When I first started waiting tables, I did it because I was an actor and it was the only job that would allow me to make decent money while also giving me the flexibility to audition and do the occasional unpaid gig in a run-down theater held together with nothing but duct tape and hope. Before I even started auditioning, I got a job in a restaurant because I wanted to fit the stereotype of the actor scraping by waiting tables.

Many A-list celebrities have taken food orders while waiting for their big break. Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, and Jennifer Aniston all wore an apron for a while before they got their big break. Not all waiters have their headshots and resumes hidden in their order pads, but all of them are pretty good actors who deserve praise.

Acting is so important in waiting tables because you never want your customer to see you sweating. There could actually be a dumpster fire going on behind the swinging kitchen doors, but stress can be the signal for some customers to tip less. Since waiters make the majority of their salary from tips, acting is so important. We all know there’s no crying in baseball, but there’s no crying in restaurants either. A waiter must appear professional without being obnoxious, confident without being overbearing, friendly without getting too personal, and always give the impression of a happy person even if he’s slowly dying inside.

A bank teller who seems grumpy isn’t going to take a pay cut, but a waiter is. That waiter may not have a BFA in theater or be a graduate of Juilliard or Yale, but his acting chops are still on par with some of the greatest actors in human history. Marlon Brando could scream for Stella’s return with an intensity that jumped right off the screen, but have you ever seen a waiter forget to key in an order and explain to a customer why their food is taking so long? That’s the kind of acting that not even Konstantin Stanislavsky could teach. No amount of acting studio classes will prepare a waiter to react a certain way when 15 people all ask for separate bills.

The inner monologue is, “I don’t have time for this and if I separate the bills I won’t be able to leave the automatic tip on them and now I might get ripped off, oh my goodness I can’t stand that,” while the face and dialogue are saying, “It will be my pleasure. One moment, please.”

While Meryl Streep can recite the daily specials as someone who grew up in the West Midlands of England and spent her summers in Boston, resulting in a strange mishmash of Birmingham and Boston accents, she is no match for the waitress who finds herself in a bind, but act like she has all the time in the world while a three-year-old tries to order his chicken nuggets. Where’s her Oscar, hmm?

When the restaurant closes at 10 p.m. and someone bursts in at 9:59 p.m. congratulating themselves on making it “just in time,” something happens to most servers. They act out: They activate. They reach deep into their emotional well to conjure up a sensory memory that helps them feel like they really want to stay at work, even though an extra hour might result in no tip at all. Any hint of frustration or disappointment can only jeopardize the potential tip. These are the people who deserve SAG awards.

That doesn’t mean that every waiter hits the mark and delivers an award-worthy performance all the time. There are plenty of situations where waiters display genuine happiness, gratitude, joy, empathy, and a whole host of other emotions. In fact, I’d say most of the time they’re honest about their feelings, but when they need to, they can turn it on like a light switch and put Daniel Day-Lewis to shame.