So exactly what goes through an Emmy nominee’s head on the road to television’s biggest night of honors? Hollywood.com has the answer, straight from the stars themselves.
“For the show to garner 12 nominations is great,” 24 star Kiefer Sutherland, nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama, told Hollywood.com. “The Academy has been so supportive of 24 from the very, very beginning and that is an insurance policy for us. We love making the show, and once we start to make the show that really is all we think about, but this helps us get an audience. This helps everything. I mean, I’ve always talked about the fact that had it not been for this in the very year that we were getting picked up, we wouldn’t have been picked up by Fox. It was really on the fence with them…so it’s a real lifeline for us and it has been from the very beginning.”
Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen, nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy, told Hollywood.com he was especially thrilled that, along with his own nod, his entire show was nominated as Outstanding Comedy. “It felt rad,” Sheen said. “I didn’t want to go to the party alone, like with the Globe and the SAG, so it’s nice that we all get to sort of caravan on that night.”
Sheen was also excited to hear that his father Martin Sheen also got a nom as Outstanding Actor in a Guest Starring role, in addition to Martin’s nod in the Outstanding Actor in a Drama category for The West Wing. “It was really cool,” Charlie said. “The guy comes in and does two scenes, and kills them, just kills them. I called my mom, and she knew about West Wing, I told her about our show, and then I saw them that day, early that morning, so we were both, as Dad would say, ‘Happy as Larry.’ What an odd expression, ‘Happy as Larry.’ My dad says it all the time. You think he made it up?”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, nominated as Outstanding Actress in a Comedy for her series The New Adventures of Old Christine, was actually on hand at the official Emmy nominations announcement when her name was called out. “I wasn’t sure if I was hearing it or not. It was really exciting. I was thrilled, absolutely thrilled,” she told Hollywood.com. “It’s definitely important to the show, there’s no doubt about it. I think it’s certainly better to be nominated than not, let’s put it that way!”
For previous nominee Mariska Hargitay, nominated this year as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama, it was sharing the wealth with her Law & Order: SVU co-star Christopher Meloni that made this year’s awards extra special. “When Chris got nominated I thought, ‘Well, the world is right again!’” Hargitay explained. “He’s one of my favorite actors. I am in awe of his talent and his commitment to the truth and he truly inspires me in his work. So it’s been a little weird these last two years [that he wasn’t nominated], I felt it just wasn’t right that we were partners and acting partners as well and I’ve been waiting to get up there and pay homage to him. He was so sweet and so flattered and said, ‘I’m just so flattered to be invited to the party.’”
Grey’s Anatomy actress Katherine Heigl had a surprising reaction to her show’s nomination for Outstanding Drama Series: “Disappointment,” she told Hollywood.com, straight-faced. “What happened to mine? That’s what I want to know. What happened to my nomination?” She was kidding, of course. “I talked to [executive producer] Chandra [Wilson] and she’s sort of kind of like dumbstruck right now. I was like ‘How do you feel? Are you excited?’ And she was like ‘I don’t know. I don’t know how I feel yet.’ It’s just so deserving. She’s so unbelievably talented and has worked long and hard in this industry like the rest of us and I’m just really, really proud of her.”
Heigl also said her co-star Sandra Oh, nominated as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama, “is just another person who’s really so talented and so deserving. But I wonder if this year she’s like, ‘Eh, this is old hat. I was nominated last year—Whatever.’ I wonder if you ever get like that?”
Definitely not, says Oh, who was caught off-guard by the honor. “I was actually sleeping in bed in New York,” she said. “My phone was off. I had no idea. It was 11:38 when I woke up. I was excited, and extremely surprised because I had no idea that the nominations were coming out.”
Hollywood.com asked King of Queens star Leah Remini how loud she screamed when she heard about her co-star Kevin James’ nomination as Outstanding Actor in a Comedy. “Oh my God, man!” said Remini. “I was so happy that the show finally got some recognition, I was like yeah that’s right. Not only should he get nominated, but he should win.”
Others were excited to see that there series was still in the hunt, even if it’s gone on to the big TV graveyard in the sky like Six Feet Under. “It’s nice to know that the show is still out there in the atmosphere and being recognized,” said series star Michael C. Hall—the departed HBO favorite garnered eight Emmy nods for its final season. “I think it deserves to be. I’m very proud of it. But regardless of what happens it doesn’t matter. It’s out there and I think it has meant a lot to a lot of people and that means a lot to me and the rest of us.”
Then there are those unhappy surprises, like last year’s Emmy darling Desperate Housewives’ near-shut-out in the major categories. James Denton wasn’t so concerned about the his much lauded female co-stars, though. Most people were worried about the women, but I was stunned by the fact that Doug Savant didn’t get nominated,” Denton told Hollywood.com. “I think that there isn’t a better supporting actor in a comedy on TV than Doug Savant, and the idea that they don’t just give it to him drives me crazy, but the fact that he’s not nominated is very frustrating to me. I don’t think that Doug gets nearly enough credit.”
And even though Lost was nominated as Outstanding Drama, Jorge Garcia admitted he was surprised that some of his co-stars were not similarly honored, but said the cast took it all in stride. “I guess there was a bit of an initial shock for us, I think,” Garcia told Hollywood.com. “That shock has passed and it’s fine, because we’re not doing the show to win Emmys. We’re doing the show because it’s something that we would watch. You can’t do the work to get that stuff. You have to do the work because you love the work, and then if that stuff happens you enjoy it when it’s there. You can’t expect that.”
Awaiting The Big Night
As cool as it is to be honored for their work, one of the things TV’s top stars enjoy most about Emmy night is the chance to mix and mingle with their peers, some of whom they only run into at big Hollywood awards galas.
“I think that one of the nicest things about the evening, and especially the first year or year and half or two years, was that there were so many people that I just hadn’t seen for so long,” Sutherland explained. “Everyone from Martin Sheen to Charlie Sheen, and just other actors that I’ve worked with—I’ve made some 40 movies. All of a sudden you’re running into great friends and being able to sit and have something to eat and a chat and just catch up with people. It was the first time in a long that I felt that sort of wonderful familial sense that Hollywood can be, or certainly that I had read about, and it was nice.”
“My first reaction was, ‘My God, I have to get a dress,’ laughed Helen Mirren, nominated as outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her role in HBO’s Elizabeth I. “It’s daunting because that’s all that anyone wants to talk about actually.”
But less so for the gentlemen: six-time nominee and three-time Emmy-winner Brad Garrett gave Hollywood.com some style advice for the big night. “Don’t worry about your pants as well as your jacket, because the chance of you actually standing up is remote,” said Garrett. “I wore Bermuda shorts the first time I was nominated, and the second time I wore a kilt.”
