Morgan Freeman joined the likes of Carol Burnett, Debbie Reynolds, and Mary Tyler Moore when he was named the 54th recipient of the lifetime achievement award at the 24th televised Screen Actor's Guild Awards on Sunday night, January 22. Unlike the legendary women who have been recognized with the distinction before him, Freeman got to see himself represented by the male statue that comes with winning the award and acknowledged the bias during his speech.

“I wasn’t going to do this; I’m going to tell you what’s wrong with this statue... It works from the back, but from the front, it’s gender-specific," Freeman told a standing audience of longtime friends and industry peers after he was handed the statuette by actress Rita Moreno. "Maybe I started something.”

The stone figurine that is given out by SAG is known as "The Actor," and is the physical representation of a nude male holding a pair of masks: one of comedy and one of tragedy. Ironically, the statue given to Freeman over the weekend was a simple mask that bore little indication of any specific gender, though.

The 80-year-old Freeman received the award in his 30th year of acting. Since taking off with a late start in Hollywood (Freeman began doing film at age 50), he has won two Golden Globes awards, and an Oscar to go along with the SAG honor.

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Source: Variety