FYC: Michael Sheen for Best Actor, Drama
Wednesday, June 17, 2015 at 10:40AM Team Experience continues to share their picks for this year's Emmy nominations. Here's David on Michael Sheen.
If Lizzy Caplan's Virginia Johnson is the heart of Masters of Sex, Michael Sheen's Bill Masters is its head - its proud, dedicated, fearful psychosis, driving the narrative into a quagmire of sexual and social confusion. Virginia's emotion flows easily from her, but Bill's is buried beneath acres of childhood trauma built into cracked defences. He is akin to the other current TV icon of past American masculinity, Don Draper – and one episode even leaves him in the dark glow of a deserted office in a shot that could have come straight from Mad Men.
Sheen’s brilliance in the part is in how he retains the audience’s sympathy and investment despite his frequently frustrating episodes of stubbornness, anger, hypocrisy and cruelty. As Bill repeatedly contends, he "never meant to hurt anyone" - a clichéd excuse that is beautifully grounded in the reality of Sheen’s performance. Ironically, Bill is only really able to pull off an emotional façade in his most vulnerable moments, whether spitting cruel barbs back at his brother Frank or trying to shut out Virginia’s inquisitive gaze as she delves into his childhood (in the masterful third episode, ‘Fight’, set almost entirely in their hotel room).
Sheen and Lizzy Caplan in 'Fight'
Tasked with portraying such an intricate mind, it would have been easy for Sheen to make him inscrutable, shutting the audience out as spectators of Bill’s great intellect. Instead, Sheen delineates almost endless contradictions and conflicts while humanising a man who insistently refuses emotionality. As Bill discovers that his first patient needs to be himself, and as he opens up to Virginia, Sheen is careful not to abandon the inherent resistance of Bill’s nature to both of these developments, crafting a compelling and detailed story of a man more fascinating than his work. The defining moment of Sheen’s second season might be when Virginia orders him to strip before her – rarely do we see any man so controlled and exposed, but especially this one.
Previously:
The Americans | Jane the Virgin | Cara Seymour, The Knick | Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback | Jon Hamm, Mad Men | Ruth Wilson, The Affair | Matt Czuchry, The Good Wife | Gwendolyn Christie, Game of Thrones | Lauren Weedman, Looking
Reader Comments (10)
Great article...and yes!
All I can think of is "Jon Hamm for the win", but yes, he was brilliant this season.
Co-sign all of this. What a beautiful, intricately layered performance.
Eh, Sheen and the character was the reason I stopped watching the show. I prefer a Caplan/Nicholson pairing instead.
I feel like Masters of Sex got forgotten since it aired way back last summer. However, season 2 was even better than the first. Michael Sheen was phenomenal as they really got into Masters' past. Fight was also one of the best hours of TV this past year. I hope Lizzy Caplan repeats her nomination, Sheen gets in and it pulls off a surprise Best Drama nom. Also, Tony winner Analeigh Ashford is a highlight on the show as well. So much talent on that show!
I have not watched Mad Men , so I cannot comment on Hamm... however, we do watch Masters of Sex .. and I love Kaplan... but Sheen is phenomenal in a difficult role to pull off...hope he at least gets the nom ...
It baffles me that he wasn't nominated last year alongside Caplan, Bridges and Janney. (In my opinion, his work in "Catherine" should've gotten him a nomination.) I'm keeping my fingers crossed because his work in "Fight" (as indeed with the whole show) is fantastic.
Co-sign. Masters of Sex is a good but flawed show, definitely not as good as Mad Men, but the acting is on par - especially from the two leads, and *especially* from Sheen. He is so, so good at conveying the contradictions you point out in Masters' character that you can go in one episode from wanting to wring his neck to wanting to hug him and back again - and it all seems utterly believable, emotionally convincing.
Ryan -- i too thought Sheen was the major flaw of the show the first season and i would not have nominated him for that. There weren't enough layers to forgive how offputting the character was (maybe it was anti-hero fatigue?) but the second season was a huge improvement for the character. He really really dug deep.
Everyone -- Didn't "Fight" feel like an entire one act play... and a Tony worthy one at that? Just a brilliant hour of television.
Absolutely he deserves to be considered along with Lizzy Caplan. The Fight episode I think is their best performance and the best episode of the series so far.