At the pouring of SAG’s ‘The Actor’ statuettes, Ann Dowd and Clea DuVall geek out over the process

On a cold, rainy Tuesday morning, inside a foundry in Burbank, four craftspeople in metallic silver fireproof suits looked like something out of a vintage sci-fi film as they prepared a vat of molten bronze. With huge gray oven mitts protecting their hands, they retrieved porcelain molds from what looked like a vault of fire, and passed them down the line like a game of hot potato.

With an audience of several journalists and two actors crowding around, the workers placed the molds bottoms-up into what looked like a trough of sand. Then, with the help of a huge mechanical arm, they poured in the molten bronze that would soon become the statuettes given out Jan. 21 at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Call it a different kind of Hollywood casting process.

White-hot bits of bronze splashed benignly onto the floor by the feet of photographers, who stood on muddy strips of cardboard; they were too focused on getting the shot to worry about scorched toes.

“I love the idea of coming to a factory,” said SAG Award nominee Ann Dowd, who plays the nefarious Aunt Lydia on Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” “I don’t know if this is a factory, but I love pourings, can’t get there fast enough.”

Molten bronze metal is poured into molds in the casting of the solid bronze Actor statuette at American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank.

(Jesse Goddard / Los Angeles Times )

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In person, Dowd is the antithesis of her character: Compassionate and excitable, her eyes light up as she talks about witnessing the creation of the statuette that SAG calls “The Actor.”

“To be allowed to look in and see the process. Love!” she said. “I was fascinated by it, and it takes you back to skill, process, one step at a time. You see the end result and you think, ‘Oh! Who knew it was so many steps.’ I thought it was fabulous.”

The so-called “lost wax” casting process starts with a rubber mold followed by a wax mold that is perfected and covered with porcelain. The wax is then heated and poured off before the porcelain mold is put into the furnace until it is hot enough for the molten bronze. After the bronze sets, the mold is broken, revealing the statuette. The metal is polished and then given a patina that gives it the look of aged bronze.

Clea DuVall, a 2013 SAG Award winner, who stars in HBO’s “Veep,” was also on hand to view the pouring at the American Fine Arts Foundry.

“Seeing the people who work here every day and how long they’ve been working to make all these statues adds a layer of understanding,” she said. “When we were watching it, I thought, ‘Oh, it’s just like that show ‘How It’s Made.’”

Ricardo Godinez applies the patina to the solid bronze statuette.

(Jesse Goddard / Los Angeles Times )

Both Dowd and DuVall are recognized this year for their performances as part of an ensemble, the second consecutive nod for each.

“It’s cool, it’s really cool,” DuVall said of her nomination. “Especially being with such an incredible group of people and such talented actors. That was really meaningful to me.”

The SAG Awards is famously the only such show where actors get to honor their peers (for the Oscars, actors nominate actors, but all branches of the film academy vote for the winners). “I think that’s what’s really meaningful about it,” said DuVall. “People who really know acting the most. They look at performances in a different way, [since] they’re all doing it too.”

This year marks the first time the ceremony will have an emcee, an honor that falls to actress Kristen Bell.

“She’s not our first female host, she’s our first host period and that says a lot,” said SAG Awards committee member Elizabeth McLaughlin. “I think she’s going to do an amazing job. She’s hilarious and charming and smart, and I think she’s really going to set the tone for the awards this year.”

And that’s not the only thing this years’ show will be doing different.

“This year at the SAG Awards, we are celebrating women,” said McLaughlin. “So, with the exception of the winners of our actor categories, there will only be women onstage.”

She added that SAG-AFTRA is “working in support of the Time’s Up movement. I’m sure that the two are going to team up to make some huge differences in our industry.”

“The tide has turned,” Dowd said. “It is seismic.”

The 24th Screen Actors Guild Awards will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Jan. 21 at 5 p.m. Pacific time.

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Molten bronze metal is poured into molds in the casting of the solid bronze actor statuette at the American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank on Tuesday in preparation for the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

  (Jesse Goddard / Los Angeles Times)

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Ricardo Godinez applies a green-black patina finish to a solid bronze actor statuette for the Screen Actors Guild Awards after it is cast from molten bronze metal at the American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank.

  ( Jesse Goddard / Los Angeles Times)

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Ricardo Godinez applies a green-black patina finish to a solid bronze actor statuette after it is cast from molten bronze metal at the American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank.

  ( Jesse Goddard / Los Angeles Times)

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Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees Clea DuVall, left, and Ann Dowd at the pouring of the actor statuette for the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank.

  ( Jesse Goddard / Los Angeles Times)

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Each actor statuette is individually cast in solid bronze using the lost wax process, then given a green-black patina finish and mounted on a base of polished black granite by a team of fine arts professionals at the American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank.

  ( Jesse Goddard / Los Angeles Times)

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