Kristen Bell expressed her initial hesitation over hosting this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards.
The actor is returning to host the awards, which will be streamed on Netflix, after being the first-ever SAG Awards host back in 2018. She’s also nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Nobody Wants This.
However, the devastation caused by the California wildfires initially led Kristen to think that all of the awards season should be scrapped due to feeling “superfluous” this year. She told People, “I felt, ‘We should cancel all of the awards this year and donate all of the money!’ “
However, it was the fact that “hundreds if not thousands of jobs for people in Los Angeles who need them” would be called off that led her to reconsider her perspective. She continued, “Gig workers, musicians, hairstylists, makeup artists, drivers, caterers, tech workers — it’s actually imperative to the economy of rebuilding that we have these awards shows.”
That being said, Kristen initially turned down the gig. As she put it, “I was coming off of 8 months of not working — well, you can say not working, but I’ve been a stay-at-home mom, which is a whole load [of] work in and of itself and more emotional work than anything.” Thankfully, her hunch that it would “oddly be creatively fun” paid off.
You can read the full interview here.