【I Am a Plaything (2025)】

BEVERLY HILLS,I Am a Plaything (2025) Calif. -- When a crowd formed near the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Beverly Drive on an overcast evening, they weren't leaning in to gawk at Kim Kardashian.

The biggest star here was probably Steve Buscemi, which is saying something at the 2nd Annual Carney Awards, which honor outstanding achievements in character acting. Though you've seen them dozens of times, you may not know who they are.

And that is precisely the point.

And unlike the Oscars or the Emmys, actors receive Carney Awards -- named after Oscar and Emmy winner Art Carney, who played Ed Norton on The Honeymooners -- for their entire careers rather than a single role.

The Carney Awards aren't held inside a grand ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, but rather, the Paley Center's sparsely decorated screening room. Who needs fancy decorations when it's the audience of character actors that gives this awards show its personality? There are no programs and there's no podium, but there arecameras to capture Hollywood's most-decorated foot soldiers?

Fred Willard hosted the 90-minute show on Saturday night, which in addition to Buscemi also honored Gary Cole (Office Space), Stephen Tobolowsky (Groundhog Day), Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad) and Conchata Ferrell (Two and a Half Men). Dan Hedaya (Clueless) received the Chairman’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

You may not know their names, but you'd certainly recognize their faces.

Cole was the first honoree. Willard described him as a "man of a million faces" who "always gets the job done." The 60-year-old actor, who still has an enviable head of silver hair, got his big break playing Mike Brady in The Brady Bunch Movie. Just two years earlier, he had gone up against Clint Eastwood in the 1993 thriller In the Line of Fire.

"Every Clint Eastwood movie has a pain in the ass bureaucrat who dresses down Clint Eastwood. I had to get in his face, and be intimidated in reality," recalled Cole, best known for playing annoying boss Bill Lumbergh in Mike Judge's Office Space, which is now a cult classic.

"When I met Mike, I just ripped off the tape," said Cole, referring to Judge's animated Miltonshorts. "Nobody in that movie had the notion it would have the staying power that it's had."

Like his fellow honorees, Cole has had staying power. "I'm constantly learning what the possibilities are between 'action' and 'cut' in a particular scene," said Cole, who concluded by noting that when you're a character actor, "a lot of other people have to be involved in your success."

Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds) presented the award to Cole in the middle of Game 5 of the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians. "I'm just glad somebody's going to win something tonight from Chicago," Mantegna joked as The West Wingtheme played (Cole played VP Bob Russell in that series).

Banks was honored next, though he was unable to attend the show. Fortunately, his Breaking Badco-star Bryan Cranston taped a funny tribute that he used to plug his new book, A Life in Parts.

"What you may not know is he's a crusty old bastard. Just call him 'Cob,'" Cranston lovingly said of Banks. "I know him as a great man. He's actually a better man than an actor. And inside, he's soft. So soft. Like a marshmallow that you've burned so it's gooey on the inside and crusty on the outside."

In a pre-taped video, Banks said he was inspired to become an actor by the 1952 musical Singin' in the Rain. He caught a break when he was cast as a henchman of few words in the smash hit Beverly Hills Cop, which led to a starring role on the groundbreaking TV series Wiseguy.

Banks said he had never heard of Breaking Badwhen he auditioned to play Mike Ehrmantraut, but when he was done, the casting director wrote down a note. It read, "Does it get any better?" Years later, Banks confessed "I'm still trying to do that character justice."

Sons of Anarchy's Mark Boone Junior (who needs to be cast as Rick Rubin ASAP) came out next to present an award to Buscemi, the gold standard of character actors thanks to his memorable turns in Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, The Big Lebowskiand The Sopranos.

It turns out that he and Buscemi used to do theater together in New York, where they also had a band called The Pawns of Love. "When his name or face comes up, there's not a person who doesn't say 'I love that guy.'"

The Boardwalk Empirestar reminded the audience that "you don't have to be one thing as an actor" and before he left the stage, threw on Carney's 'Norton' hat to quote the character's classic line "Hello, ball!"

Up next, Willard hosted a makeshift game show called "Name That TV Show" that pit rock star Dee Snider against Wade Williams (Prison Break) and Gloria Garayua (Grey's Anatomy). When the theme song from TV's Batmanplayed, Willard asked Garayua if she knew who starred on that show. "Batman!" she shouted, prompting laughs from the audience.

"It's the Carney Awards, the only awards show to have a game show smack in the middle," said Willard.

This was around the time that Beth Grant, an actress from Speedand Donnie Darko, shouted out the score of the Cubs game. "Is that sports?" The Birth of a Nationactor Jason Stuart jokingly asked without missing a beat.

Acting legend Ed Asner sauntered out next, not caring that the microphone was blocking his face as he let the audience have it before bringing Hedaya to the stage. "He becomes every character he plays," said Asner.

Hedaya recalled having a fever while walking down Madison Avenue to meet two young filmmakers by the name of Joel and Ethan Coen, who were casting a little movie called Blood Simple. He went down to the subway and was about to enter the turnstile when he got second thoughts and turned around to go back to bed. He walked up six subway stairs before changing his mind again and deciding to audition for what turned out to be a landmark independent film.

Hedaya nearly made the same mistake with Cheers, in which he played Carla Tortelli's ex-husband Nick. That audition was in the Valley and Hedaya was dreading the trek. Fortunately, common sense prevailed, teaching him a valuable lesson -- "If it's in the Valley, go!"

The veteran actor said he loved working with Alicia Silverstone on Clueless, as he never had kids of his own and felt very "avuncular" towards her while playing her father. He also recalled working with Denzel Washington on The Hurricane, where he pushed back against say the N-word because the audience already knew his character was racist. Director Norman Jewison agreed, and changed the script on Hedaya's suggestion.

"With all the heartache and frustration, I wouldn't change a thing. It's an adventure, and a tremendous honor," concluded Hedaya.

Next up, Zane Lasky (Knots Landing) presented an award to his longtime friend Conchata "Chatti" Ferrell, who you may recognize from L.A. Law, Edward Scissorhandsand a pair of Julia Roberts films -- Erin Brockovichand Mystic Pizza -- though she's best known for playing Charlie Sheen's housekeeper Berta on Two and a Half Men,

When Ferrell auditioned for the CBS sitcom, producers asked her to read Berta in a Russian or Polish accent, but she told them it "didn't feel right" and read the role as "trailer park." It paid off, because she got the part, and the show went on to become a tremendous hit.

"I've been very lucky and fortunate to make my living doing the thing I love," said Ferrell.

Following an In Memoriam segment featuring a performance from Grammy-nominated country artist Deana Carter, it came time to honor Stephen Tobolowsky, who was presented his award by Airplane!actress Julie Hagerty. The two both appeared in Freddy Got Fingered, and she said that whenever you go to a restaurant with him, you'll inevitably hear people at other tables whispering about him and what they've seen him in.

Over the years, Tobolowsky has hunted down Thelma and Louise, worked with Christopher Nolan on Mementoand run into Bill Murray over and over again in Groundhog Day. He recalled the time he tricked Steven Seagal into killing him at the end of The Glimmer Manafter Seagal swore off killing people in movies because it brought him bad karma.

Tobolowsky said he was playing a gangster with a deaf-mute brother in the little-seen movie Calendar Girlwhen he ran into Seinfeldcasting director Mark Hirschfeld on the Sony lot. Tobolowsky had learned sign language for Calendar Girl, and it was because of that film that he scored the part of Tor the holistic healer on Seinfeld. He went on to recur on such shows as Glee, Californication, and currently, HBO's Silicon Valley.

Willard asked Tobolowsky how many people come up to him and yell 'Bing!' from Groundhog Day. "Today? Three," said Tobolowsky, who said it's better than the first time he was recognized... as the voice of Bando the Dog in Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco.

"I get people who lean forward and go, 'yeahhhhh,' said Cole, referring to his memorable line from Office Space. Cole also said that fans sometimes confuse him with Kevin Bacon

"I've been mistaken for John Waters and Gary Sinise," added Buscemi, who revealed that the line his fans yell at him most often is "shut the fuck up, Donnie!" from The Big Lebowski.

At a post-ceremony panel Q&A, the honorees recalled their horror stories of auditions gone wrong. "I hosted this very show last year and they still made me audition," joked Willard.

Buscemi told a hilarious story about being called in for a meeting with Home Alonedirector Chris Columbus. When an overweight Italian filmmaker entered the room, Buscemi was confused, as that wasn't how he pictured C olumbus. It turns out an entirely filmmaker was ma king a movie aboutChristopher Columbus, the explorer. Whoops!

All in all, it was a wonderful evening, and fun to watch character actors come together to honor their own. To be honest, it was just nice to be at an awards show where Meryl Streep wasn't nominated.