Emmy FYC: Best Supporting Actor (Drama) - Jeremy Allen White in Shameless
Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 5:00PM Emmy nomination voting begins Monday. For the next week we'll be sharing FYCs of some kind. Here's Kieran...
William H. Macy and Joan Cusack aside, “Shameless" has been criminally overlooked by the Television Academy for six years. No nominations for Emmy Rossum (praises sung here) who has been giving the best performance of her career. Nothing for Cameron Monaghan, who has given us one of the most raw and unvarnished portrayals of queer adolescence ever seen on television. Nothing for the series itself, whose balance of drama and comedy and depiction of what American poverty really looks like remain unmatched. In an age where it seems difficult to tell stories about family without a larger, high-concept twist, “Shameless” remains overlooked and underestimated, despite its aforementioned merits.
This past season, Jeremy Allen White’s portrayal of Lip, the genius eldest son of the Gallagher clan took a huge leap forward in what had already been five years of impressive work. Even amidst somewhat ridiculous plot points (Lip’s been evicted and must serve as a bartender/rentboy at a sorority house on his college campus. What’s a young, strapping cishet male to do?!) White managed to eke out his best work on the series to date as Lip’s arc slowly revealed itself in the latter half of the season. He manages to strike the perfect balance between wry and vulnerable as the character evolves and sees his brave face and defense mechanisms crashing around him...
Always the honorable, well-intentioned heart of his family, serving as older sister Fiona’s (Rossum) right hand in managing the offbeat Gallagher clan, Lip’s drinking from a very young age seemed to fade into the background of the series in its earlier seasons. He certainly wasn’t the only one imbibing, both in the Gallagher clan and in their Southside Chicago neighborhood. So immersed were we the viewers in this environment, where a raucous night of heavy drinking or substance use can sometimes be a bonding activing between characters that this growing problem went unnoticed. Lip, in many ways is the wisest of the Gallaghers. He’s the one at college on track to break free from the reigns of generational poverty that seem to have already irreversibly ensnared his older sister. When Lip is hospitalized for alcohol poisoning midway through the season it comes as a bit of a surprise.
Addiction is something actors (especially male actors) love sinking their teeth into and it’s easy to see why. It’s such a complicated animal and afflicts each person differently, despite how rote and predictable its portrayal is often rendered in movies and on television. White manages to mostly side step all of those typical addiction tropes. He understands the character he’s playing from the ground up. His father is Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy), the neighborhood lush who continues to abuse drugs and alcohol despite a recent liver transplant. Lip has been frequenting the local Alibi bar since he was a child and has grown up in a neighborhood full of denizens dealing with some form of addiction. Lip is not, nor would he ever be in denial of his dependence on alcohol. He's in denial of his inability to manage it. He knew that genetics and circumstance would likely turn him to the bottle like his father, but he assumed his wit and intellect would keep it from destroying him. Watching White’s incredibly readable face as the fallacy of this logic dawns on him is both nuanced and heartbreaking.
A heart-to-heart in the season finale between Lip and younger sister Debbie (Emma Kenney) at Fiona’s disastrous wedding is, in many ways, Lip's most important scene of the series. Both are afraid. Lip is spiraling further into alcoholism and Debbie has found herself a mother at sixteen, unsure of what the future holds for her and her baby. They quietly but lovingly remind each other that they are not their pasts. The way that White and Kenney play off of each other is a sight to behold as they almost wordlessly depict a believable sibling relationship, replete with love and shared history. It’s White’s best scene in a season frankly full of impressive acting from the young performer. The season ends with the cliffhanger of Lip standing outside of a rehab facility, unsure about whether to enter. It’s not a grandiose moment, but White’s acting brilliantly holds the audience in that moment and the weighty implications of the choice to either go inside or walk away is deeply felt.
Within this series, which boasts so many moving parts and such a large ensemble where everyone is mostly doing very impressive work, finding a standout among the supporting players sometimes feels difficult. Jeremy Allen White leapt out this season, topping himself and showing once again that he is an integral part of this well-acted ensemble. Though they well may, the television academy would be foolish to overlook him.
Reader Comments (2)
YES. THIS. He's done wonders on the show for a few years now. I mean most of the cast has as well especially Emmy Rossum and Cameron Monaghan, but Jeremy Allen White is really, really good.
Super sexy and super talented.