SAG Awards 2014: Cate Blanchett wins female actor in a leading role

Cate Blanchett won the Screen Actors Guild award for female actor in a leading role Saturday for her portrayal of Jasmine, the fallen New York socialite in the Woody Allen film “Blue Jasmine.”

It is Blanchett’s third SAG win, following supporting honors for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s 2004 movie “The Aviator” and as a member of the “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” ensemble. She has 13 SAG nominations as an individual and ensemble member.

The SAG award comes on the heels of a virtual awards-season sweep for Blanchett. She won the Golden Globe and honors from the National Film Critics Society, the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. and New York Film Critics Circle, and she’s in the mix for the Academy Awards and Independent Spirit Awards.

PHOTOS: SAG Awards 2014 top winners and nominees

“You already decide when Woody calls that you’re going to do it, but I went through the charade and said, ‘Absolutely. I’d love to read it,’” Blanchett told The Times last year. “So he sent it, and I was just gobsmacked. He asked me to call him as soon as I read it, which I did the next day, and then it was a really short call. You could count the seconds. ‘See you in San Francisco. Thank you.’”

Blanchett beat Sandra Bullock as a stranded astronaut in “Gravity,” Judi Dench as an Irish mother searching for the child she was forced to give up for adoption in “Philomena,” Meryl Streep as a pill-popping, truth-telling matriarch in “August: Osage County” and Emma Thompson as the starchy author and “Mary Poppins” creator P.L. Travers in “Saving Mr. Banks.”

The 20th SAG Awards are being held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

ALSO:FULL COVERAGE: Screen Actors Guild Awards 2014

SAG Awards 2014: The complete list of nominees and winners

PHOTOS: SAG Awards 2014 presenter portraits by The Times