Every Viral Moment of the Night

On the film side, it was yet another Barbenheimer battle with Barbie and Oppenheimer scoring the most nominations at four apiece. This included acting nods for Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Cilian Murphy, Emily Blunt, and Robert Downey Jr.

On the small screen, Succession coming into the night with a leading five nominations, but ended up sharing the love as the evening progressed. In fact, it turned out to be a very good night for The Bear, with wins coming also for The Crown, The Last of Us, and Beef.

The night also featured several huge reunions, with the stars of The Devil Wears Prada coming together 18 years after the film became the moment. Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Emily Blunt may have sparred on the screen, but they were all smiles presenting tonight. There were also reunions for The Lord of the Rings, Modern Family, and Breaking Bad.

Barbra Streisand was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award after an incredible multi-faceted career. “The movies were a portal to a world I could only imagine,” the icon said ahead of the ceremony in a statement. “Even though I was an unlikely candidate, somehow my dream came true. This award is especially meaningful to me because it comes from my fellow actors, whom I so admire.”

As always, the night kicked off with a series of actors sharing their stories. This time Michael Cera and Colman Domingo bringing us into the room. Hannah Waddingham then shared an unbelievable story about performing on stage with a live (then dead) mouse in her dress as she made her way through the tables before handing it off to Idris Elba, who took us to the stage to kick off the show.

Trying to lay the foundation for how to handle coarse language on the streaming service, Elba suggested, “Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say in front of Oprah Winfrey. After a cut to Oprah, he looked chagrined and said, “F–k, that was Oprah!”

It was a night of iconic cast reunions, kicking off when Meryl Streep was introduced to present the first award of the night. “I forgot my glasses. Clearly,” she said, squinting at the teleprompter. “And the envelope. It’s an age-old question, where does the character end and the actor begin.”

Immediately, out came Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway, who proceeded to hilariously dress the screen legend down bit by bit. Basically, they were the devil and the other devil on each of her shoulders telling her just how good enough she wasn’t in this moment.

The reunions just kept coming, too, with the heart and soul of The Lord of the Rings coming together again when Elijah Wood and Sean Astin had a cute bit about what happened to Elijah’s SAG Award 20 years ago — as he wasn’t available to come to the show then.

Finally, we got the entire adult cast of Modern Family back on the stage where they touted their successes, with Jesse Tyler Ferguson having to pay Eric Stonestreet when Sofia Vergara mentioned the global success of Griselda.

Ed O’Neill noted he’d had two shows go beyond 250 episodes, while Ty Burrell and Julie Bowen tried to pretend things were going great for them, too.

The biggest moment, though, was when they wondered if maybe it was too soon for a reunion. Honestly, this cast has stayed so close even in the years since their show went off the air, this might be one of the easiest reunions to put together — and we all know how everyone love a reunion. Just look at this show tonight!

In a surprising moment, just about every major actor who was part of Breaking Bad took to the stage and hilariously broke bad. It started with Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, and Anna Gunn playing along before Bob Odenkirk just refused to play along with the scripted banter.

RJ Mitte and Dean Norris backed his play, while Betsy Brandt wondered what SAG might do if they didn’t. Jonathan Banks shot, “Nothing. It’s an awards show for chrissakes, so f–k ’em!” And then, just as we were wondering where GIancarlo Esposito was, Banks asked for us!

It’s been nearly 40 years since Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis shared the screen in their remake of The Fly, with Jeff lamenting that their cast didn’t win the award. Geena brought the “glass half full” solution to his anguish by reminding him this award didn’t exist then, which he took as no small consolation.

Even Billie Eilish couldn’t get through this bit with “super-fan” Melissa McCarthy, who gushed about her for a solid two to three minutes. It was classic Melissa McCarthy with her stammering and self-deprecating rambling.

A definitely highlight was when she talked about first meeting Billie “in utero,” sharing that Billie’s mom was her improv teacher while she was pregnant with her daughter. It got even better, then, when she brought out a marker.

After Billie declined to sign her dress because she didn’t want to mess up something so beautiful, Melissa pretended to be chagrined that Billie did not offer similar resistance to signing her face (or forehead, more specifically). And then, Billie lost it while actually going through with it, even grabbing Melissa’s mouth to shut her up, if just for a moment.

There was no one more surprised than Pedro Pascal when he won over three stars from Succession and Billy Crudup (The Morning Show). “This is wrong for a number of reasons,” he said when he hit the stage, adding “I’m a little drunk. I thought I could get drunk.”

He proceeded to try and fumble his way through a speech, which turned out absolutely adorable. “Thank you, HBO. Jeeze louise, I’m making a fool of myself,” he continued, adding with a shout, “THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!”

“I’ve been in the union since 1999, so this an incredible f–king honor — we’re on Netflix,” he added. “The nominees, all of you, I can’t remember any of your names right now.”

From there, he went on to thank everyone involved with his show and HBO for giving him a job because he has no other skills, as well as “my family who may be watching, I’m not sure.” Then, abruptly, he declared, “I’m gonna have a panic attack and I’m gonna leave.” And so he did. It was just the kind of sweet and sincere moment that has endeared the prolific actor to America these past few years.

Backstage, the adorableness continued as he swapped with Tan France so they could both display their good sides to the camera. And when Tan joked that they weren’t here for Pedro to flirt with him, Pedro countered that this was exactly why he was there.

After a warm introduction by Jennifer Aniston — who shared a New Year’s Eve kiss with her — and Bradley Cooper, Barbra Streisand came out to a long, rapturous applause. Cuts to Anne Hathaway, Hannah Waddingham, and Emma Stone showed tears in the eyes of so many.

A legend was in the building and the palpable energy of her presence was enough to impact these stars who could aspire to achieve a fraction of her success on screen and in so many areas across her 60+ years as a SAG member.

“Sometimes I don’t trust the teleprompter,” she said at the top with a pile of notecards. It was a fitting choice, though, after so many before her appeared to be struggling with the teleprompters.

“This is such a wonderful award to get because you know in advance you’re gonna get it,” she laughed, comparing it to the competitive awards presented live where “if You don’t get it  you have to put on such a happy face, I’m so happy to lose.”

She went on to talk about the history of the industry, founded by some of the earliest filmmakers as an escape from prejudice and how she still dreams of a post-prejudice world.

More to come…