The Screen Actors Guild Awards aren't on most must-watch lists during Oscar season. Past telecasts ran on TNT and TBS, treated as temporary departures to their standard lineups of basic cable butchered movies and sitcom repeats.
Last year’s shifted over to Netflix’s YouTube channel without much notice, except among those watching for clues as to how well the streamer’s ultimate plan of airing them live on its platform might work. Saturday night’s 30th Annual SAG Awards gave the answer: Its live stream went off without a hitch once it was up and running, and as soon as the production's sound engineers struck the proper balance between the musical swell and the actors’ mics. Michael Cera, Colman Domingo, Hannah Waddingham and Idris Elba walked us into the festivities at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall with a seamless relay where they listed their career highs and lows before saying their names and finishing with, “And I am an actor.”
Elba then opened the host-free ceremony with a bit of banter and a warning: There would be no commercial breaks for the next two hours. “So settle in,” he said. “And for those of you who were smart to bring a flask, remember: Sharing is caring.”
On cue, the camera cut to Rhea Perlman passing her silver flagon to Lisa Ann Walter, who took a swig. Walter then offered it to a slack-jawed Sheryl Lee Ralph, who declined while shaking her head. Was she acting? Read the show's title. And the room.
Whether by intent or through sheer luck, that impishness set the tone. Setting up a “Devil Wears Prada” reunion of Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway to present the statue for best male actor in a comedy series, Streep rolled onstage solo and clunked into the mic, nearly knocking it over.
She claimed to have forgotten the envelope and her glasses. On cue, Blunt brought out the stationery, while Hathaway strode out with the spectacles. It was an adorable and seamless pulled-off bit that established a momentum that continued when Melissa McCarthy pretended to be flustered by Billie Eilish and had her sign her forehead. Eilish nearly broke; McCarthy did not.
These moments set up the telecast’s unexpected thrills, the most memorable and perhaps meme-able being Pedro Pascal’s best male drama actor upset over the "Succession” nominees, including his (fake) awards season rival Kieran Culkin.
Nobody expected that — Pascal least of all. “This is wrong for a number of reasons,” he said onstage. “I’m a little drunk. I thought I could get drunk. I’m making a fool of myself, but thank you so much for this!” Then, after he thanked his family, his co-workers and HBO, the internet’s favorite bachelor daddy stammered, “I’m going to have a panic attack, and I’m going to leave.”
Yes. Yes. This is what we’ve been missing on the runway leading to the Oscars. This is what the Golden Globes were supposed to be.
The meaning of the SAGs
For TV actors, the Screen Actors Guild Awards are a feather in their caps, in that they have no bearing on the Emmys but are meaningful laurels nevertheless, as they’re voted on by the 160,000-plus members of SAG-AFTRA, their peers.
That means Pascal’s win has a bit of a homecoming king flavor to it, since Culkin beat him to win an Emmy and Globe for his superb “Succession” run and, at one point, jokingly told “The Last of Us” star to “suck it” from the stage. Pascal’s SAG win, then, is both validating and completes the gag. A vote for Pedro made our dreams come true.
For film nominees, however, the SAGs are a crucial bellwether for the Academy Awards acting categories. The Globes divide the individual nominations between comedy and drama, but the Oscars place both contenders in the same race for best actor and actress. After the SAGs, the actor race looks tilted in favor of “Oppenheimer” star Cillian Murphy over Paul Giamatti, who won a Globe for “The Holdovers.”
Giamatti’s co-star Da’Vine Joy Randolph has achieved a nearly clean sweep this awards season, picking a supporting female actor statue on Saturday. The best actress race is still up for grabs; “Killers of the Flower Moon” star Lily Gladstone won the SAG and the Globe, but “Poor Things” lead Emma Stone snagged a BAFTA.
This is why the SAGs have a reputation for being the show for scorekeepers and Oscar diehards, while the Globes used to be the show where the stars misbehaved because everyone left their Fs and sobriety at home. Not this time.
Slightly unhinged but never entirely out of control
Victories that catch the winners by surprise are the reasons live TV still excites. Pascal is effortlessly charming when he’s called on to be so — and even more appealing when he’s flummoxed. A later bit featuring Walter recording her banter with attendees while secretly mic’d felt giddy and good-natured.
A few past awards show traditions didn’t entirely return, however. Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Barbra Streisand delivered a heartfelt acceptance that walked a fine line between politics and industry glad-handing with a speech subtly pleading for a more humane approach to immigration and embracing the “other” without specifically using those terms.
The men we know as Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer and the Warner Brothers, Streisand said, were all fleeing prejudice they faced in Eastern Europe, simply because of their religion. “[T]hey were dreamers too, like all of us here tonight,” she pointed out. “And now I dream of a world where such prejudice is a thing of the past."
A post-strike victory lap
Drescher also used her moment to deliver a warning. “AI will entrap us in a matrix where none of us know what's real. If an inventor lacks empathy and spirituality, perhaps that's not the invention we need,” she said. “Dystopia stories can also become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We should tell stories that spark the human spirit, connect us to the natural world and awaken our capacity to love unconditionally."
“What does female leadership look like to women and girls?” she added. “We don't have to emulate male energy, but rather lead with intellect, compassion, wisdom and still rock a red lip.”
Credit the performances — and a few great votes — but give the producers their due, too. Several choices made the telecast feel more audience-inclusive than merely self-congratulatory, such as “CODA” star Troy Kotsur joining "Past Lives" star Greta Lee to present their award while using American Sign Language, which Kotsur carried through by signing out the winner’s name, Steven Yeun, before Lee said it.
This was one way that the award show’s scripting outshone standard broadcast teleprompter blather, as if the producers crafted bespoke bits tailored to the presenters' specific talent instead of playing to the category or title in which they were featured.
As the "Breaking Bad” cast gathered to read the nominees for best ensemble, it was honestly refreshing to question whether Bob Odenkirk and Bryan Cranston, a pair of comedy naturals, led them in going rogue from what was shaping into absolute Teleprompter cornpone. (Though Jonathan Banks asking, “Where’s Giancarlo?” before the nominee reel kicked in was clearly unplanned — and voiced what many viewers must have been wondering.)
Give us some breaks
France may know style, but suffering through his attempts to engage "The Bear" stars Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri made me miss those wonderful advertisements with the actors cheerfully singing about a cure for upset stomach and diarrhea. Alas, the “Queer Eye” star’s interruptions weren’t sufficient breaks or supplemental but rather proved that red carpet interviewing is something few people do well. Sometimes, it’s better to let an award show’s energy flow instead of stopping it up.
Luckily, some genius had the good sense to haul over Pascal, who took control and recounted the tale of how his friendship with Culkin developed through respectful expressions of admiration for each other’s work. Addressing how he’d handle winning instead of the “Succession” star, Pascal joked, “I’m going to make out with Kieran tonight. That’ll be my revenge.”
Maybe he should emcee the backstage frivolity next time.
The 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards are streaming on Netflix.
