Emmys rewind: 5 reasons why Olivia Colman pulled off a royal Best Actress upset for ‘The Crown’

Jack Mahanes
·4 min read

Since Olivia Colman is a Best Comedy Guest Actress Emmy nominee this year for “The Bear,” it’s a great time to look back to 2021, when “The Crown” swept the drama field for Best Series, directing, writing, and all four acting categories.

While most of the wins in the drama field were correctly predicted in our Gold Derby odds, the biggest surprise of the night was Colman winning Best Drama Actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II on “The Crown” over co-star Emma Corrin, who was favored to win for their portrayal of Diana, Princess of Wales. Colman was fourth in our odds, which made her the night’s biggest acting upset. So how did she win? Let’s look at five reasons why the actress pulled off a royal upset.

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1. “The Crown” swept the major categories:

“The Crown” was the heavy favorite to win Best Drama Series after sweeping all the winter precursor prizes in that category. By Emmy night it was predicted to win all the major categories minus Best Drama Supporting Actor (Michael K. Williams was favored for “Lovecraft Country”). However, Tobias Menzies ended up winning and the series got on a clean sweep. If Gillian Anderson, Josh O’Connor, and Menzies all won, it made sense for Colman to emerge victorious as well.

2. She was the main character of the series:

While most of the focus of Season 4 was on Charles and Diana and their troubled marriage, the series is still primarily about Queen Elizabeth II and her reign. Colman as The Queen of England had a lot of notable storylines in Season 4 that included her often contentious relationship with then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Anderson), her relationship with her four children, and her unexpected meeting with disgruntled citizen Michael Fagan (Tom Brooke), who frighteningly climbed through the windows of Buckingham Palace and into her bedroom. The series win for a drama about Queen Elizabeth II created the path for Colman’s victory as the main character.

3. She was seen as overdue for an Emmy:

At this point Colman had already won an Oscar, three Golden Globes, and two SAG Awards as part of the ensemble for “The Crown.” However, given she’d been primarily a TV actress for most of her career, it was puzzling how after winning all those huge industry awards, she had yet to win an Emmy. She had earned previous nominations for her performances on “The Night Manager,” “Fleabag” and for the third season of “The Crown.” So by the time we got to her final season on “The Crown,” the TV academy felt it was the right time to finally award her with an Emmy.

4. Claire Foy won Drama Guest Actress:

Foy had won an Emmy for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II on the second season of “The Crown.” So it was interesting when she won Best Drama Guest Actress that year for one flashback scene that only involved reading a speech from a piece of paper. However, looking back, that was probably a sign of how much the actors branch loves actors’ portrayals of the character. And since members of the actors branch were voting for Foy to win her second Emmy for her portrayal, they might have felt inclined to vote for Colman as their chance to honor her for playing the character too.

5. The category lined up very well for her:

Colman had the most in her favor compared to her fellow nominees. Uzo Aduba was a three-time Emmy winner at this point, but given she was the sole nominee of “In Treatment,” that made her highly unlikely to earn a fourth Emmy that year. Jussie Smollett was likely hurt by the fact that “Lovecraft Country” was canceled earlier that summer after only one season. While Elisabeth Moss had being one of 10 acting nominations for “The Handmaid’s Tale’s” fourth season in her favor, the fact she was snubbed for her performance the year before for the third season made it seem inconceivable that she’d come back and win a bookend Emmy. MJ Rodriguez’s nomination for “Pose” was historic and many pundits thought she had a real chance to make history as the first transgender winner in the category. However, the show’s only acting bids were for her and Billy Porter compared to nine for “The Crown,” which showed voters likely weren’t as enthusiastic about the former’s show compared to latter’s. And then there was Colman’s co-star Emma Corrin, and while they were also playing an iconic figure, Colman being the veteran actress over the newcomer likely worked in her favor in the final tally to finally garner that Emmy win.

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