This is where I’m going off the reservation the most. I know who a lot of the predicted nominees are likely to be, but I have a lot of issues. I don’t believe that actors in a filmed version of a stage play should be competing for an Emmy. I don’t believe performances that until crunch time couldn’t decide whether they wanted to compete as films or television should be considered for Emmys. And I’m tired of seeing people getting considered for playing the former President when the past administration is barely in our rearview mirror; we’re going to be getting films about Trump for decades, do we need them when the funeral baked meats are not yet cold? (And for the record, Brendan Gleeson already has an Emmy for Into the Storm where he played a much more admirable world leader.)
There are many great candidates who I think very well will be overlooked because of the rush to fresher faces. So I’m going to concentrate on them here rather than anyone else. I’ll most likely be wrong, but I’d rather be wrong in a good cause.
Bill Camp, The Queen’s Gambit
Admittedly Camp’s performance as Shaibel, the janitor who inspires Elizabeth’s love of chess is one of the smallest in this limited series. We only really see him in the first episode and the rest are in Elizabeth’s head. And Shaibel is a man of very few words even then. But it is a testament to Camp’s tremendous ability as an actor that he makes just an indelible impression on the audience in his few scenes as he will on Elizabeth’s life. He doesn’t have to tell us anything about himself or what inspires this unlikely relationship at all. He’s just there, the silent structure that Elizabeth needs in her earliest days and throughout her life. Over the last few years Camp has been making a remarkable impression in several limited series. It is an exaggeration to call this his best work, but it’s among his most subtle and it’s impossible to ignore.
Joshua Caleb Johnson, The Good Lord Bird
Ignore the fact that the role of Onion was essentially the lead in this series; it’s really hard for young actors to get listed at all. Johnson’s performance as Onion, a slave who gets mistaken for a girl by John Brown in the first minutes, is too terrified to correct it, and lives through history in that role was one of the most remarkable ones I saw in all of 2020, more than the equal of Ethan Hawke’s incredible performance. Then consider this was Johnson’s very first role and it’s impossible not to be awed by a performance that seemed to show so much worldliness for someone who was just a child. Onion had to play far too many roles in his life – the horrible reality of a black child in 1850s America – and every time he’s on the screen, you can sense the terror in his eyes as he knows anything he says or does – or doesn’t say or do – could get him killed. Onion did something remarkable – he survived. And if that isn’t worth a nomination, well, I think his character of people would understand why.
Guy Pearce, Mare of Easttown
There may be a lot of better candidates from this series to get a nomination – I’ve seen many picks for Evan Peters as Mare’s priest brother – but if I’d be honest, one of the highpoints of the series for me was Pearce’s work as Richard, the new to town writer who had one great novel and hasn’t been able to write since. Some argued that his character was extraneous too much of the action; I didn’t see it that way. In a way Richard understood as clearly as Mare did to have early success and than have your entire life pale in comparison. Their awkward romance was actually one of the better moments of the series as you see Mare for the first time really make an effort to do something nice for herself in a very long time. Richard was incidental to the mystery and the finale, but I’ve been watching Pearce long enough to know that nothing he does is a waste of time. And who cares if maybe the whole point of him being here was to have an impromptu Mildred Pierce reunion - Pearce and Winslet still had their chemistry.
Donald Sutherland, The Undoing
Even people who couldn’t quite get into the nature of The Undoing couldn’t ignore the remarkable work of Sutherland as Walter, Grace’s patrician father who supports his daughter thoroughly through her trauma even though he’s never liked her husband and is absolutely convinced of his guilt. Sutherland has been one of the greatest actors in history for more than half a century; how is it possible that such a career has unfolded with so little recognition for it? His work in The Undoing was not his greatest performance and I think it would be premature to set it up as a lifetime achievement award. But as the force of rationality in an increasingly insane series, he deserves many an accolade. He took the Critics Choice Award for Supporting Actor in January, and I think that he’s the outside favorite for this award.
Glynn Turman, Fargo
Turman’s been around nearly as long as Sutherland has and especially over the last twenty years has been getting a fair amount of recognition: some for brilliant performances (Mayor Royce in The Wire, his Emmy as the father of a patient in In Treatment) some for work that was beneath his standard (Marty’s father in House of Lies). But he has always had gravitas that he lends to even the most corrupt individuals. In Fargo, he took on the role of Doctor Senator, Loy’s most trusted advisor in the battle against the Faddas. He clearly had wisdom and he clearly had experience, and neither side was willing to give him the benefit of the either. When he met his end at the hands of an assassin halfway through the series, there was no one else who could urge restraint to Loy and everything escalated to full-scale war. Turman was justifiably an early favorite in this category, but now younger, flashier performances have overtaken him. Like everyone else in the final season of Fargo, they’d do well to listen to the Doctor.
Ben Whishaw, Fargo
In my humble opinion, Whishaw’s performance as ‘Rabbi’ Milligan was the greatest work of Season 4. The sole survivor of the massacre of an Irish clan, Milligan took on the job of supervising the Cannon child. And he did something that almost nobody in the entire series of Fargo did, good or bad. He put his life before that of an innocent. While everyone else’s goals were confused, he did everything to keep the child safe, which would cost him everything. And in the highpoint of Season 4 ‘East/West, where Rabbi went on a desperate, black and white trip to try and save him, every action he took was still for him – including a fatal trip to a gas station. All of this was brilliant enough when you consider that Whishaw was practically unrecognizable from all his previous performances including that of A Very English Scandal, which helped him sweep the awards circuit just two years ago. Some part of me really hoped that Rabbi survived that last moment. But for everything he did and everything Whishaw portrayed, he deserves a nomination.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Daveed Diggs, The Good Lord Bird
Is it more likely he will get nominated for recreating his role in Hamilton? Probably. But in my opinion, there was far more relish to be seen in his work as Frederic Douglass than as Aaron Burr, sir. For all the saintliness that surrounds the orator, it was actually refreshing to see Douglass portrayed as a drinking, womanizing, arrogant human being and Diggs clearly relished the role. I liked how John Brown was clearly too radical and crazy for Douglass but whom he – as in history – was willing to try and back his ill-fated plan. And while Diggs did provide a lot of the comic moments in this series, his monologue in the finale – where he put forth just how important Brown’s role was in the movement to abolish slavery – sent chills down my spine. There was nothing musical about anything in his performance, but it sang nevertheless.
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