All the Action in the Actress Emmy Races
This week, I moderated a panel at the premiere of Candy, a true-crime limited series that debuted this week on Hulu, and centers on Candy Montgomery, who killed her friend with an ax in suburban Dallas in 1980. It’s a salacious story, but what’s most memorable from the show are the performances of its leads, Jessica Biel and Melanie Lynskey. They’re delivering some of their best work—and they’re just the tip of the iceberg this season.
I’m Rebecca Ford and this week I’ve been fascinated by how the actress Emmy races are shaping up. Not only do you have someone like Lynskey, long overdue for this kind of attention, in the conversation for both Candy and Yellowjackets, but every category is a mix of seasoned stars delivering career-best performances and rising talent that have stepped up to take the spotlight for the first time.
Among those seasoned stars is Jean Smart, who returned with the second season of Hacks this week. As my colleague David Canfield points out in his piece analyzing the comedy-actress race, she’s the clear front-runner in the field. Still, there’s some competition from new shows that are real crowd-pleasers, like Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson and Only Murders in the Building’s Selena Gomez, so it’s not a sure thing for Smart just yet.
The drama and limited-series races feel a little more cutthroat. Lynskey seems like a strong possibility for her excellent work in Yellowjackets, but she’ll contend with 2020 winner Zendaya(Euphoria), along with Laura Linney who has been nominated twice already for Ozark and has yet to win. And I would never count out a few TV Academy favorites who could be back: Jennifer Aniston (The Morning Show), Mandy Moore (This Is Us), and Killing Eve’s Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, who are eligible for the final season of this AMC show.
The limited-series actress race, however, is the one I’m most excited for this year. Sure, it has movie stars (Julia Roberts! Michelle Pfeiffer!), but it’s the extremely memorable work of Amanda Seyfried (The Dropout), Lily James (Pam & Tommy), and Elle Fanning (The Girl From Plainville) that I think should get the most attention in this year’s race. All three transformed physically to play real people, and did so without it ever feeling silly or like a caricature. I recently spoke with Fanning about playing Michelle Carter in Plainville, and how the show’s creators decided to answer the many lingering questions about that infamous case.
And I haven’t even gotten to the supporting categories, which feel just as competitive in many ways. I’ll have to leave that for another time, though, as I’m packing my bags to head out to the Cannes Film Festival for the next 10 days. Along with Richard Lawson, I’ll be checking out as many of the films as I can, along with doing interviews on the ground. Will there be a Drive My Car or Parasite breakout that could make it all the way to next year’s Oscars? We’ll hopefully be the first to tell you. Early next week, Richard and I will break down our most anticipated titles, and we’ll be filing from the festival for the next two weeks, so make sure to check back for our coverage from the Croisette. Au revoir for now!
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