Depp in a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Reuters)

Los Angeles, Feb. 23 (Reuters): A cast of Hollywood hobbits and a Monster killer played by Charlize Theron won top honours at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, but a fishy pirate portrayed by Johnny Depp stole the show in an upset best actor victory.

The award for best film actress solidified Theron’s position as a front-runner for an Oscar, the US film industry’s top honours to be given out on Sunday. It also cemented the bid for the best movie Oscar from the hobbits of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

But Depp’s victory yesterday added an element of suspense to next week’s Oscars by giving him an award no one expected over favourites Bill Murray and Sean Penn. The actors of Rings were named best cast, and last year’s winner in the same group, Chicago, had earned the Oscar.

The SAG awards often provide strong clues to potential Oscar winners because actors make up the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscars. It has some 1,300 members, of the 5,800 voters for the Academy Awards.

On stage, Theron thanked “my angel and my date tonight, my mom, who put me on a plane with a one-way ticket to Hollywood when I was 19 years old. Thank you for being so brave and for letting me go to make my dreams come true”.

In the low-budget film Monster, South African-born Theron plays serial killer and former prostitute Aileen Wuornos, who was executed for murdering men who picked her up.

Theron gained 13 kg for the part, and her makeup and posturing masked her true beauty. “I knew we were working on something very special. It felt different than anything I have ever done before,” Theron told reporters backstage.

Bill Murray in Lost in Translation and Sean Penn in Mystic River were believed to have had a lock on the favourite’s position for best actor after earning Golden Globe awards for acting in January.

Depp, who played the wild-eyed and fanciful Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, was not on hand, but backstage Al Pacino, who won the actor award for his role in cable TV mini-series Angels in America, amplified the shock of everybody in the crowd. He lifted an eyebrow and declared himself “really surprised” and “really thrilled”. “He’s done so many interesting parts over the years that he got a reputation for being quirky, but he really wasn’t. He’s a fine actor,” Pacino said.