My Choices For The 2021 Emmys
Week 1, Part 3: Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama
Only two nominees from the previous year are eligible, so once again there’s lots of room for variety. Even with last year’s winner ineligible, there’s a lot of room for diversity: three women of color could very easily end up being nominated. I think that there’s room for a little more variety than usual. So here are my choices.
Uzo Aduba, In Treatment
I don’t think I’ve ever given Uzo Aduba enough credit as an actress. I never liked Orange is the New Black, so I never appreciated her ‘role of a lifetime’ and I don’t think I thought she had a chance in hell of winning Best Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series last year for her work as Shirley Chisholm in Mrs. America. But there is no way you can watch this reimagining of In Treatment and not be in utter awe of her work as Dr. Brooke Taylor. It comes clear in each patient she sees: her pleading with Eladio, her ultimate rage at Colin, her desperation with Tessa. And all this while dealing with the passing of her father, the search for a son she gave up as a teenager, and her failing with her sobriety and relationship with a dangerous man. I don’t think I was willing to give Aduba a chance for her three previous wins. She utterly deserves a nomination her.
Olivia Colman, The Crown
I’m kind of astonished that after spending the better part of three seasons feeling immense sympathy for Elizabeth, I now spent much of Season 4 openly disliking her. A lot of people began thinking the monarchy was something of a relic, and its rather stunning to see that Elizabeth, as she faces middle age, now sees herself as a failure as a wife and mother…and seems utterly incapable of doing anything about it. That doesn’t mean that there still weren’t a lot of brilliant moments for Colman throughout season 4, as she clashed with Margaret Thatcher, dealt with the new marriage, and in the most fascinating episode had an encounter with a British citizen who told her just how lost she might be. I really think Colman deserves to win before she lives. But she might not, because…
Emma Corrin, The Crown
There was always going to be a lot of fuss when Diana Spencer finally entered this series given everything we already know about her. But something remarkable happened. We were introduced to the first truly and purely sympathetic character in the entire series, and through this outsider — not wanted by the family or her husband — we saw just how stale the monarchy was. This was a complete reversal from Morgan’s The Queen, and a large part of the reason it works so well is from the remarkable work of Corrin as Diana. Almost from the beginning, the viewer is completely on her side and we see Diana who makes the mistake of being a human being in a family that views itself more as an institution than anything else. Corrin has already won a Golden Globe and Critics Choice. Barring an upset by Colman, it’s going to be hard for her to lose.
Mandy Moore, This is Us
It has been hard watching Rebecca over the last couple of seasons of This is Us knowing her diagnosis and just where she’s going to end up when the series meets its end. And the reason we are so wrenched every time we see Rebecca in the present is because of how brilliant Moore is in every aspect of her portrayal. We see her playing different version of herself every year — the younger Rebecca and her happiness with Jack, raising The Big Three in their tricky early years, trying to get by without her husband, and the variations of all her relationships with her children in the past and the present. Here we saw her make her peace with Kate, the one child she had the trickiest relationship with, dealing with the agony of not being able to be there when her grandchildren were born and her own agony of being a bad mother. I don’t know why Moore has gotten so few nominations for this show. I hope they remember her this time.
MJ Rodriguez, Pose
One of the more remarkable things about Pose is how we see each of its characters rise from their nadirs. And while Porter has gotten the most attention from the Emmys, Rodriguez’s stunning work as Blanca may be the greatest achievement of the show. We’ve watch her come from to streets to raise a surrogate family and see them grow up. We watched her become a caregiver and remarkably end up becoming a nurse. We watched her finally become a wife after years of struggling. And in the finale, we saw her pass on what she has learned to a new generation of terrified young black women. The best moment for her wasn’t just her being named a legend in the ballrooms where she became one. It was when her ‘mother’ Electra, who she’s had her ups and down with, admitted that she’d never been prouder of her daughter. Rodriguez deserves a trip to the runways.
Jurnee Smollett, Lovecraft Country
She never seems to get her due, even though she’s been acting forever from Full House to the last two seasons of Friday Night Lights to the criminally underwatched Underground. Well as Letitia F-ing Lewis, this is where she gets what she’s owed. Atticus may have been the protagonist of Lovecraft Country but most of the great moments — from her shooting white people chasing her out of town to her smashing windshields during a party in order to bring the police — and then getting tossed in a paddy wagon — were hers. And that’s before we find out she’s in the middle of a century long quest for power. For all intents and purposes Letitia was the soul of Lovecraft Country and Jurnee Smollet utterly commanding the screen in every scene she was in. She’s more than earned a nomination.
Katheryn Winnick, Big Sky
From the moment she worked out that her ex-husband was having an affair with their other partner in the PIs which led to a barroom brawl with her, which led to sex with her husband… and that was before the real trouble started. Anyway, Jenny Hoyt has been one of the most memorable new character to appear on TV in awhile — a ballsy woman who has a perfect BS detector, who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, and can hold her own with the most unlikely bad guy. The worst thing anyone with a secret can do is underestimate Jenny Hoyt. Winnick is one of the greatest talents I’ve seen on any platform in a while, and her work more than deserves a nomination. (I’d like them to find from for Kylie Bunbury, her partner in policing but I don’t know if the Emmys can.) I think she’ll survive the cliffhanger. But she deserves a nod just in case.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Chiara Aurelia/Olivia Holt, Cruel Summer
If this series had aired on Netflix or Amazon, I wouldn’t have to plead for these two brilliant actresses to get nominations. They’d be in the frontlines already. Jeanette Turner and Kate Wallis are two very different teenage girls whose lives would never interact under any circumstances… until a truly horrific event happens and a more horrific accusation is made. Aurelia and Holt give two of the best performances in three separate years, showing remarkable range not only in physical appearance but in psychological behavior. You couldn’t imagine one working without the other, which is why its so remarkable their longest scene together was in the season one finale. But even though this series was a monster hit, it aired on Freeform a network that has been ignored by almost every award group. Forget the network. These two actresses can stand with anybody prospective nominee or winner. And they’re going to be around for a long, long time.