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Matthew Rhys has become the first actor in 78 years of Emmys history to win multiple lead actor awards for performances in different shows in the same year, for Widow’s Bay and The Beast in Me.
The 51-year-old Welsh actor won outstanding lead actor in a comedy for Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay and outstanding lead actor in a limited series for his role in Netflix’s The Beast in Me at the ceremony on Monday night. With his 2018 win of outstanding lead actor in a drama for The Americans, he is the first male performer to win all three lead acting categories.
During his speech for his Widow’s Bay win, Rhys thanked “the great and good people of Wales, who were as much a nurturer as anyone else. We are a small but mighty nation. This is incredible.”
“I am slightly giddy and a little bit dizzy,” he told media after his historic win. “I genuinely can’t believe it. I hope to reflect on it tomorrow. At the moment, I genuinely can’t quite believe what has happened.”
He said he had not expected he would win for The Beast in Me: “That was such a shock, as I am sure you could tell from the rambling speech I gave … a vomit of a speech.”
Widow’s Bay dominated the ceremony in Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater, winning 14 of 19 nominations, including best comedy series, supporting actress in a comedy for Kate O’Flynn, supporting actor for Stephen Root, as well as best writing for its creator, Katie Dippold, and best director for Hiro Murai.
In other categories, The Pitt won outstanding drama series and outstanding lead actor in a drama for Noah Wyle. The medical drama lead this year’s nominee tally with 25, winning six.
Wyle, the first drama actor to win consecutive Emmys since Bryan Cranston on Breaking Bad, spoke about his roots. “I grew up in LA,” he said. “I’m a Hollywood kid. I was raised on a television, and movie theaters were my place of worship. This is all I’ve ever wanted to do, and this is the only club I’ve ever wanted to join. Thank you for accepting me.”
Jean Smart and Alison Janney both won their eighth acting Emmys, tying for the most acting Emmy wins with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman. Janney won best supporting actress for The Diplomat, while Smart won her fifth outstanding lead actress in a comedy Emmy for her performance as Deborah Vance in the fifth and final season of Hacks, becoming the first woman to win an Emmy for every season of a show.
In the drama categories, Rhea Seehorn won best lead actress for Pluribus, her first Emmy win, while Tom Pelphrey won best supporting actor for Task, in a category stacked with actors from The Pitt.
DTF St Louis dominated the limited or anthology series categories with seven wins, including best series, supporting actor for David Harbour and supporting actress for Linda Cardellini.
After the controversial cancellation of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert won the Emmy for a variety show for the show’s final season. Colbert thanked “the over 200 people” who worked on the show over a decade – and used his speech to spruik their talents. “Hire them,” he told the room. “They will make your day better and your lives easier.”
The ceremony was relatively light on politics compared with previous years. Accepting best writing in a drama for Pluribus, the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan, described the show as set in a world “in which everybody gets along – that’s so sci-fi. But think about it: there’s nothing weirder than our current reality.”
“We will never agree on everything, but we can treat each other with respect,” he said, “and we can stop listening to a relative few who think that is for suckers.”
The Pitt’s creator, R Scott Gemmill, while accepting the best drama award, told the room: “It is so hard to tell what is real and what we can believe any more, which makes telling honest stories about real human struggles so much more important than ever. What you do, it changes people’s lives.”
Nominated shows that came away empty-handed during the ceremony included Shrinking, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Beef, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Abbott Elementary and Paradise.
