A Night for Actor’s Actors, Not Movie Stars
· The Atlantic
When the Widow’s Bay creator Katie Dippold accepted her Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series last night, she joked that she was so proud of her win, she intended to display her trophy as prominently as possible in her home. The award would be mounted on a rotating turntable, she explained; mirrors would be set up around the space so visitors could always see it, wherever they were. “This is going to become my entire personality now,” she warned.
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This year’s Emmys essentially turned Widow’s Bay into its personality, too. The Apple TV series about a haunted island town full of eccentric inhabitants swept the field, winning six categories over the course of the evening, including Outstanding Comedy Series. The show’s star, Matthew Rhys, even made Emmys history: With his win for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, he became the first ever nominee to score a trophy in all three lead actor categories. (Earlier in the night, he was awarded for his work in The Beast in Me, a limited series; in 2018, he won for The Americans, a drama.) His achievements helped underline how much the ceremony honored true-blue actors such as him—and how television, despite years of movie stars dominating prestige shows, remains best designed for versatile performers and textured roles.
Consider Rhys’s fellow winners from Widow’s Bay, a series that married the chill of a Stephen King novel with the goofy humor of Parks and Recreation. Kate O’Flynn, who built her career in British theater, won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her spirited turn as Patricia, a lonely but resilient woman. Her co-star Stephen Root, who took home the trophy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, is widely regarded as an actor’s actor—the kind of performer who adds depth to any story, no matter the genre. In his speech, he underlined how unusual it was for him to be recognized, pointing out that his son was shocked that he was in the same category as Harrison Ford.
The ceremony, of course, featured plenty of the movie stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicole Kidman, Tom Holland, and Zendaya were all seated close to the stage. But many of the performers who took home awards were respected TV industry veterans who have spent most of their careers disappearing into their work rather than commanding the spotlight. Noah Wyle may now be an Emmys favorite after winning two years in a row for starring in The Pitt, but he beat out Mark Ruffalo and Gary Oldman for the honor. Allison Janney (who, to be fair, is an Oscar winner) expressed her shock about winning her first Emmy in 11 years, for her arresting supporting turn as a fictional U.S. president in The Diplomat.
[Read: The girls get to sit down]
The night also featured several satisfying, overdue wins: Rhea Seehorn, who led six seasons of the often-nominated Better Call Saul, finally took home her first Emmy, for her jittery performance in Pluribus. Hiro Murai, a director who has helped define the cinematic look of modern television through his work on shows such as Atlanta and Barry, won his first directing Emmy, for—once again—Widow’s Bay.
The Emmys producers seemed to know that many of its winners might not be household names. The show was frontloaded with the performance categories, which meant that all of the acting awards were finished halfway into the three-hour show. That’s unusual for a Hollywood ceremony, which normally tries to keep people glued to their screens by showing as many stars for as long as possible, and boosting viewer anticipation for their speeches. But then again, the night’s host was Mariska Hargitay, one of television’s mainstays; she’s led the cast of Law & Order: SVU for 27 seasons, with another on the way. To honor a slate of experienced pros only felt right.