Emmy Advocacy: Voters, Nominate These Actors!
Photo: USA
It’s time for the TV-industry folks to start Emmy nomination voting. The nominating process begins on Monday and goes through June 27 — and the nominees will be announced on July 14. During this time, all the networks mount campaigns to remind voters of the possibilities (best of luck to you, Chicago Med!). So now’s the time for me to do some of my own campaigning for performers I think deserve to be nominated. We all know that high-visibility shows such as Modern Family, Game of Thrones, and The Big Bang Theory will get multiple nominations. Therefore, my enthusiastic suggestions below are for people who might be forgotten by Emmy members. Are some of these long shots, in some cases completely unrealistic suggestions? Sure! But we all have to dream of and work for an ideal Emmy ballot, don’t we?
The Mr. Robot Phenomenon I want to see this mind-altering freshman series nominated in the categories of Drama Series as well as Actor (Rami Malek) and Supporting Actor (Christian Slater). Malek’s performance as a shutdown, trapped-by-his-own-self-consciousness genius is a wonder, the emotional equivalent of watching a magician trussed in a straightjacket work himself free every week. Slater, by contrast, gives one of his loosest, most adventurous performances, in which ambiguity about who he is and what he represents is its own drama.
Louie Anderson in Baskets What a wonderful, warm, clever performance, playing Zach Galifianakis’s mother in FX’s otherwise uneven Baskets.
Rob Lowe and Fred Savage, Grinders Forever These two guys formed the tightest comedy duo this side of Key & Peele. Their show, The Grinder, is canceled; let them grind on as Emmy nominees.
A Fargo Festoon Patrick Wilson, Kirsten Dunst, Christin Milioti, Jesse Plemons, and Ted Danson: I could have added more names to this list from the marvelous second season of Fargo, but these actors, in particular, revealed fresh angles to their abilities that deserve recognition.
Photo: FX
All Hail The Americans Co-stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys just had a baby together. Can’t they get even one Emmy nom between the two of them?
Tracee Ellis Ross in Black-ish For the co-star of a hit broadcast-network sitcom, she doesn’t get nearly enough praise for her exceptional performance. She can pull funny faces in the tradition of Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett, and her crack verbal timing with Anthony Anderson and her other co-stars makes her an invaluable ensemble player.
Regina King, Carrie Coon in The Leftovers Each of them oversees her particular household, each dealing with an impossible man, in a distinctly different manner, as well as embodying two temperamentally different women — women unlike any other characters on television — each bringing a realism to a spiritual/supernatural show unlike anything else on television.
Outlander-mania! Surely the Emmys would benefit from including at least two stars of this rabidly admired Starz series, Caitriona Balfe and Tobias Menzies: What better way to call attention to both performances and a genre that don’t receive enough attention within the industry?
Amanda Peet in Togetherness It’s really too bad HBO canceled this series just as Peet’s Tina was developing even more sides to her character: a free spirit who’d come to the realization that she was ready for more responsibility, more commitment in her life. It would have been great to see what Peet had Tina do in a third season, and so she remains a great unfinished TV character.
Master of Many Things: Aziz Ansari His Master of None is a prime example of a performer using his skills as a writer-producer to build a showcase for himself, one that showed off new sides to his abilities and expanded our view of him. Plus, really funny.
Abigail Spencer in Rectify The under-seen Sundance channel series Rectify has showcased an exceptional performance by Abigail Spencer, who plays the sister of Daniel (Aden Young), the show’s central figure. But Spencer’s Amantha is just as important to communicating the show’s tone of quiet despair and muted rebellion against the unjust twists life takes.
Photo: Daniel McFadden/SundanceTV
Ray Romano Puts the Spin in Vinyl Simply put: For many weeks, Romano was the primary reason to watch Vinyl. Which, alone, wouldn’t be a reason to nominate him. What enhances Romano’s appeal is that he inhabits a slimy character with enormous energy and understanding.
Constance Zimmer in UnREAL UnREAL’s greatest asset is in Zimmer’s portrayal of a commanding executive who’s always working on a couple of levels: as someone who sees through the romantic charade of the show’s Bachelor-like reality series, who needs to put on a front of steely resolve to do battle with male co-workers, and who conveys both the strength and strain of having to live a life of multiple, simultaneous roles.
Photo: Showtime
Miranda Otto in Homeland One of the year’s most unexpectedly galvanizing performances, Otto took what appeared initially to be a drab supporting player — CIA functionary Allison Carr — and really ran with the writers’ development of Carr as a shifty, shrewd, erotic figure in Homeland’s espionage terrain. I think of all the players on the show this season, Otto made her character the least possible to read, to predict, yet she also made the most of every one of Allison’s more dramatic scenes, whether as a double agent or as Saul Berenson’s very-much-in-control lover.
Bob Odenkirk in Better Call Saul What an extraordinary performance he gave in the second season of Better Call Saul. Odenkirk’s comedy years never suggested the kind of depth he could bring to his character’s desperate, depressed, self-delusional life.
Anika Noni Rose in Roots Taking the role of Kunta Kinte’s daughter, Kizzy (played in the original production by Leslie Uggams), Rose excelled even in the midst of a strong acting ensemble, lending Kizzy a passionate spirit that stood in rebellious contrast to the suffering all around the character.
Photo: History Channel
Eva Green in Penny Dreadful As the soulful, questing Vanessa Ives, Green has been both an agent of this high-spirited melodrama’s action and the object of some of its most harsh subplots. This season, Vanessa’s psychoanalytic sessions with Patti LuPone’s Dr. Seward have been extraordinary: Green suggests the lucidity that can lie at the heart of madness, and her struggles to remain sane and fight the literal demons around her have been exhilarating.
Broad City Stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer It’s likely they’ll never get nominated because it’s just about impossible to praise one without the other. That’s what makes them a great comedy team, but teach has distinctive gifts that ought to be recognized.
Gillian Jacobs in Love The former Community co-star took on this contentious central role in Netflix’s Love — playing Mickey, a tough-minded, louche, cynical realist — and was fearless about appearing angry or obsessed or foolish or vulnerable. I know people who were put off by this character; I loved Mickey’s constantly surprising actions and reactions.
Who do you think is an actor who might be overlooked by the Emmy nominators and needs our support?
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