Melissa McCarthy has paid tribute to her co-star Richard E. Grant as she arrived at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
The Bridesmaids star is nominated for her role as biographer turned forger Lee Israel in Can You Ever Forgive Me? while Grant plays her friend Jack Hock.
She told People TV: “He’s tremendous, he’s always amazing but to watch him play Jack was really something.”
She added: “He is so lovely, something just clicked. It clicked the second I saw his sweet face.”
McCarthy is nominated alongside Olivia Colman for The Favourite, Glenn Close for The Wife, Emily Blunt for Mary Poppins Returns as Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born.
Close, who has already won the Golden Globe for her role as the spouse of a Nobel-prize winning author, said the film was like “the little movie that could”.
Asked about her memorable speech from this year’s Golden Globes, in which she said the role reminded her of her mother, she said: “I don’t think I could ever top that speech because it was so spontaneous and I think once you say it, you don’t have to say it again.”
She added she was wearing a ring that belonged to her grandmother, saying: “She wanted to be an actress and I only knew that after she died.
“I feel like I’m carrying the women in my family, (they) were wonderful mothers and wives, but could have had more personal expressions.”
Amy Adams, nominated for her roles in the film Vice and TV series Sharp Objects, said she felt “very blessed” to be honoured at the ceremony.
Talking about her role in Sharp Objects as journalist Camille Preaker, she said that being a mother meant she couldn’t take the darkness of the character home with her.
She said: “Being a mom, it really brings you right back down to earth and helps you keep a clear separation. I ran a lot and spent a lot of time just processing and being grounded.”
Mahershala Ali, who is nominated for best supporting actor for his role as pianist Dr Don Shirley, arrived at the awards in a maroon suit.
He paid tribute to his co-star Viggo Mortensen, saying: “It started with him, the tone that he set, being the more experienced actor, the one who came on to the scene with more presence.
“He was just about working together and working from a place of love and that is where I try to work from and we were giving each other permission to do our best work.”
