The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Tony Shalhoub Was Really Not Expecting His Best Actor in a Comedy Series Win at the 2019 SAG Awards

Suffice to say, Tony Shalhoub didn’t enter the Shrine Auditorium tonight thinking he’d walk out a winner.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel actor, nominated for his turn as Midge’s father Abe Weissman, was up against heavy-hitters like recent Golden Globe winner Michael Douglas and Emmy winners Bill Hader and Henry Winkler in the category of Best Actor in a Comedy Series at Sunday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards. So when presenter Alec Baldwin, alongside host Megan Mullally, revealed that he’d taken top honors, he took the stage and admitted that he didn’t expect to be standing there at all.

“OK, I have nothing prepared. For obvious reasons. Look at this category,” he told the crowd, before turning his attention not to the three recent award winners in his category, but a fourth nominee and Douglas’ co-star in the Netflix comedy The Kominsky Method. “I just want to start by saying the greatest honor of my life is to be nominated in the same category as Alan Arkin who has long been an idol of mine and I’m happy to say a friend. But I think he was the reason I wanted to become an actor in the first place.

As Arkin looked on gratefully, Shalhoub turned finished up his speech with the traditional thank yous—with one notable twist.

“That said, I want to thank everyone at Amazon. Jen Salke, everybody,” he continued. “Especially James Sterling in Legal Affairs, and not just because I’m in the middle of a renegotiation. Thank you to my incredible cast and crew and my beautiful wife Brooke. All of you, I thank you.”

It was a big night for Amazon comedy, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino. Star Rachel Brosnahan took home The Actor for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor, while the entire cast earned one for Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

The win marks Shalhoub’s third SAG Award win his career, with the first two coming courtesy of his long-running USA series Monk.

Congrats!