If any of the acting categories for the Limited Series or TV Movie contenders are in flux it’s the race for the Lead Actor Emmy. In theory, SAG Award nominee Ethan Hawke should make the cut for “The Good Lord Bird.” We’ll also assume Paul Bettany will be rewarded for his decades-spanning turn in “WandaVision” and, if critics had a voice, Joel Edgerton would be rewarded for a career-best performance for “The Underground Railroad” (which also assumes the Television Academy embraces the Amazon Prime player). But none of these veteran actors are guaranteed a nomination. Not at all.
There is a long list of familiar faces trying to crash this category including a two-time winner and five-time nominee in Jeff Daniels (“The Comey Rule”), six-time winner and 13-time nominee Bryan Cranston (“Your Honor”), Tony Award winners Leslie Odom, Jr. and Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton”) and previous nominee in this category Hugh Grant (“The Undoing”), among a slew of others. Sympathy for the awards consultants losing sleep over this one. [Posted May 13]
Likely
Ethan Hawke, “The Good Lord Bird”
Joel Egerton, “The Underground Railroad”
Paul Bettany, “WandaVision”
Possible
Ewan McGregor, “Halston”
Jeff Daniels, “The Comey Rule”
Bryan Cranston, “Your Honor”
Leslie Odom, Jr., “Hamilton”
Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Hamilton”
Hugh Grant, “The Undoing”
Andrew Scott, “Oslo”
Olly Alexander, “It’s A Sin”
Chris Rock, “Fargo”
Nnamdi Asomugha, “Sylvie’s Love”
Nick Robinson, “A Teacher”
Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of the entertainment industry's most respected journalists and critics. Based in Los Angeles, he's the only current awards expert who previously worked on Oscar campaigns at a major movie studio. Over the years, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Vox, among others. He also co-founded the entertainment news site HitFix, which spawned a legion of influential Emmy and WGA Award-winning alumni.
