It’s guild season! While Kumail Nanjiani already has his hosting gig for the DGA Awards under his belt, Kristen Bell, Atsuko Okatsuka and Roy Wood Jr. are currently gearing up for their entertaining duties. Bell will host the Actor Awards (formerly SAG Awards) on March 1, while Okatsuka is hosting the L.A. show of the Writers Guild Awards and Wood is hosting the New York show on March 8. The three hosts divulge their preshow rituals, if they still get jitters and how much rehearsal is involved.
What’s your preshow ritual?
KRISTEN BELL Beta blockers.
ROY WOOD JR. This is my third time hosting the Writers Guild Awards and the second time I’m doing it back-to-back. I did it once before, before COVID, and I learned a lot from that first time before COVID. There’s no real preshow ritual. My day is pretty normal. If it’s my custody week with my son, I do dad stuff till the babysitter arrives and I get to the hotel in time for rehearsal. I usually get to the hotel about an hour before a rehearsal just to meet the crew and speak to all the people. I like to just talk and see what their perspective is on the world and what they think. I more so have a postshow ritual. I’ve hosted the Webbys a couple of times, and I really enjoyed just sitting and looking at everybody. After the show ends, you can mingle and hang and everybody’s happy and you’re just a fly on the wall.
ATSUKO OKATSUKA For hosting or presenting, I’m mostly going over the words and jokes out loud to myself beforehand. Getting this language that is not my first going on in my mouth!
Have you been watching other awards shows to prepare?
OKATSUKA Yes. What’s cool is that awards shows are hosted by my fellow comedian buddies. So to know them personally and watch how they deliver the jokes, what they chose to joke on, has been really cool. I just saw Conan O’Brien workshop some of the Oscars jokes the other night, too, and it’s just so inspiring to know we can bring our own personalities to a night of celebration and bring levity to what actually could be a stiff, nerve-racking night for many.
WOOD I don’t really watch other awards shows. I’ve learned over the years that you really can’t learn anything from watching other people because they’re just doing their version of themselves. You can learn a little bit from watching someone host the same award show as you. For the Correspondents’ Dinner [that I hosted in 2023], I probably watched 15 years’ worth of performances before me. For Writers Guild, I watched one or two. But honestly, once you’re up there, it’s just you. You’re just being yourself.
Growing up, would you watch awards shows and say, “I’d love to host one of these?”
OKATSUKA Growing up, I did not have that self-esteem. I’m still learning to find it, but it makes it all the more special that me, an immigrant kid who was never supposed to be in the U.S., who lived in a garage undocumented with her mom and grandma, would be hosting the WGA Awards. Thank you to all those who believed and continue to believe in me.
WOOD I never watched an awards show and thought that I’d never host one.
How many writers do you plan on working with? Or if you’re already deep in prep, how many writers are you working with?
BELL I’ve been working with my dear friend Monica Padman. She knows how to write for my voice better than anyone.
WOOD Well, for previous Writers Guild award shows, I think we’ve had about eight to 10 people. For Correspondents’ Dinner, I had six writers. For the 2025 MLB Awards, I had two. For last year’s Peabody Awards, I had two.
OKATSUKA I’m working with Sophie Buddle. She’s an incredible comedian and friend and worked at After Midnight as the head monologue writer.
How much rehearsal is involved?
BELL A lot. Like … a lot a lot. We rehearse the scripts, the beats, the walk-ups, the walk-aways, the camera marks. I practice reading a teleprompter, I practice pretending to not read a teleprompter even though I absolutely am. By show day, it’s basically muscle memory.
OKATSUKA I’m currently in the process of it. Currently starting to gather the jokes and will be starting to workshop jokes at local lineups in Los Angeles. When I’m prepping for something, I will repeat the jokes to myself at home to my trees on the porch for a while before I go out to try it out in front of people.
WOOD We’ve already started ideating, and that happened at the end of January. We were already having preliminary thoughts on what the topics would be, but the actual performance on the day, you rehearse it on that day, but by then, you know the jokes like the back of your hand.
Are you going to do a song and dance?
BELL I always try to incorporate music when I can, so you’ll have to tune in to find out.
WOOD No, no, no, no. Though I did rap last year at the MLB Awards. I don’t think I’ll rap this year.
OKATSUKA I am known to dance … but there’s also something to be said about stillness. And letting the jokes do their thing.
Nikki Glaser rehearsed her jokes at stand-up sets ahead of her Globes hosting gig — on whom do you rehearse your jokes?
BELL My kids. If a joke survives that room, it can survive anything.
WOOD I run the jokes with the writers. I’ve done enough monologues at enough awards shows now, and I’ve done enough hosting to know whether or not this joke is going to work.
OKATSUKA To the gorgeous trees outside of my house, my amazing assistant Zoe, my husband at home first. … I like to workshop in the privacy of my own place first before I try it out in front of a crowd. I’m very wary of performing in public with notes in hand. I want to give the best version of myself every time I’m on a stage because people made the effort to come out and see a show.
Where do you draw the line in terms of poking fun at nominees?
BELL I don’t roast people. I want to keep it happy and fun. If I’m going to roast anybody, it’s going to be me.
WOOD My comedy in general, I don’t talk about people, so I don’t really plan to poke fun at nominees. I never have. And if I do, the joke is a reverse show-of-respect type thing, but I’m not out there to insult anybody.
OKATSUKA Just punch up. Always punch up. Be silly-forward, not entitled, and talk about what you genuinely would laugh about, which for me is absurdist, existential and relatable everyday stuff, so I’m good. There’s no “line” I’m afraid I’d cross, at least.
What is the most stressful part about hosting?
WOOD Remembering the jokes, not going too fast. And then, sometimes, there are curveballs on the day where this person’s supposed to be coming, but they aren’t. But that’s what makes it exciting is when you have a presenter who wants to do a joke or do something silly with you, that’s always a load off because it’s a place to get a free joke.
OKATSUKA This is my first time hosting an awards show. But as I prep, the most “stressful” aspect would probably be having to make jokes about current events, being up to date with the zeitgeist at the same time you’re trying to bring fresh, unique, unheard takes.
This story appeared in the Feb. 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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