Emmy Confidential: This Actor is All In for the Final Season of ‘Veep’

Throughout the week, we’re revealing the thoughts and preferences of voting members of the Television Academy in our annual Emmy Confidential series. Today, a long-time member of the actors peer group within the Television Academy tells all!

We’re finally down to the final week before the major Emmys are revealed on Sunday, September 22nd. With all of the campaigning, advocating, and bingeing behind us, Team ADTV had the opportunity to talk to some voters to see what was going through their minds as they cast their vote. This is what we call our Emmy Confidential series.

In this installment of our annual Emmy Confidential series, we spoke with a longtime member of the Television Academy’s actor branch. Having been a member of the Television Academy for several years this actor makes a yearly commitment to screen all of the submitted material. This member of the Television Academy is passionate about television but overall wasn’t impressed with this year’s crop of nominees especially Game of Thrones and many of the limited series nominees.  Some of their favorite shows of the year included Killing Eve, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and the final season of Veep.

Drama Categories

Drama Series – Killing Eve
Lead Actor – Billy Porter, Pose
Lead Actress – Sandra Oh, Killing Eve
Supporting Actor – Chris Sullivan, This Is Us
Supporting Actress – Fiona Shaw, Killing Eve
Guest Actor – Glynn Turman, How to Get Away With Murder
Guest Actress – Cicely Tyson, How to Get Away With Murder

A lot of people are voting for Game of Thrones in various categories but I never did. Personally I think that show is overrated.

Last year I think Killing Eve was close to having a big year and I hope we as voters make up for that in a lot of categories. I’ve been a fan of Sandra Oh for years. She is really sweet. She’s nice. She’s personable. I’m also a forensic psychologist, and I think she portrays it perfectly. I had a long conversation with her about it when I met her and she completely understands that role and is overall an incredibly cool person.

Billy Porter came out of nowhere and won over my heart. I saw him speak at an FYC event and was completely won over. I went home and watched all of his work online including his Tony performance. How incredible!

Glynn Turman blew me away on How to Get Away With Murder. He’s an incredible actor and no one can portray a character going from zero to a hundred quite like him. When I watched his performance I knew I was going to vote for him if he was nominated. I also voted for Cicely Tyson. I like to go out of my way to award veterans and she is an incredible actress that has been working for decades. There’s something regal and different about her. I like to vote for people that might die tomorrow.

A lot of people recommended Bodyguard to me and I liked it a lot but I hate Netflix.

Comedy Categories

Comedy Series – Veep
Lead Actor – Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
Lead Actress – Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Veep
Supporting Actor – Tony Shaloub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Supporting Actress – Anna Chlumsky, Veep
Guest Actor – Luke Kirby, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Guest Actress – Maya Rudolph, The Good Place

The comedy categories were tough this year because there were two shows I was torn between. Ultimately I went with my friend Julia and voted for the final season of Veep. We all love Julia so much and the fact that she battled cancer this year, I had to vote for her. I like Anna Chlumsky a lot and I think she’s an underrated actress.

I love The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel but I’ll have plenty of more opportunities to vote for it.

My friends and I were really impressed with Christina Applegate but it’s just not her year. I love Catherine O’Hara but the episode they kept having us watch at the event wasn’t great – maybe next year.

I may have wasted my vote but I really want to see Anthony Anderson win. He’s hilarious. He’s a nice guy. He deserves it.

I decided to vote for Tony Shaloub this year because he’s always been an incredible actor. This was also my one chance to vote for Maisel since I was voting for Veep everywhere else. I almost voted for the mother from Maisel too but I wanted to vote for Chlumsky one last time.

There was something charming about the man that played Lenny Bruce on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. That was enough for me to vote for him because I thought it was a bland category overall. I wasn’t overly thrilled with any of the guest actress nominees either but I enjoy Maya Rudolph in general.

Limited Series Categories

Limited Series – Chernobyl
TV Movie – King Lear
Lead Actor – Hugh Grant, A Very English Scandal
Lead Actress – Patricia Arquette, Escape at Dannemora
Supporting Actor – Ben Whishaw, A Very English Scandal
Supporting Actress – Patricia Clarkson, Sharp Objects

In terms of TV movie I wasn’t in the mood for a western so I went with Shakespeare. I didn’t care for “Balderdash” or whatever it was called at all.

A lot of my friends voted for When They See Us but I decided to go with Chernobyl because it was the only one I liked.

Sharp Objects was a letdown compared to the book so I couldn’t vote for it. I understood what they were trying to do with Escape at Dannemora but it wasn’t my cup of tea. Nor was The Act.

I knew Gwen Verdon and Michelle is no Gwen Verdon. Working with such an incredible artist there was no way I could vote for Fosse/Verdon at all.

Lead Actor was a hard category for me to judge because I didn’t really care about any of the men nominated. I was charmed by Grant so I voted for him.  I voted for the young supporting actor Ben as well. He did a terrific job going from being shy to blossoming to full on wackadoo. I was really impressed.

Even though I didn’t like Dannemora I voted for Arquette because I think she’s a phenomenal actress. She was completely lost in that performance.

In the supporting actress race I voted for Patricia Clarkson because she plays crazy very well. In real life she’s really sweet and nice and we’re from the same town.

Emmy Confidential continues throughout the week at Awards Daily TV.