Hasty Pudding honors ‘Saltburn’ actor Barry Keoghan as its Man of the Year

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals roasted Barry Keoghan, best known for his roles in “Dunkirk,” “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” “Eternals,” and “The Banshees of Inisherin,” on Friday with its 2024 Man of the Year Award.

Keoghan, who also starred in the comedy psychological thriller “Saltburn” and the World War II drama series “Masters of The Air,” was presented with a pudding pot before being invited to attend a performance of Hasty Pudding’s 175th production “Heist Heist Baby!”

During the roast, Keoghan, who is Irish, was pressed into a boxing match with “Mr. Irish Potato Famine,” played by an actor in a comically oversized suit and hat. He also participated in an awkward romantic comedy scene at the end of which he planted his face in a dish of spaghetti.

Keoghan, who acted in “The Eternals” about a race of immortal beings, confessed during the roast that his favorite Avenger was the Hulk and then changed it to Iron Man when he briefly thought Robert Downey Jr., the actor who plays Iron Man, was in the audience.

And at the end of the roast, the BAFTA award winning Keoghan was presented with a “BAFTUB” award – a bathtub-sized award that Keoghan climbed into — before being forced to don a bra adorned with cartons of Morton Salt and cardboard flames.

Speaking to reporters after the roast, Keoghan said he was honored to be in the same category of the other actors who have received the award.

“I’ve seen Paul Newman’s name and some of the others,” he said. “It’s just an honor isn’t it?”

Keoghan joked about spending time in Harvard Square and at the prestigious university before receiving the award. “I automatically feel more intelligent being here,” he said.

He also offered a quip about “Saltburn” — which includes a scene where Keoghan performs a nude dance.

“It’s definitely a family movie,” he said.

Annette Bening, a two-time Golden Globe winner who recently received her fifth Oscar nomination, was named Thursday as the 2024 Woman of the Year.

Hasty Pudding Theatricals, which dates to 1844 and calls itself the third-oldest theater group in the world, has handed out a Man of the Year Award since 1967. Last year’s recipient was Bob Odenkirk, who reprised the role of Saul Goodman in “Better Call Saul,” which earned him three Critics Choice TV awards and multiple Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations.

Past recipients of the Man of the Year Award include Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds.

Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ 2024 Woman of the Year Award dates to 1951.

Bening, who also has won a Screen Actors Guild Award and starred in “The Grifters” and “American Beauty,” earned her fifth Oscar nomination, this one for best actress, for playing the prickly long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad in the movie “Nyad.”

The awards are given out to people who have made lasting and impressive contributions to the world of entertainment.

Steve Leblanc, The Associated Press