2024 SAG Awards live updates: Pedro Pascal wins for ‘Last of Us’

By Tess Douglas On Feb 25, 2024

After months of direct confrontation in a bitter Hollywood strike, the Screen Actors Guild and Netflix are offering each other a two-hour olive branch: The 30th SAG Awards are streaming on the platform tonight for the first time ever.

Many hopes hang from either side of that branch. SAG is betting that Netflix can give its awards show, traditionally viewed as a predictive precursor to the Oscars, a much wider audience than it reached in previous years. Netflix is determined to prove that it can broadcast a live event as successfully as any television network.

Of course, it’s the biggest stars that will be the draw on Saturday, including a rare public appearance by Barbra Streisand, who will receive SAG’s Life Achievement Award. She’s showing up because, as she recently told The Times’ Glenn Whipp, she liked the fact that “so many actors marched and worked very hard to get what they campaigned for,” and also because “they told me in advance that I got the award! No trauma or drama.”

Follow along throughout the night as Mary McNamara, Meredith Blake and Josh Rottenberg report on the proceedings live. Here’s hoping that the “no drama” rule doesn’t extend to the show.

Winners list | All the looks from the red carpet

5:56 p.m. These commercial break interviews are getting a little painful. Love me some Tan France but he just spent five minutes talking to Pedro Pascal (who won) about Kieran Culkin (who was expected to, but didn’t). —MB

5:52 p.m. During the breaks, winners have been repeatedly urged to keep their speeches brief. While the producers want to take advantage of the fact that the show is streaming and not beholden to advertisers, they still want to keep this thing moving at a decent clip. —JR

5:48 p.m. With all due respect to Tony Shalhoub, the nominees for male actor in a television movie or limited series are… a bit random. Less random is Steven Yeun’s win for “Beef,” which has been an awards favorite all year. (He took home the Emmy last month.) He recalls wriggling in a vat of caramel on the commercial that earned him a SAG card. —MB

5:43 p.m. I’m officially missing commercials at this point. But the “Lord of the Rings” reunion of Sean Astin and Elijah Wood presenting female actor in a supporting role (motion picture) makes up for it. As does Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s win for “The Holdovers.” “For every actor waiting in the wings, you life can change in a day,” she says. “It’s not if but when. Keep going.” —MM

“The Holdovers’” Da’Vine Joy Randolph, left, at the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

5:36 p.m. USC gets a shout out as junior Storm Reid says she basically walked over to the Shrine from her dorm to present, with Phil Dunster, male actor in a drama series. Which, astonishingly, Pedro Pascal wins. The iron rule of “Succession” is broken. —MM

It’s hard to begrudge someone so delightful, even if he appears to be wearing the “Seinfeld” puffy shirt. –MB

Only a quarter of the way through the show and Pedro Pascal just dropped the third or fourth f-bomb of the night. “It’s Netflix,” he says. Seems like if nothing else the streaming era could bring us swear-ier awards shows. —JR

5:27 p.m. Melissa McCarthy and Billie Eilish present best female actor in a comedy series — McCarthy tells Eilish she met her “in utero” (does this count in the “vaginal” list, Meredith?) because Eilish’s mother was McCarthy’s improv teacher. Then she asks Eilish to sign her face, something that proceeds to happen. With a Sharpie. —MM

I appreciated McCarthy’s commitment to the bit but I can’t help feeling sad she ruined a very nice makeup job. That’s what we call acting, I guess! Also, as I learned from the pandemic, hand sanitizer is great for getting Sharpie stains out. The more you know! —MB

Ayo Edebiri wins for “The Bear.” “Oh, she won another one,” my daughter says as she wanders into the room. —MM

Ayo Edebiri wins the SAG Award for female actor in a comedy series.

5:23 p.m. While Tan France interviews White backstage, attendees in the room are treating it like a commercial break and running to the bathrooms and checking their phones. —JR

5:19 p.m. Glen Powell is not wearing his wrist corsage as he and Issa Rae present female actor in a television movie or limited series. I am very disappointed. Be braver, Glen. Ali Wong wins for “Beef” and has divested herself of her fancy cut-outs, which would also be disappointing but Wong can never disappoint. —MM

It honestly seems like a good idea when you’re in a crowded room and are at least theoretically supposed to be eating food. I need the behind-the-scenes story of how this happened and which bathroom she ducked into with her stylist to make this happen. —MB

"The Devil Wears Prada" costars Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway at the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

5:12 p.m. There’s a “Devil Wears Prada” moment as Meryl Streep is joined by Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway to give the best actor in comedy series award. (Honestly, every awards show should have a “The Devil Wears Prada” moment.)

Unsurprisingly, Jeremy Allen White of “The Bear” wins for male actor in a comedy series. —MM

Weird that they let people curse on stage but then bleeped out the curse words in the clips from “Ted Lasso.” White’s win for continues his total domination of the awards circuit and underwear ads everywhere. —MB

“Wow, they give you a lot of time at this one,” White says, wrapping up his acceptance speech. Indeed winners won’t need to worry about getting played off the stage tonight because … streaming! —JR

5:03 p.m. Show is starting, Hannah Waddington is telling a great story about having a mouse in her dress when she was starring in “Spamalot” and all I can think about is the salmon. Thanks, Josh.

Idris Elba the mounted the stage, saying he can’t wait until he can go home and watch the show being recommended to him by Netflix based on all the other things he has watched that he has starred in — before pivoting to a brief shout-out to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Sorry, it is still weird that months after the vitriolic “Netflix strike,” the SAG Awards are on Netflix. I guess that’s Hollywood. —MM

Idris Elba photographed during the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

4:57 p.m. It seems noteworthy that there has not been a single mention (that I noticed) of the actors’ strike so far on the Netflix red carpet. It’s like Mom and Dad have gotten back together after a brief separation and nobody wants to talk about it. —MB

Noteworthy and a bit weird — it is tough to imagine that the irony of Netflix hosting the SAG Awards will go unremarked upon during the show, since so many points of contract contention centered around streaming’s disruption of Hollywood’s business model. Not surprisingly, none of the grey — correction, silver — carpet questions have touched on it. This is a Netflix production, after all. (Random shout out to Welteroth, who is one of the best on-carpet interviewers I have seen in my long career covering these things.) Waiting to see if there are any mentions during acceptance speeches. Will be very disappointed if there are not. —MM

With the show soon to start, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland is speaking to attendees about the important gains made during the strike. “This room is a living metaphor of the unity and solidarity that brought us to this point.” They also showed a rousing clip reel of scenes from the strike to big applause. Hard to tell if any of the striking actors shown in the footage were picketing in front of Netflix headquarters. —JR

Hannah Waddingham during the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

4:51 p.m. Hannah Waddingham wins best-dressed, in my esteemed opinion, for carrying a homemade cardboard clutch made by her daughter. It’s honestly the chicest thing I’ve seen all night. —MB

And Idris Elba is in the building. All is well. —MM

Elba is set to open and close the show, according to the producers, but they’re not going so far as calling him the “host.” —JR

4:48 p.m. Kieran Culkin went Full Hugh Grant”on Welteroth, giving her grief for leaning on him and taking off her painful shoes on the red carpet. I am always here for a red carpet grump. —MB

Meanwhile, Billie Eilish just confessed to teleprompter-phobia. Well, we all have to be afraid of something. —MM

4:44 p.m. Wait, are they giving awards on the carpet? Apparently so. For stunt ensemble in a TV series, it’s “The Last of Us”; for film, “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I.” It feels a bit cavalier and anticlimactic considering, you know, all those freaking stunts involved. I mean they could have had Tom Cruise jump all the main tables on a motorcycle or something. —MM

Tan France shows off his unorthodox bow tie at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

4:39 p.m. If anyone watching at home is curious what attendees will be eating, the “light dinner” will be chive-crusted salmon. It’s served cold, which is good because it’s been sitting out on the tables for a while now and very few people have taken their seats yet. —JR

Josh, that item about the cold salmon should have come with a trigger warning. Maybe it’s a good thing everyone in Hollywood is on Ozempic these days. —MB

And they are mid-awards season. My favorite memory from the post-Oscar’s Governors Ball is seeing all the stars make a beeline for the bread baskets. Finally, they can eat! Honestly, you could lose a finger trying to claim a pretzel roll. —MM

4:34 p.m. Sorry, did Tan say he wanted Jessica Chastain’s babies? This night is really taking an unexpected turn. —MB

I don’t know, France and Debicki and Welteroth and Chastain were all talking at each other from separate parts of the carpet via screens. Which was kind of weird. Then Chastain chatted with Bradley Cooper, who she apparently knows from PTA? Meanwhile, Jon Hamm was standing in the background looking like he can’t understand why no one is interviewing him. Also, I always forget that Alan Ruck is married to Mireille Enos, who looks amazing. —MM

4:29 p.m. For reasons of his own, Tan France just gave Glen Powell a wrist corsage, which Powell misidentified as a boutonniere. Having not seen a wrist corsage since my junior prom, never mind at a Hollywood awards show, I am barely able to obsess about Cillian Murphy’s accent. —MM

I can’t help but notice the prevalence of Netflix stars on the red carpet so far, including Wong (“Beef”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”) and Elizabeth Debicki (“The Crown”). I’m glad they let Murphy speak for a minute or two because I could listen to that accent all day. —MB

Elizabeth Debicki ("The Crown") arriving at the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

4:22 p.m. The pre-show is underway, and we’re looking at the grey carpet with Tan France — in an insane… bow tie? Boba straw? Inflatable chopstick? — and Elaine Welteroth, who gave us a look at hot fashion of SAG Awards past before kicking things off with Ali Wong wearing a black and white number decorated by what looked like a bunch of artisanal paper snowflakes. Also, my first tiny telecast glitch. —MM

Ali Wong was the first — but let’s hope not the last — person to mention “vaginal birth” tonight on the carpet. So cheers to that. —MB

4:15 p.m. Super excited to be watching the Screen Actors Guild Awards as Netflix continues its attempt to prove it can do everything broadcast/cable can except breaking news. (When Netflix announces it is entering the journalism space, you heard it here first.) I was tiny bit concerned as I struggled to find the pre-show coverage listed anywhere, though: I had to search to find the listing for the actual show, which says it starts at 5 p.m. Pacific. Instead I was being urged to re-watch “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” which swept the awards last year. And frankly, it is tempting. —MM

Same thing over here, Mary, except the algorithm suggested I continue watching “The Crown” and “Love Is Blind,” because it knows I love shows about emotionally stunted people in doomed relationships. Netflix is known for eschewing traditional marketing in favor of using “the algorithm” to suggest certain shows based on “taste clusters” — which are not, in fact, a brand of granola. But the thing about live TV is you kind of need to know when it’s on in order to, ya know, watch it. And if the algorithm can’t figure out that I — a person who writes about entertainment for a living and grew up watching every awards show known to man — might be interested in watching celebrities win trophies and make tearful speeches, then it needs to do better. —MB

Yes, it was kind of weird to be sitting here staring at a screen that said only “It’s almost time; the live event will start soon” instead of, I don’t know, the final minutes of a re-run of “The Closer.” —MM

I am primarily concerned that the whole “No ads” thing will mean no snack breaks, which are truly essential to home viewing of awards shows. Mary, how do you plan to make it through two whole hours without going to the kitchen to refill the popcorn? —MB

Criminy. I hadn’t thought about that. And with the SAG Awards there are no “boring” categories. (Sorry sound editing/sound mixing!) —MM