Brendan Fraser beat out the likes of Austin Butler and Bill Nighy to win the award for outstanding performance by a male actor at Sunday night’s Sag Awards (Picture: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Brendan Fraser became choked up while accepting the award for outstanding performance by a male actor at Sunday night’s Sag Awards.

The 54-year-old star stuttered as he delivered an emotional speech after stepping onto the stage, where Jessica Chastain handed him his much-deserved gong.

Brendan won the award for his role in The Whale, beating out the likes of Austin Butler, Colin Farrell and Bill Nighy.

‘I’m smiling and breathing, that’s half the job,’ quipped Brendan while fighting back tears.

He added: ‘I will treasure this, but never more than how I treasured… my SAG card that I earned in 1991.

‘It made me feel like I belonged. We’re actors, we all want to belong to a tribe, and that’s where I found that.’

The star became emotional during his acceptance speech on Sunday (Picture: Sag Awards)

Brendan looked chuffed as he posed with his much-deserved award (Picture: by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

The Oscar-nominated actor went on: ‘If you told that guy back then that I’d be standing right here right now, I would not have believed you.’

Brendan also thanked his The Whale co-stars Hong Chau and Sadie Sink as well as the harrowing film’s director Darren Aronofsky and writer Samuel D. Hunter.

The star also mentioned Charlie, his character in the The Whale, during his acceptance speech (Picture: AP)

Brendan joined the likes of Zendaya at the ceremony (Picture: Stewart Cook/Shutterstock)

He said of Charlie, his character in the film: ‘He’s someone who is on a raft of regrets, but he’s in a sea of hope.

‘I’ve been in that sea, and I’ve rode that wave lately, and it’s been powerful and good, and I’ve also had that wave smash me into the ocean floor.’

The Mummy star joined the likes of Zendaya, Andrew Garfield, Eddie Redmayne, Jenna Ortega and Viola Davis at the star-studded bash over the weekend.

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The Sag Awards celebrates the best performances in television and film and the ceremony proved to be history-making thanks to Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, who became the first Asian actors to win top film trophies at the awards show.

Yeoh took home the gong for best performance by a female actor for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once while Quan won the best supporting actor award for the same film.

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A much-deserved moment.