--- description: "What I’ve learned from working on Moonlight is we see what happened when you persecute people — they fold into themselves” title: Watch Mahershala Ali Give a Powerful Speech on Acceptance at the SAG Awards image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt478d785c2af60794/6988b7c92dce01c5939ec10f/gettyimages-633061400.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [awards](/tag/awards/) ## awards Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch Mahershala Ali Give a Powerful Speech on Acceptance at the SAG Awards by [Rachel Desantis / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Rachel Desantis / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 30, 2017 6:06 AM CUT by [Rachel Desantis / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Rachel Desantis / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 30, 2017 6:06 AM CUT The actor, who played drug dealer-turned-father-figure Juan in [_Moonlight_](http://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/8147292/type/dlg/sid/EWGLOBESMoonlightMM/http://www.fandango.com/moonlight2016%5F194816/movieoverview "undefined"), won for Best Supporting Actor at the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles Sunday. While accepting the award, Ali gave a powerful speech that emphasized the importance of accepting others and their differences. “I think what I’ve learned from working on _Moonlight_ is we see what happened when you persecute people — they fold into themselves,” he said. “And what I was so grateful about in having the opportunity to play Juan was playing a gentlemen who saw a young man folding into himself as a result of the persecution of his community, and taking the opportunity to uplift him and tell him that he mattered, that he was okay, and accept him. I hope that we do a better job of that.” “When we kind of get caught up in the minutiae, the details that make us different, I think there’s two ways of seeing that — there’s an opportunity to see the texture of that person, the characteristics that make them unique, and then there’s an opportunity to go to war about it, and to say that that person is different from me, and I don’t like you, so let’s battle,” he added. “My mother is an ordained minister, I’m a Muslim. She didn’t do backflips when I called her to tell her I converted 17 years ago. But I tell you now, you put things to the side. And I’m able to see her, and she’s able to see me. We love each other and the love has grown. And that stuff is minutiae. It’s not that important.” Ali has been a familiar face along the awards show circuit this season, nabbing an Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe nomination, and a Critics’ Choice win for his role in the moving Barry Jenkins drama. Though he’s been nominated for five other SAG Awards as a member of ensemble casts, this is his first solo nomination and win. “Simply put, it was the best thing I’ve ever read,” Ali [recalled to EW](http://ew.com/article/2016/10/20/moonlight-mahershala-ali-awards-season/ "undefined") in October of reading _Moonlight_‘s script for the first time. “These are all people we grew up with but never had their space on camera…I remember just being so moved by how specifically these characters were all drawn, how unique the story was, and feeling like I knew these people.” He beat out Jeff Bridges ([_Hell or High Water_](https://www.amazon.com/Hell-High-Water-Jeff-Bridges/dp/B01K5CB2DG/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483484925&sr=8-1&keywords=Hell+or+High+Water&%5Fencoding=UTF8&tag=entertain07-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=ab7d9853ce27de87a3f4451255b45afe&camp=1789&creative=9325 "undefined")), Hugh Grant ([_Florence Foster Jenkins_](http://www.amazon.com/Florence-Foster-Jenkins-Meryl-Streep/dp/B01K5CF9NK/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1483484775&sr=1-1&keywords=florence+foster+jenkins&%5Fencoding=UTF8&tag=entertain07-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=730d0b949df0bb7601aa38cc57aee738&camp=1789&creative=9325 "undefined")), Lucas Hedges ([_Manchester By the Sea_](http://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/8147292/type/dlg/sid/EWENTGlobeNomineesMM/http://www.fandango.com/manchesterbythesea%5F190012/movieoverview "undefined")), and Dev Patel ([_Lion_](http://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/8147292/type/dlg/sid/EWENTGlobeNomineesMM/http://www.fandango.com/lion%5F192142/movieoverview "undefined")) for the prize. [Click here](http://ew.com/awards/2017/01/29/sag-awards-2017-winners-see-the-full-list/ "undefined") for the complete list of winners. _This_ [_article_](http://ew.com/awards/2017/01/29/sag-awards-2017-mahershala-ali/ "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_Ew.com_](http://www.ew.com "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4653102/mahershala-ali-sag-awards-acceptance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4653102/mahershala-ali-sag-awards-acceptance/"},"headline":"Watch Mahershala Ali Give a Powerful Speech on Acceptance at the SAG Awards","datePublished":"2017-01-30T06:06:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-24T06:56:54.792Z","description":"\"What I’ve learned from working on Moonlight is we see what happened when you persecute people — they fold into themselves”","url":"https://time.com/4653102/mahershala-ali-sag-awards-acceptance/","keywords":["awards","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt478d785c2af60794/6988b7c92dce01c5939ec10f/gettyimages-633061400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel Desantis / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt478d785c2af60794/6988b7c92dce01c5939ec10f/gettyimages-633061400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Show","caption":"23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Show","creditText":"Kevork Djansezian—WireImage/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/awards/","name":"awards"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4653102/mahershala-ali-sag-awards-acceptance/","name":"Watch Mahershala Ali Give a Powerful Speech on Acceptance at the SAG Awards"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"\"What I’ve learned from working on Moonlight is we see what happened when you persecute people — they fold into themselves”","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4653102/mahershala-ali-sag-awards-acceptance/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4653102/mahershala-ali-sag-awards-acceptance/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```