Betty White

The veteran actress told TV Guide that her SAG card arrived due to some good will. “Fran Van Hartesveldt, a commercial agent in town, explained to me that to get a SAG card, I needed a job and to get a job, I needed a SAG card,” she recalled. “He had pity on me and gave me one line in a show called The Great Gildersleeve. Years later, when I got my own show, I hired Fran as one of my writers.”

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Armie Hammer

The Call Me by Your Name star’s first role did not go exactly as planned. “I’m not sure what the movie ended up being called, or if it ever even got released. I think it was called either Laura Smiles or Laura’s Smile,” he told Vulture in June 2018. “I played a waiter, and they cut my head off from about chest up, and you only see me walk up with an apron and say, ‘Hey, do you guys need anything else?’ And that’s all I said! But because I actually said something, they had to give me a SAG card.”

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Laverne Cox

Her way! “I was eligible for many years before I actually joined,” the actress revealed to Elle. “I had to join when I booked an episode of Law and Order: SVU. The episode is called ‘Closet’ I think. I joined and I didn’t have the money for the dues so they put me on a payment plan. I paid off my SAG dues in 2008 over a six-month period.”

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Ellie Kemper

“I got my SAG card for a K-Mart commercial where I had a tarantula crawling all over my face,” the Office alum shared with Elle. “It was so furry and large and it felt closer to a kitten than an insect and it was actually kind of nice — I only work with real animals.”

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Tessa Thompson

The Thor: Ragnarok star received a SAG card after starring in two commercials as a child. When she later decided to pursue acting as a career, the union made a special exception for her. “When I was in my early 20s, I auditioned for a guest-starring role on Cold Case, and I got it,” she told Vulture. “I was super broke, I had eight jobs. … I couldn’t afford to join the union right away. I wrote them a letter about how I’d been in the union as a kid, how I hadn’t officially left but my dues had lapsed, and now I was really trying without support to pursue acting exclusively. I asked if there was anything they could do. All I did was pay my reinstatement fee, which at the time was like $70, and I got to join the union and do that episode of Cold Case.”

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Rita Wilson

Wilson earned her card on The Brady Bunch. “I played Pat Conway, the cheerleader who Greg chose to become head cheerleader,” she told Esquire in October 2014. “It was so much fun.”

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Alison Brie

“It was an anti-drug PSA,” the actress told TV Guide. “This was the first thing I ever auditioned for. They didn’t pay me to do the commercial, but they gave me my SAG card.”

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Samira Wiley

The Orange Is the New Black alum earned her card for the 2011 film The Sitter. “It felt unreal. It was something I’d always heard about and felt like I was going to work my entire life to get. It was like a dream come true,” she admitted to Elle. “I don’t know why I keep it in my wallet, but maybe in case someone is like ‘Are you?’ and then I can be like ‘Yes’ and pull it out. It’s like a detective badge: ‘SAG, please step aside.’”