In 2021, Claire Foy won her second Emmy for playing Queen Elizabeth on Netflix The crown, a bizarre guest acting triumph for what was hardly even a cameo. The easiest way to interpret Foy’s victory is that Emmy voters have lost all ability to judge guest scene categories, which requires a full review. Or, watch Olivia Colman’s victory because she played Queen Elizabeth The crownwe can be generous and say that what voters really enjoy is dual casting, the comparative pleasure of watching actors place unique-but-complementary twists on a shared role.
Thanks to Showtime’s yellow jackets, voters can fill the main and supporting actress fields on the drama side with double role players. For Melanie Lynskey’s Shauna, do not forget about the foundation laid by teenage Shauna, Sophie Nélisse. Think Christina Ricci was delightfully disconnected as an adult Misty? Be sure to honor how well Sammi Hanratty sowed Misty’s eccentricities.
However, I’m more concerned about my favorite piece of Emmy-qualifying double service, the perfectly matched Mackenzie Davis and Matilda Lawler as plague survivor Kirsten in HBO Max’s Station eleven. In the star-studded limited series of acting categories, where the qualifying standards can at least start with an Oscar nomination, I’m really afraid that Davis and Lawler could be punished because they are merely soulful and sometimes funny characters in Emily’s lyrical adaptation. St. John Mandel’s award-winning novel When Their Competition Will Sting Game about who used the most latex to play the most famous historical personality. (Look at you, Renée Zellweger in The thing about Pam.)
It would be easier to be confident in Davis’ chances if Emmy voters were not unaware of her heartbreakingly subtle work in Stop and Catch Fire – ignore Davis and co-star Kerry Bishé for the final stop seasons remain a nonsense I can not forgive – and the “San Junipero” episode of BlackMirror. In Station eleven, Davis ‘version of Kirsten is the personification of the series’ themes about not only the healing power of art, but also its limitations, a mixture of great determination and fragility that was especially true for viewers watching the program during the COVID Experienced 19 pandemic. . She has elements of an action heroine – she Terminator: Dark Fate swagger that comes in handy — and she has to produce Shakespearean monologues. Emmy voters have long been in arrears when it comes to realizing how well Davis can anchor the best pieces of prestige television.
Lawler, whose primary previous credit was a particularly cold episode of Paramount +’s Evil, has the most difficult task. Especially in the premiere, Lawler’s version of Kirsten is our starting point, a big-eyed child who should be premature, but not also precious, and captures the crushing impact of a global trauma while at the same time selling the hopeful bond with Himesh Patel’s Jeevan.
Voters should focus on “Goodbye My Damaged Home,” the season’s seventh episode, in which a flashback allows Davis and Lawler’s versions of Kirsten to share the screen. The episode represents a highlight for both Emmy-worthy actresses.
This story first appeared in a June self-published issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.