April Foolish Predictions: Best Supporting Actor

by Nathaniel R

Samuel L Jackson was Tony-nominated for The Piano Lesson on Broadway. Will the transfer result in another Oscar nomination?

It's the last four days of April Foolish Predcitions and, thus, time for the acting categories. A year out nobody knows anything, particularly in regards to the supporting categories since they're less dependent on juicy obvious-from-a-distance leading roles and far more dependent on things you can't really know in advance like who will "steal" the movie, how large their supporting roles will be, and whether they'll film will have enough heat to ignite their campaigns. This is when it's most fun, especially in the supporting categories where you can imagine almost anything happen. By the time the televised awards roll around each year there is zero drama in Best Supporting Actor (though we infrequenely see some in Best Supporting Actress).

Last year's lopsided contest was the Robert vs Ryan showdown with two full blown movie stars competing for the supporting gold, one leaning into a career achievement narrative while the other was content to ride his film's pink zeitgeist wave rather than worry about the gold...

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Emmy Review: Supporting Actor in a Drama

By Abe Friedtanzer

There were a staggering 455 men on this particular ballot, the most in any category this year (and ever). It’s a wonder that five shows are still represented by eight nominees. The question is whether actors whose costars are nominated – like the boys from Succession or Critics Choice winner Billy Crudup – can distinguish themselves like Peter Dinklage managed to do last year with his fourth trophy for Game of Thrones. Or will having no internal competition propel someone else to the win?

I’ll try to avoid major plot details in my analysis – but if you’d like more spoiler-filled descriptions, click on the episode titles. Let’s consider each nominee…

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Emmy Review: Guest Actor in a Drama

By Juan Carlos Ojano

While the Comedy Guest categories are exciting, the Drama Guest categories are just hard to decipher. Last year’s winner, Bradley Whitford for The Handmaid’s Tale, was bumped up to regular supporting (and is actually nominated there). Meanwhile, none of his co-stars submitted in this category made it. Only two of the nominees are from Drama Series contenders and one of them was a surprise inclusion. One nominee is already on his fourth consecutive nomination playing the same role in the same series. Another nominee is actually a giving a lead performance. 

With no obvious frontrunner in sight, let’s consider each nominee...

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