SAG Host Kristen Bell Says Awards Season Has 'a Greater Level of Importance' After the L.A. Fires (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Kristen Bell hosting the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards in 2018.Photo:Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty

Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty

Likemany of her contemporaries, whenthe deadly wildfires tore through Southern Californiain early January,Kristen Bell’s first instinct was to call off awards season as a whole.

“It felt very superfluous to have an awards show,” she tells PEOPLE, in an exclusive interview over Zoom. “I felt, ‘We should cancel all of the awards this year and donate all of the money!’ "

It was a logical thought. The fires — which began on Jan. 7 in the Pacific Palisades region of Los Angeles and sparked several other blazes over the following days including the Eaton Fire fire across Pasadena and Altadena — devastated entire communities, with 50,293 acres burned, more than 18,000 structures destroyed,at least 29 people killedand over 200,000 people forced to flee their homes.

The aftermath of the Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025.David Hume Kennerly/Getty

David Hume Kennerly/Getty

Many of those people were stars likeJulia Louis-Dreyfus,Joshua Jackson,Anna Faris,Ricki Lake, Cary Elwes,Cameron Mathison,Spencer Pratt, andHeidi Montag— all of whom lost their homes. Bell’sNobody Wants ThiscostarAdam Brodyand his wife,Gossip GirlstarLeighton Meester, were also affected, their house completely destroyed.

So Bell’s instincts were judicious, even if that meant that Sunday’s2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards(whichBell is both hosting and among the nominees) was canceled.

But then, she recalls to PEOPLE, she learned a little bit more about the financial impact of awards season in California.

“I realized, ‘Wait a minute. If you cancel the awards shows, you are canceling, hundreds of hundreds if not thousands of jobs for people in Los Angeles who need them.' " Bell says. “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.”

To compare, the Los Angeles Economic Development Council toldThe Hollywood Reporterin 2013 that the Oscars alone injected $130 million into the economy every year.

But it isn’t just about the money. Bell also understands the importance entertainment like the SAG Awards can bring to one’s spirit. “Especially having it airing it on Netflix and making it seem global, it allows people to have a night of just fun, normal, goofy jokes and see all of the stars of television and film that they love,” she says.

Overall, the whole evening has “taken on a greater level of importance” to Bell. “I hope it’ll just be a happy event,” she notes.

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This isn’t Bell’s first time emceeing the SAG Awards. In2018, she served as the honors' first host ever. That same year, she led the People’s Choice Awards and in 2020, hosted the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.

But Bell admits to PEOPLE that she initially turned down hosting this year, not just because of the wildfires but also because she wasn’t ready to return to work.

“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,” she says. “But I hadn’t been acting. And I thought, ‘Wow do I want to get back into this? Do I want to take this on?’ But it felt like it’d oddly be creatively fun and fulfilling. And so far, it has been.”

The 31st annual SAG Awards stream live on Netflix on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.

source: people.com