Category Analysis: Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 at 11:00AM
Two recurring nominees in this category, two guest stars in their show that might just be elevated to regulars in their subsequent seasons, and a nominee returning to a role that gave her a win in lead. These are the contenders that compose this year’s crop of nominees for this category. With the exception of last year, The Handmaid’s Tale has had a strangleghold on this category with three consecutive wins and six nominations for its first three seasons. Meanwhile, The Crown is the nomination leader (overall) and the frontrunner to win Drama Series.
Without further ado, here are the nominees…
Alexis Bledel as Emily Malek/Ofglen in The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Episode: “Testimony” (season 4 episode 8)
Description (from ballot): "Emily Malek is now a refugee in Canada. She struggles to adjust to life in a free world as she is forced to confront her past crimes in Gilead. In Canada, she is working alongside Moira at the refugee center."
A former winner in this category for the same role, Bledel comes back as Emily, a former handmaid in Gilead who was able to escape to Canada. As her former walking partner June (Elisabeth Moss) joins their group therapy for former handmaids, Emily is cornered by the former Aunt that caused her to go through genital mutilation. Bledel manages to channel her character's trauma with unaffected clarity in spite of her character's inability to express her feelings through words. Her confrontation with the Aunt is portrayed with intense discomfort and simmering rage. A well-intentioned drive-by becomes emotionally conflicting. Later, her reaction to that character's demise is unapologetically sinister and yet cathartic. Bledel manages to hit these moments with not only unpredictability but with honesty.
In theory, Bledel is not out of the question for the win. Nominated for every season of the show (once in supporting, three times in guest), she has proven that her performance/character is a favorite of the voters. The show has also proven that it can win this category despite having multiple nominees (Samira Wiley won here in 2018 despite two other co-stars nominated). What worries me is that the other nominee from the show is a formidable contender for the win too (more on that later). This would be a test on whether the show would still be able to win this category despite having two strong contenders.
Claire Foy as Young Elizabeth in The Crown (Netflix)
Episode: “48:1” (season 4 episode 8)
Description (from ballot): "On the occasion of her 21st birthday in 1947, a young Princess Elizabeth makes a radio broadcast speaking to the vast British Commonwealth and dedicating her life to their service. Amongst those listening is a young Margaret Roberts, better known as the future British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher."
Foy returns to the role that gave her the Emmy for Drama Actress in the eighth episode of this season. She appears in the opening scene (two if you count the echoing voice-over at the final scene) as she gives a broadcasted speech addressed to the entirety of the British Commonwealth. The opening scene sees Foy slipping back into the role of the Queen, highlighting her dedication and seriousness despite the hints of uncertainty and discomfort that the crown brings to her. Even more important to highlight is the performance largely relying on her voice-over work. While Foy fares well in her brief appearance, her performance functions better as a table-setter for Colman's work in conjunction with the episode's central conflict rather than an impressive stand-alone feat of acting.
One could just call this a coattail nomination. However, I am careful to easily dismiss her chances. The Emmys have shown they are not averse with the idea of rewarding brief appearances of actors they love in this category (think Margo Martindale's second win for The Americans or Cherry Jones's win for The Handmaid's Tale). While there are showier performances, The Crown's place as the frontrunner for Drama Series suggests that a Foy victory in the cards.
McKenna Grace as Esther Keyes in The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Episode: “Pigs” (season 4 episode 1)
Description (from ballot): "A sharply intelligent, teenaged wife of a much older Commander, Esther Keyes rules her farm and household with confidence. She has a rebellious, subversive streak, and is calm and pious on the outside with turmoil, even insanity, on the inside."
As the youngest nominee in this category ever and as the biggest addition to the show, Grace plays Mrs. Keyes, a teenage Wife to an incapacitated Commander who hides June and others. They find themselves constantly walking on eggshells as Mrs. Keyes ricochets between childish obsession with June and threatening dominion over the handmaids. Simply put, Grace is the off-kilter time bomb that gives the fourth season's premiere episode its on-edge energy. She can praise June one second and talk down on her right after, the same way she can impute trauma and then unpack her own in a single scene. Grace's understanding of Mrs. Keyes's trauma is frighteningly impeccable. Unafraid to tap into the darker psyche of her character, Grace gives a performance of staggering unpredictability.
As with Bledel, it is easy to see Grace snagging the win. With the show's fourth season overperforming (21 nominations), the show is definitely one to look out for as a spoiler in major categories. Since her submission is the season premiere, voters have surely seen her work. Her only hurdle is internal competition. I am not 100% confident that Grace takes this easily.
Sophie Okonedo as Charlotte Wells in Ratched (Netflix)
Episode: “The Dance” (season 1 episode 5)
Description (from ballot): "Hanover’s latest patient is Charlotte, who suffers from multiple personality disorder. Dr. Hanover hypnotizes Charlotte to find the source of her trauma. We learn she was abducted and tortured by several men"
This Oscar-nominated actress bags her first-ever Emmy nod as Charlotte Wells, a woman diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. Her character entrance is unlike any of the other nominees: with a growl of anger directed to strangers, immediately calling to attention the unraveling of this woman we barely even know. Okonedo devours this scene with gusto and commitment. However, between the howls and the magnified body movements is a woman experiencing torment. This is what she unpacks in her subsequent scenes. It's fascinating that she finds dynamic notes within a role that plays like a perfect setup for one-note showboating. She grounds this big character in humanity.
While Okonedo's performance seems tailor-made for this category, her chances of winning feel low. Since 2016, all of the winners in this category have come from shows that are also nominated for Drama Series. That suggests Emmy voters would have to love Ratched overall for her to win.
Phylicia Rashad as Carol Clarke in This is Us (NBC)
Episode: “I’ve Got This” (season 5 episode 10)
Description (from ballot): "Beth’s formidable mother who wields tough love like a hammer. The strain on her relationship with Beth has compounded since the loss of her husband, and Carol’s critical eye is often focused on Beth. But at her core, she is a fierce matriarch who pushes her family to excel."
For the third consecutive time, Rashad is nominated as the mother of Beth Pearson (Susan Kelechi Watson), currently staying with her daughter, Randall (Sterling K. Brown), and their children. In this episode, her supposed-to-be temporary dwelling with the Pearsons intimidates Beth as Carol starts to micromanage. Whether telling Beth how to cook curry or that using "their" in a singular way is not that difficult, Rashad delivers lines with a carefree show of experience that sets Beth off. However, these emotional beats have already been explored previously in the show. Perhaps her only true highlight is when Carol admits to Beth the reason why she stays. Though it's a moment of honesty her guards are still up, in true Carol fashion. Rashad delivers this monologue with admirable restraint.
While This is Us was able to make a comeback in the Drama Series race, the show's low nomination count probably hints that voters attention lies elsewhere. Still, that did not stop Ron Cephas Jones from winning last year for this show. Rashad is still Emmy-less (!) but it remains to be seen whether a recent tweet in support of Bill Cosby will squander her chances of winning.
Predictions:
1. McKenna Grace - The Handmaid’s Tale - “Pigs”
2. Claire Foy - The Crown - “48:1”
3. Alexis Bledel - The Handmaid’s Tale - “Testimony”
4. Phylicia Rashad - This is Us - “I’ve Got This”
5. Sophie Okonedo - Ratched - “The Dance”
Personal Ranking:
1. McKenna Grace - The Handmaid’s Tale - “Pigs”
2. Alexis Bledel - The Handmaid’s Tale - “Testimony”
3. Sophie Okonedo - Ratched - “The Dance”
4. Claire Foy - The Crown - “48:1”
5. Phylicia Rashad - This is Us - “I’ve Got This”
Who do you think will win and who would you vote for?
PREVIOUS PREDICTIONS
- Limited - Supporting Actress
- Limited - Supporting Actor
- Limited - Directing
- Limited - Writing
- Comedy - Supporting Actor
- Comedy - Guest Actress
- Comedy - Guest Actor
- Comedy - Directing
- Comedy - Writing
- Drama - Supporting Actress
- Drama - Supporting Actor
- Drama - Guest Actress
- Drama - Guest Actor
- Drama - Directing
- Drama - Writing
- Outstanding Editing
- Outstanding Unstructured Reality
- Outstanding Main Title Design
Reader Comments (27)
Phylicia Rashad.
Well... I suppose I'll take Foy's nomination over Emerald Fennell's.
"As her former waking partner June (Elisabeth Moss) joins their group therapy for former handmaids"
Were the girls paired up at the red centre to wake up together or did you mean to say walking partner? Thank you for your answer in advance. (I'm genuinely unsure so please don't scold me like recent Claudio would)
Rashad has absolutely no chance of winning b/c of her Cosby comments. Like it or not, all of these award shows are political.
Great work, Carlos!
I am binging through Handmaid's right now and loved McKenna Grace's performance. She would make a worthy winner.
I do wonder if there is a chance for a Sophie Okonedo upset. Sometimes being the MOST can translate to a win.
My gut actually says Bledel.
Fuck Phylicia Rashad and her comments supporting a known rapist. She can go straight to hell
It’s really a shame the Phylicia Rashad killed her acting career last month. She really did deserve an Emmy as Clare Huxtable in the 80s and it’s amazing she didn’t get one. But with the pro-Cosby rape support tweets, she has made her bed and now has to lie in it. She’s toxic now.
Rashad, who is overdue, simply won't win after her comments.
Bledel is solid, but I don't think transcends the writing in the way Grace does. She does make some surprising choices too, but I don't think Bledel's episode lets her her interior work shine in the way it ought to. I think that's more a factor of great writing, but an editing time crunch that Handmaid's sometimes runs into when focused on non-June characters.
I think Foy is a non-factor.
My bet is that this is between Okonedo and Grace. I don't buy that Okonedo's chances are diminished because she isn't in a top series contender. Most of the past few winners are from Handmaid's Tale and Succession, but some of them are also veterans who are well liked (e.g., Jones, Martindale, Carrie Preston). There's no reasons why Okonedo can't beat the odds.
But, Grace is really good. I'll give the slight edge to Okonedo.
I agree that Rashad's comments have doomed her chances and feel Cosby should die in prison for what he clearly did, but the stern cancel culture sensibility we see here is sad. We should be supportive, or at least tolerant, of people with the guts to say what they believe. As wrong as she certainly is, it's clear Rashad sincerely believes Cosby is innocent probably based on her understanding of the history of Black men being railroaded into prison in the past for sexual crimes they didn't commit. It's not like she's taken a pro-rape stance, so to say "She can go straight to hell" is a really reactionary.
Oh, and my vote is for the amazing performance by Sophie Okonedo. If not her, Bledel who is much more solid than Grace, who just can't quite pull off the hairpin turns in her character's emotions.
Great write up! can't wait for the next bunches and bunches. :-)
I am not caught up on HT, however I do think Okonedo's performance was sublime in a mess of a show!
Phylicia Rashad is no different than any actor who worked with Woody Allen after his scandalous breakup with Mia Farrow. Or any of the prominent names who defended and worked with Roman Polanski. So save your nasty scorn because the business of show isn't clean.
@Dan:
We do not not support rape sympathizers here. The audacity for you to want us to show compassion for someone for "saying what they believe" is ludicrous. Grow up and get educated.
All of you riding on high horses of morality, while obediently wearing your slave masks no doubt, y’all deserve the darkest future that is coming, y’all so ready to jump to conclusions and judgements, sad little nobodies deciding who gets to live or go to hell
@Mallinckrodt I'd bet I've got more education than you ever will. I've also got more feminist cred than you do, too, I'm sure.
The ways in which the neo-liberal order has weaponized white bourgeois feminism by turning it into a cyber mob that disallows any discussion of due process, free speech, or common-sense restraint is one of the most depressing things to see over the last five years or so. It's like the election of obvious sex criminal Donald Trump just drove white liberals insane. Writer Nathan Heller made a great point recently when he said: "the foulness of foul societies infects not only evil actors but also seemingly good ones." People want to cancel Diane Keaton for saying she believes Woody Allen or Phylicia Rashad are not progressive, they're reactionary. Save us your performative self-righteousness and put down your fucking torch. I'm not going anywhere.
Comment moderation to be turned on in 3, 2, 1….
Play nice Dan
Yes, please, we do really need comment moderation asap, someone who is both educated and not afraid of expressing an opinion that goes against manipulated propaganda has entered the room, truly challenging and scary for the mob mentality herd, and if anybody is wondering, im not talking about me but the individual signing as Dan, me i simply despise your childish fake outrage
LOL well this comment section certainly went off the rails fast, didn't it?
I'm gonna kill you Phylicia Rashad-Donna Tubbs The Cleveland Show.
Fuck that bitch for supporting Bill Cosby.
The first rule of talking about Phylicia Rashad is you do not talk about Phylicia Rashad. The second rule of of talking about Phylicia Rashad is you do not talk about Phylicia Rashad.
Also, Grace gives the best performance, but Okonedo gives the baitiest performance and has an Oscar nomination, so that should give her the edge to win in a category without a longtime "character actress" to soak up the attention this year.
Margo, I'm guessing if a mature adult started moderating the comments section, your schizophrenic droppings would be the first to get pulled out.
Woody Allen was never convicted of raping anyone. Bill Cosby was, and has multiple credible accusers. Apples and oranges.
Paranoid Android,
That's exactly right. The one accusation against Woody Allen shouldn't be taken as a watertight case against him. The evidence is shaky at best and he's innocent until proven guilty. But what do you say about Polanski, who confessed to raping a 13 year old girl?
When he was belatedly arrested for it in 2009, half the heavyweight filmmakers in the world came to his defense. Here's a partial list: Pedro Almodovar, Wes Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Olivier Assayas, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Monica Bellucci, Alfonso Cuaron, Jonathan Demme, Alexandre Desplat, Stephen Frears, Terry Gilliam, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Wong Kar Waï, Harmony Korine, Diane Kurys, John Landis, David Lynch, Michael Mann, Jeanne Moreau, Alexander Payne, Martin Scorcese, Tilda Swinton, Wim Wenders.
There's about 80 more names most of us recognize. Google it. Lot's more people to cancel, huh? But let's call the Black woman a "bitch" and say "fuck her" because she's defending a personal friend.
I expect all of you to say "f**k Martin Scorsese" and "f**k Wes Anderson" next time they get nominated for something, you know, just so you don't seem like pick-and-choose hypocrites...
I would vote for Foy because I don't like the others.
The defenses of Allen and Polanski seem odd in relation to Rashad. Both of them, post MeToo really have been on the margins of the film industry in a way they weren't before. Allen got dropped from Amazon Studios and his latest film stars Wallace Shawn and a bunch of Europeans.
It would make sense that Rashad, in spite of her overdue status and performance, would be hurt by her comments. Emmy voters, who aren't sentimental at all, aren't going to give an award to someone that is out of step with this cultural moment. Especially when their are great performances by other actors. These are the same voters that have denied Angela Lansbury 18 times, Steve Carrell 7 times for acting, and gave Laura Linney her third emmy over Rashad. Any chance that Rashad had hinged on her being likeable and overdue, something she jettisoned with a tweet.
@Joe C Maybe. But since both men and women vote for the final categories (unless I'm completely wrong) and working film professionals in Hollywood aren't furious online keyboard warriors passing judgement on everything, they might just be MORE likely to vote for her to send a message. I'm guessing a lot of people in Hollywood, while rightly furious about rape and harassment, are sick of people out in the twitter-verse being outraged about everything they say, decreeing this person is cancelled for colorism in casting decisions or that person is cancelled for saying "stop harassing J.K. Rowling. I wouldn't bet money on it, but I remember people saying there was no way Chadwick Boseman could lose the Oscar, because: he's Black, he just DIED, he's hero to the African American community, he played Thurgood Marshall, he played other civil rights heroes, blah, blah. The Academy didn't care. It was almost like they were telling the internet "we make these decisions, not furious people on the internet. I wouldn't bet on her winning. But I wouldn't bet more than $20 she loses, either.
Can y’all stop bringing the courtroom to this comment section LMAO
But yeah Phylicia should be fired from Howard and lose this nom for that stupid comment alone
Really rooting for McKenna here. Let the child acting reign begin again!