Catherine Ohara Wins Posthumous Actor Award as Seth Rogen Accepts With Moving Speech
catherine ohara was posthumously honored at the Actor Awards on Sunday, winning best female actor in a comedy series for her role on The Studio, and Seth Rogen accepted the award on her behalf with a speech that drew a standing ovation.
Seth Rogen accepts the award for Catherine Ohara
Seth Rogen took the stage to accept the Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for The Studio’s late star Catherine O'Hara, calling it a "very sad honor" as the SAG-AFTRA crowd rose to its feet and applauded on Sunday.
How Rogen remembered her on stage
Rogen reflected on his time working with O'Hara and praised her capacity to be "generous and kind and gracious, while never, ever minimizing her own talents, " saying that "she knew she could destroy, and she wanted to destroy every day on set. " He shared an anecdote that before shooting days O'Hara would email him and co-creator and executive producer Evan Goldberg with a note that began, "Hello, I hope you’ll consider the following, " followed by a rewritten version of the scene that he said "100% of the time" improved the scene and the show.
Onlookers and fellow nominees visibly moved
As Rogen spoke, the cameras panned to teary-eyed co-star Kathryn Hahn, who was nominated in the same category, and to Jenna Ortega, who had been nominated against O'Hara and was seen wiping tears; Ortega had co-starred with O'Hara in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Rogen closed his tribute by urging people to show clips of O'Hara dancing to Harry Belafonte and moments from Best in Show—like the bit where she hurts her knee and hobbles around—so others would know "that’s Catherine O'Hara. "
O'Hara's role on The Studio and ensemble recognition
O'Hara played Patty Leigh, a former Hollywood studio chief, opposite Seth Rogen’s character Matt Remnick on The Studio, the Apple TV series co-created by Rogen and Evan Goldberg that satirizes modern Hollywood. Moments after the actor award presentation, The Studio won the award for best ensemble in a comedy series.
Death details, career highlights and industry response
The two-time Emmy-winning actress died in January at age 71; her death certificate lists a blood clot in her lungs as a result of rectal cancer. Another notice in the coverage described the cause as a pulmonary embolism with rectal cancer as the underlying cause in late January of this year. O'Hara was best known for performances in Home Alone, Best in Show and Schitt’s Creek, and her passing prompted tributes from co-stars across projects like The Studio and The Last of Us.
