Liev Schreiber Says He Almost Skipped 2025 Critics Choice Awards

Liev Schreiber is proving he’s part of a perfect couple!

The actor, 57, gave his wife Taylor Neisen and son Sasha a special shout-out after his win for best supporting actor in a limited series or movie made for TV for his role in The Perfect Couple at the 2025 Critics Choice Awards.

“Thank you to my beautiful wife Taylor and my son Sasha for convincing me to come,” he said. “I told them that there’s no way on God’s earth and that company that I would win this award.”

Schreiber continued, “I’m very, very grateful, and I think it really comes down to Susanne Bier, Nicole Kidman, Dakota Fanning – an extraordinary ensemble of actors.”

The actor shares children Sasha, 17, and Kai, 16, with his ex-girlfriend Naomi Watts, whom he dated from 2005 to 2016. He also shares daughter Hazel Bee with his wife Neisen.

Based on Elin Hilderbrand’s New York Times bestselling novel by the same name, The Perfect Couple uncovers dark family secrets after Merritt (Meghann Fahy), the best friend of Sacks’ Eve Hewson, comes up dead. The investigation soon zeroes in on Tag — Benji’s father who was having an affair with Merritt and got her pregnant.

In September, Hilderbrand told PEOPLE that Schreiber was her dream actor for the role, detailing how he got cast.

“I really wanted Liev to do it,” she said. “I was a huge Ray Donovan fan, he’s one of my favorite actors. And I sent my wish to the showrunner. And she said, ‘I don’t know.’ And then a few weeks later, she goes, ‘Elin, you might get your wish.’ And she didn’t say in regard to what, but I was hoping that’s what she was talking about.”

Among the nominees were Robert Downey Jr. for The Sympathizer, Hugh Grant for The Regime, Ron Cephas Jones for Genius: MLK/X, Logan Lerman for We Were the Lucky Ones, and Treat Williams for Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.

Downey Jr., who was an executive producer on The Sympathizer, is the only person from the hit show who received a Critics Choice nomination. He also acted in several roles for the limited series, including the CIA agent Claude, professor Robert Hammer, Congressman Ned Godwin and film director Niko Damianos. 

The Sympathizer is based on author Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2015 novel of the same name, which follows a French-Vietnamese spy (Hoa Xuande) for Communist forces during the Vietnam War’s final days and stars Sandra Oh and Fred Nguyen. 

In April, Downey Jr. spoke with Extra at the Los Angeles premiere, where he shared details about how his kids helped him shave his head for the role.

“They seemed anxious to shave my dome,” the star admitted. “There’s something really cathartic about shaving your head or shaving someone’s head, and then our daughter Avri was a big Stranger Things fan and she actually gave herself a buzz cut at one point, too, so I don’t know what to say about all this.”

Grant plays Edward Keplinger in The Regime, which “tells the story of life within the walls of a modern authoritarian regime as it unravels,” per its synopsis. He worked alongside Kate Winslet, 29 years after the two were first paired in 1995’s Jane Austen adaptation, Sense and Sensibility.

“It was honestly amazing because I haven’t really seen him since Sense and Sensibility, and as you say, it’s a very, very long time — three decades,” Winslet told Entertainment Tonight of Grant in February 2024. “I just was excited to get in a room and play with him in this kind of more grown-up version of myself.”

Grant is the only recipient of a nomination for the HBO show, which also stars Matthias Schoenaerts, Guillaume Gallienne, Andrea Riseborough and Martha Plimpton.

Jones, who died in August 2023 after filming National Geographic’s Genius: MLK/X, played Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad on the anthology series. The show premiered after Jones’ death, but his costars, such as Aaron Pierre, were grateful to have the opportunity to work with the actor.

“It’s an outstanding performance,” Pierre told PEOPLE in February 2024 when Genius premiered, adding: “I felt incredibly safe working with him, I felt protected working with him, I felt supported working with him. And his impact on my life is something I’ll never forget and something I’ll always treasure. I’m deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to witness his greatness.”

Pierre also spoke on behalf of the cast and crew, including Kelvin Harrison Jr., Weruche Opia, Jayme Lawson, Gary Carr, Hubert Point-Du Jour and more, saying, “We celebrate and champion [Jones].”

Lerman took on the role of Addy Kurc in We Were the Lucky Ones, which was based on the Georgia Hunter novel about her Polish-Jewish family’s experience surviving the Holocaust. In an interview with PEOPLE in March 2024, Lerman said the Hulu miniseries and his character “resonated” with him.

“I read the book and fell in love with Georgia’s family story,” he explained. “It really resonated with me in a personal way because Addy, who is Georgia Hunter’s grandfather in real life, his story really resembled my grandfather’s story and I hadn’t seen that explored before.”

Sharing his personal connection to the Holocaust, he added: “My grandfather was born in Germany and at seven years old he fled Germany with his family, his parents and his sister, and went on this long journey seeking refuge and found refuge in China. And it’s an incredible journey and story that he experienced.”

The drama series was also nominated for best limited series at this year’s Critics Choice Awards.

The late Williams received a nomination for playing Bill Paley in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans on FX, based on the aftermath of the fallout between Truman Capote and his friend group of Manhattan socialites after the release of his salacious “La Côte Basque, 1965” story. Williams died in a motorcycle accident in June 2023, seven months before the show premiered. 

“The last thing he said to me was, he grabbed my face and said, ‘I loved every minute,’” series co-creator Ryan Murphy told PEOPLE in February 2024.

Naomi Watts, who executive produced Capote Vs. The Swans, also told PEOPLE that Williams had expressed his enjoyment working on the anthology series.  

“He was delighted every day with these incredible scenes,” she said at the time. “He talked about it, ‘I cannot believe I’ve got such good material.’ And I think we all felt like that, even some of those scenes where he was behaving horribly — the character, not Treat!”

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See PEOPLE’s full coverage of the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards as they’re broadcasting live on E! from Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. The show will also be available to stream the following day on Peacock.