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Actors lived their best lives Saturday night at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards – giving each other trophies and looking darned good doing so.
Viewers put aside their usual Netflix binge-watching for a night and witnessed their favorite thespians tell their “I’m an actor” stories at the SAG Awards. Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb epic “Oppenheimer” continued to pick up hardware on the way to the March 10 Academy Awards, and “The Bear” and “Succession” came up big on the TV side, but streaming gave the SAG Awards a much-needed lightening up. Instead of commercials, we had winners talking to interviewers between awards, no one got played off by an itchy orchestra conductor looking at the clock, and cursing was OK because, hey, it’s Netflix. And things could be much worse than having Idris Elba as your surprise de facto host.
Here are some of the major moments you might’ve missed:
Pedro Pascal, Ali Wong and Idris Elba drop f-bombs
The SAG Awards being on Netflix meant many things were different from the usual network broadcasts, including no one manning the bleep button. Elba, who ended up doing the opening monologue for the hostless ceremony, used his f-bomb while giving a lesson on the use of foul language. “Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say in front of Oprah,” Elba advised, as the camera cut to a smiling Oprah Winfrey. “(Expletive). That was Oprah.”
After winning a SAG Award for “Beef,” Ali Wong thanked her 83-year-old mom in the audience “who’s here in her pearls and Tevas because she doesn’t give a (expletive)” and a slightly drunk Pedro Pascal, taking home a lead drama actor trophy for “The Last of Us,” recalled being in SAG-AFTRA since 1999 so “this is an incredible (expletive) honor.” (One bit of irony: All the clips from shows and movies used in the ceremony muted their curse words.)
Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway have a ‘Devil Wears Prada’ reunion
We were wondering why Meryl Streep almost took out a microphone stand and feigned forgetting her glasses. It was all a part of a fun but quick reunion with her “The Devil Wears Prada” co-stars Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway. “It’s an age-old question: Where does the actor end and the character begin?” said Streep, with Blunt responding, “Meryl and Miranda Priestly are like twins,” referencing Streep’s imperious fashionista. Streep said she didn’t think she’s anything like her character, but Hathaway cut her off: “No, no, that wasn’t a question.” Blunt then got in one last riff on Streep’s slowness to get to the award: “By all means, move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me.”
It was a bit short, since we girded our loins and all, yet it was a cool moment for movie fans.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Lily Gladstone go inspirational for their acceptance speeches
There were nice little moments for the night’s honorees: 6-foot-3 Elizabeth Debicki, shocked by her win for “The Crown,” ditched her shoes before accepting her award while Robert Downey Jr. continued to bask in another supporting actor victory this award season. “Why me? Why now? Why do things seem to be going my way? Unlike my fellow nominees, I will never grow tired of the sound of my own voice,” the “Oppenheimer” star quipped.
But a couple of speeches touched the heart. Supporting actress winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph spoke to her grieving “Holdovers” character’s journey (“Grief is a slippery emotion”) and called it the “greatest honor of my career” to be feted by other actors. “For every actor waiting out here in the wings for their chance, your life can change in a day. It’s not a question of if, it’s when.” And after patting her trophy on the head, “Killers of the Flower Moon” breakout Lily Gladstone – who made history as the first Indigenous performer to win best actress at the SAG Awards – offered a similar statement after a “hard road” of a strike-impacted year. “This is the win, getting to be on set and telling stories. We bring empathy to a world that sorely needs it,” she said. “Keep speaking your truths and keep standing up for each other.”
Billie Eilish cracks up autographing Melissa McCarthy’s forehead
This was a surprise dynamic duo: The Grammy-winning pop star Billie Eilish and Oscar-nominated comedian Melissa McCarthy were responsible for one of the night’s funniest moments. They presented the award for female actor in a TV comedy, and McCarthy was very excited to be in Eilish’s company. “We’ve met twice. You met my daughters and my dogs,” McCarthy said, mentioning that Eilish’s mom was her first improv teacher. “That’s a lot,” Eilish deadpanned.
Wanting to remember this moment, McCarthy first asked Eilish to sign her dress, but the singer responds, “I don’t want to ruin it.” Eilish did agree to sign McCarthy’s face, taking a Sharpie to her forehead and having a hard time keeping it together while laughing. “That was unexpected. I’m going to take this, too,” McCarthy said, sliding the pen in her sleeve.
Barbra Streisand holds court on why she loves movies while accepting her life achievement award
Here’s how much of an icon Streisand is: No one said a peep and all listened intently during her long speech as she accepted the SAG life achievement award − and she nabbed not one but two A-list presenters, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Aniston. “That face. That voice. That talent. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime talent and how lucky it’s in our lifetime,” Aniston said of Streisand. “Barbra didn’t just pave the way for us. She bulldozed it.”
A SAG-AFTRA member for more than 60 years, Streisand, 81, took the crowd back to her days as a teen growing up in Brooklyn, tearing into coffee ice cream and movie magazines, where film offered her an escape: “I didn’t like reality.” One time she bought a 25-cent ticket to “Guys and Dolls” and found “my first crush,” Marlon Brando. “He was so real, so believable, and I wanted to be the one he fell in love with, not Jean Simmons.”
Streisand shouted out her “Funny Girl” filmmakers who “had no problem with a young women with opinions,” spoke of her “dreams of a world where prejudice is a thing of the past,” and embraced this “fabulous” honor. “To my fellow actors and directors, I’ve loved working with you, playing with you and inhabiting that magical world of the movies with you,” she said. “And most of all I wanted to thank you for giving me so much joy watching you all on the screen.”
Carol Dennis is an entertainment aficionado with an eye for all things pop culture. She dives into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry, from movie premieres to music festivals. Carol’s passion for storytelling extends beyond her reporting, as she’s an aspiring screenwriter in her free time.
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