OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES/TV
MOVIE
Every so often I break my rule and include a
performer from a TV movie on my list. There are several possible other contenders
for Best Limited Series who have been nominated in other shows but in this case
I'm going with a probable and personal favorite from a TV movie. That doesn't
mean I'll follow the rules the rest of the way.
Let's get back to it.
Cate Blanchett, Disclaimer
There are rumors that Blanchett is considering
retirement. That's somewhat shocking considering she's only recently turned 56
and is still getting the kind of roles in film that most actresses her age
stopped getting a decade ago. But then again, according to imdb.com she's
already won 218 awards in a career spanning a quarter of a century. Maybe she's
running out of houses to put her prizes on.
On a more serious note Blanchett was one of the
few performers in a limited series from 2024 who made the junket of end of year
awards, nominated for a Golden Globe, a Critics Choice Award and a SAG Award for
playing Catherine in Disclaimer. She lost all three times but it seems
very likely that, as with Brie Larson for Lessons in Chemistry last
year, she will be most likely to be considered for an Emmy nomination down the road.
At this point the Emmy is one of the few awards left she hasn't won although
she was nominated five years earlier for her remarkable work as Phyllis Schlafly
in Mrs. America. She lost to Regina King in what was the right decision
and it's telling that it's difficult to see the similarities between Catherine
and the arch conservative in this very different show. Of course Blanchett
doesn't need any more prizes but she'll definitely get nominated for yet another
nuanced, subtle performance in her repertoire. And there's a good chance she'll
lose to another lead actress in another adaptation of a DC comic. (See below.)
Ari Gaynor, Monsters
I will confess I was puzzled when Ari Gaynor
chose to submit herself for consideration in the Outstanding Lead Actress instead
of Supporting where it seemed more likely she would receive a nomination if not
win. I had no problem with her performance being eligible for awards.
Gaynor's work as Leslie Grossman, the attorney
who ends up taking on Erik and Lyle's case and who absolutely believes in them
is one of the more brilliant character studies. She has a reputation already of
being the kind of defense attorney hated because of her clients and for being a
woman in the profession and this just adds more to it. When she learns the
story of the brothers – particularly Erik's – she becomes absolutely certain
they don't belong in jail. That she remains devoted to that even as we learn
more about the lies they may have told says more about her state of mind then
anything else. By the time we reach the final episode she seems to be the only
person left on the planet who is convinced these people don't deserve the
punishment they're getting and we're left with an unanswered question: why does
she have such faith in these brothers when the viewer no longer does?
Gaynor has been working in television for a long
time in many superb comedies and never received recognition. Of my five choices
in this category she's the one who has the most chance of being excluded but I
think she's as worthy as any other alternative. She convinced me and I think
she can convince the Academy.
Cristin Milioti, The Penguin
She finally played the title character in How
I Met Your Mother. She'd played a sickly mother in the second season of Fargo.
She's been in more than a few dark comedies. But it's safe to say none of
that prepared the world for her work as Sofia Falcone.
It takes a lot to steal a TV series from Colin
Farrell and while Milioti didn't quite do that her work as Sofia made Milioti
one of the breakout sensations of 2024. We've seen a lot of complicated women
in the last decade, some of them on HBO dramas but we've never seen someone
like Sofia: a woman who became what she was accused of being after being framed
by her father in the past, went mad in an asylum and finally tried to realize
who she was her father's daughter after all. Of all the characters in the world
of Batman she is the most tragic because she realized the deep poison of the
city and the only way to escape it's evil – and was brought low by the machinations
of a villain who consigned her to a fate infinitely worse then death.
Milioti has already won both the Critics Choice
Awards and the Astra Award in this category so far this year. She's not the
out-and-out certainty that her co-star Farrell but she's definitely the
front-runner. And few who saw her work can argue that it wasn't a master class.
Michelle Williams, Dying for Sex
Williams has been one of our greatest actresses
in film and television almost her entire career. It might be a bit of a stretch
to say she's never given quite a performance like the one in Dying for Sex but
how many television shows have a woman dying of cancer who decide to spend
their last days going on a quest for an orgasm in them – and you know, been
incredibly funny to boot?
Ironically it is that last part that might be the
biggest obstacle in Williams prevailing over some of the other contenders:
historically Emmy voters like their winners in limited series to deal with
incredibly dark, melancholy material. Admittedly that may be changing given the
success of The White Lotus (when it was a limited series and more of a
comedy) and the triumph of Baby Reindeer which was as much a black
comedy as it was a harsh drama. That said Williams work as Molly in Dying is
basically a comedy, watching her mind raise through so many scenarios involving
sex after her diagnosis, decide to meet up with strangers on Tinder, masturbating
online and getting caught with ransomware, so many bizarre sexual encounters
then when she starts being a dominatrix with her next door neighbor it almost
seems normal, a sexual encounter where she kicks him in the genitals and she
has to go to the hospital, her last sexual encounter being delayed by a very
dedicated nurse. Even her last days are said with images of penises with
wings. It's a very dark emotional performance but I did laugh hysterically at
much of it, even the sad parts.
To be clear when it comes to an Emmy in a limited
series, dying and getting one is easy. Getting one for comedy is hard. But if
anyone can do it it's Michelle Williams and it would be fun to hear this
particular acceptance speech.
Renee Zellweger, Bridget Jones: Mad About the
Boy
Renee Zellweger is one of the most awarded
actresses of the 21st century? Is it wrong that having won 2 Oscars,
four Golden Globes and three SAG Awards she is still most famous for the one character
she hasn't won a major award for? Not if you love Bridget Jones and,
like millions of people across the globe, I always have. Perhaps there's something wrong that I found
value in all three Bridget Jones film but I've always been a bit quirky
myself.
On a historical level I think it would be fitting
if Zellweger were to make history by becoming the first actress to receive an
Emmy and Oscar nomination for playing the same character. (Maybe she'd be the
first performer of any kind to do so; I haven't enough knowledge on the
subject.) I'd also think it was fitting because I advocated for Zellweger being
recognized for her superb work in The Thing About Pam three years ago
and the Emmys in their wisdom chose to ignore both her and the series. I'd also
think it would be fitting because so many of Zellweger's co-stars not just in Bridget
Jones but other movies she's been recognized in having gotten more than
their share of love from the Emmys in terms of nominations: I speak not just of
Hugh Grant and Colin Firth but Nicole Kidman. And of course I think she should
be nominated because I love unconditionally almost everything Zellweger does.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Shailene Woodley, Three Women
I went back and forth between whether offering Woodley's
name or Annaleigh Ashford for her equally incredible performance in the equally
likely to be ignored by the Emmys Happy Face. It was a tough call
between two actresses I've considered the most unrecognized for their work in
television over the last decade. Woodley's Gia made the list for a simple
reason: her character was the more fascinating of the two.
Watching Gia traversing America trying to realize
her goal when it came to her book was just as riveting as watching the work of
any of the three women she was covering. Watching her interactions with all of
them, the way she dealt with a messy affair that led to a pregnancy, the way
she dealt with the possibility of a fatal illness and the way the show resolved
all of the stories of the women she watched but critically not her own, gave
Woodley the chance to yet against demonstrate why she is one of the best
actresses of our time, the equal of her peers going back to Big Little Lies and
The Descendants. I think she deserves all the recognition she gets.
Tomorrow I will deal with Outstanding Supporting
Actor in a Limited Series/TV Movie. This time, I'm back to Limited Series.
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