SAG backstage: Arquette on aging; actors love 'Birdman'

Stars mingled on the red carpet and met with the media backstage at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards. USA TODAY's Bryan Alexander, Bill Keveney and Andrea Mandell captured the chatter.

Long time coming: Patricia Arquette, a SAG award winner for her supporting role in Boyhood, marveled that the movie — shot over 12 years — even got made. "I can't believe this little movie got funded because it breaks every rule of producing, to give money 13 years before you see a profit," she said. It "defies the logic of normal producing but the fact these guys did that was incredible." Asked what she may be doing in a dozen years, Arquette replied, "Twelve years from now I'll be 56. I have a 26-year-old kid. He'll be 38. I imagine I may be a grandma by then. And I've already said: Free babysitting. But, no rules with grandma. Grandma will be the one that's like, 'Yeah, let's stay up all night. Let's watch cartoons. You want chocolate? Anything you want.' That's payback time."

Peer review:Birdman won for best ensemble, and star Michael Keaton understands that the film's subject matter — a movie about actors — didn't hurt. "Huge appeal," he said. "You get voted on by your peers. And actors love this movie. For showing the courage that actors have to lay it all on the line. That's probably why they thought as a group we deserved a little prize."

Bird on a wire: "This was an extreme case," Naomi Watts said about Birdman. The long continuous shots. If you made a mistake you were possibly destroying another actor's best work. The responsibility of that made it incredibly pressured. On the flipside, it was incredibly exciting. If we all got it right, it was like winning a race. Fist-bumping, chest-bumping. Maybe that's why we got recognized. Actors understand that. They understand how connected we are to one another."

A rewarding role: Julianne Moore, who won for Still Alice, said playing a character with Alzheimer's Disease has proved rewarding. "I've gotten a lot of feedback from people in that community that they felt seen. They felt understood. That was really, really important. " Was the movie difficult to make? "People ask me if I took it home. Was I sad? I wasn't. The movie we made was not of loss, but what you value. What you love. What you want to do with the time you have. In a sense, it makes you very aware and present. I would come home every day and be grateful to my husband, my family, and my terrible dogs. All of it was something I was happy about it."

No shame: William H. Macy was so surprised about winning the SAG award for best male actor in a comedy series for Shameless that his first word was an expletive. He apologized backstage and expanded on his acceptance speech, when he talked about having been prepared in the past for awards that didn't come. "I've been doing these (ceremonies) for a while — thank you, God. And one must write a speech," he said. "There is a moment every actor will understand when you get home and take off your tuxedo and in your pocket you find a speech which was the best speech of the evening that you never got to deliver."

Inspirations: Viola Davis, winner for best female actor in a drama series for How to Get Away With Murder, described her inspirations to reporters gathered in the interview room. "Miss Cicely Tyson. She was the first actress that I saw when I was 6 or 7 years old. On a larger level, "I had a challenging childhood. Every bad or great relationship, every person I've loved has been my biggest inspiration."

Working out fine: Supporting-actor winner J.K. Simmons said he worked out hard for his role as an intimidating music teacher in Whiplash. "I dropped about 60 pounds. I got back in the gym," Simmons, 60, said backstage. "I am continuing to fight Father Time in the best way I can." Earlier, on the red carpet, Simmons, who has appeared in numerous movies and TV series in his career, marveled at "the amount of work that has come since Whiplash.The door that had been ajar has finally been kicked open. My wife calls that 'the Whiplash effect.'"

More work to be done? Simmons discussed whether he's the front-runner for the best supporting actor Oscar: "I honestly don't know what I am supposed to do. I already did my job. If people say I'm the front-runner, that's a good thing. It's good for the movie. I'm delighted to be the front-runner."

Happy to be here: "This project absolutely has served as the greatest gift that has ever impacted my life," said Uzo Aduba, winner of best TV comedy actress for Orange Is the New Black. "It was the conscious reminder to stick with it and never quit in everything you are doing in your life." She wasn't ashamed to admit she was a bit star-struck. "I got to meet Julianne Moore. We went to the same university. To meet Meryl Streep and Viola Davis, Bryan Cranston. That was really overwhelming."

Tough for travel: Laverne Cox saw one downside to winning a statuette as part of the cast of Orange Is the New Black: "Oh my God, the plane! This is going to be tricky getting through TSA."

Weighty matters: Emma Stone, a winner in the ensemble for Birdman, also had some comments about the award, called "the actor." Holding it with both hands, she exclaimed, "It's 600 pounds."

Reading material: Sophie Turner, nominated as part of the ensemble cast from Game of Thrones, admitted she hasn't exactly plowed through the hefty George R.R. Martin books on which the popular HBO series is based. "I used to read them quite a lot, season by season," she said, "but the show has veered away a little bit, so it's hard to keep up with two story lines." What's in store next season? "More death, more blood, more dragons!"

Decisions, decisions: Allen Leech of The Imitation Game sat with his fellow movie nominees rather than with his castmates from PBS' Downton Abbey (which won for TV drama ensemble). "I spent time with Downton Abbey at Golden Globes," he said. "It's like having divorced parents — you have to spend time with both. It's a high-class problem!"

A bit of bubbly: Nominated actor Eddie Redmayne and his wife, Hannah Bagshawe, just got back from England, where they popped a cork after his Golden Globe win for The Theory of Everything. "She used it as a good excuse to give me champagne," he said. "I'm not as big a fan as she is. She enjoys it."