Playing sympathetic characters was once a strong factor in winning Emmys. That seemed to be the case when actors like Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm in the Middle”), Steve Carell (“The Office”) and Hugh Laurie (“House”) kept losing for their acclaimed performances as prickly people. But in this era of antiheroes we’ve also seen lots of villains prevail, and this year could be no exception. How many vicious villains do you think will prevail?
So why do some unsympathetic roles prevail when others don’t? I have a theory I call the Macbeth Principle: voters might be turned off by garden variety jerks, but applaud performers who take on grand, Shakespearean levels of evildoing. That’s how actors like James Gandolfini (“The Sopranos”), Michael Chiklis (“The Shield”) Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”), John Lithgow (“Dexter”) and Margo Martindale (“Justified”) could literally make a killing while Carell’s inept middle manager never prevailed.
So why do some unsympathetic roles prevail when others don’t? I have a theory I call the Macbeth Principle: voters might be turned off by garden variety jerks, but applaud performers who take on grand, Shakespearean levels of evildoing. That’s how actors like James Gandolfini (“The Sopranos”), Michael Chiklis (“The Shield”) Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”), John Lithgow (“Dexter”) and Margo Martindale (“Justified”) could literally make a killing while Carell’s inept middle manager never prevailed.
- 8/7/2019
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
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