Emmy Preview 2018: Actress in a Limited Series / TV Movie wishlist; vote for your favorite!
What performers should be nominated for Actress in a Limited Series / TV Movie at the 2018 Primetime Emmy Awards? We are back with another edition of our annual CarterMatt Emmy Preview Series to answer this very question!
Over the past few years, this category has been incredibly strong with a number of major A-listers in the field. This year the trend continues, and we actually think the field is fairly wide open given that there are a number of different women who could feasibly win. There’s no clear-cut favorite and no singular show like a Big Little Lies cleaning house. We’re excited here to see who ends up getting nominated, let alone who ends up winning.
In addition to sharing our dream nominees, at the bottom of this article is a poll for you to vote for your own favorites! We will announce our reader picks on July 11, 2018, one day before the actual Emmy nominations are announced. Hopefully, this is a way to kick off the Emmy campaign period in a fun, super-engaging manner for everyone.
Voting Rules – Vote however many times you like! Voting is open between now and 1:00 p.m. Pacific time on July 11. By voting, you consent to have your vote tabulated in the final result. As a reminder, CarterMatt polls are simply for fun and to help aid in Emmy campaigns. Voting for the Emmys themselves is conducted by members of the Television Academy.
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CarterMatt Wishlist – Actress in a Limited Series / TV Movie
Hayley Atwell, Howards End (Starz) – Atwell brought a fantastic sense of life and conflict to her version of Margaret Schlegel, a character we certainly could have seen so much longer onscreen than we did. Unfortunately, this is the reality of a show like Howards End, one that places you within such an immersive story only to pluck you out soon after. The story is compelling enough that minutes feel like seconds, and Atwell was the perfect person for this character at this time. As Margaret you saw her fight for what she wanted and show a perfect mixture of power as well as vulnerability.
Jessica Biel, The Sinner (USA) – Cora Tannetti is the role of Biel’s career to date, a woman who finds herself haunted and shaken in the aftermath of a violent murder she does not understand. She explored psychosis and trauma in a gut-wrenching way throughout the first season, giving us so many fantastic dimensions of this character across multiple different timelines. Her scenes with Bill Pullman were especially on another level, as even in the midst of an intense investigation and a great deal of violence, the two were able to form somewhat of a unique bond that proved valuable in resolving the case.
Regina King, Seven Seconds (Netflix) – King is somewhat of a regular in this category thanks to American Crime, and one of the reasons for that is that she possesses an innate ability to really dive in and understand her characters in a way very few others do. She works out their insecurities and their strengths in a delivers them in a way that is striking and relatable. It remains a grave shame how this series, the product of The Killing creator Veena Sud, didn’t have more time for us to see King as Latrice Butler. We still wish there was a chance to see more of this character!
Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Cult (FX) – Paulson may be one of the greatest actresses of this era, let alone one of the greatest in television. She possess that ability to completely transform physically and emotionally into every single role. Just look at what she did here as Ally and contrast that with her past few seasons of the show. She was someone who combatted inner rage and ever-increasing madness as this season progressed. This was also probably one of the most trying roles that we’ve seen Sarah take on with the FX franchise, mostly because it was right in the thick of difficult, divisive discourse and this work was no escape from that. She battled it head-on and was brilliant every step of the way.
Cristin Milioti, Black Mirror (Netflix) – Milioti’s performance in the “USS Calister” episode was nothing short of phenomenal. It was innovative, powerful, and one of the best things about it was watching the development and the buildup over the course of it. The best episodes of Black Mirror are the ones that find a way to catch you completely by surprise in terms of how delicately they navigate topical issues — while still being a major shock to your system by the closing seconds. As Nanette, Milioti gave herself fully to the process of building a woman who showcased power fantastically in a reasonably short period of time. This show requires you to be rather economical in your performance, mostly because it doesn’t have the benefit of another episode to tell your story.