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The 2017 Emmy Awards air on Sunday, September 17th and Decider is here to help you get ready for TV’s biggest night. Check here all week long for all our coverage previewing this year’s Emmys.
The Emmys are a celebration of all that is good and groundbreaking in a single year of television, but it’s also a sort of battlefield. Specific races can give us a look at what artistic trends, what moral beliefs, and what cultural values mean the most to us in a given year. These races can also serve as proxy battles between dueling networks — a symbol of which station or streaming service actually is producing the best content. This year’s race for Best Actress in a Drama Series is one of these races fraught with an extra oomph of meaning. It may look like The Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss is a sure thing for the Emmy, but her biggest competition, The Crown‘s Claire Foy, is primed for an upset.
Best Actress in a Drama Series is an especially interesting race this year because these two actresses and their performances represent different approaches to prestige TV. Choosing one over the other reveals what a voter thinks is more valuable in an actress’s artistic performance. As June/Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale, Elisabeth Moss breathes pain and anger and sorrow and rebellion into a woman caught in a dystopian nightmare. It’s a performance that tapped into a boiling hot, seething lava river of emotion that was ripping across America this spring: namely the riotous frustration that propelled many American women to don pink pussy caps en masse in Washington, DC and to start protesting the current administration. It’s also a meticulously constructed portrait of a woman on the brink. Elisabeth Moss has helped mold the modern TV landscape with turns in Mad Men, Top of the Lake, and even The West Wing, but The Handmaid’s Tale feels like her tour de force. Some would say she’s due for an Emmy, as she hasn’t yet won one. That makes her the still-uncrowned Queen Bee of this television era.
Claire Foy is the platonic ideal of a British ingenue. She’s been rattling around British TV for a few years now, but her splashiest role stateside before The Crown was playing another famous British queen; Foy deftly played a scheming and insipid version of Anne Boleyn in PBS Masterpiece’s production of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. The Crown gives Foy an opportunity to show off some impeccable dramatic skills as she must nail every physical nuance of a well-known public figure. But what makes the performance so captivating is the treasure trove of vulnerability that she gives Queen Elizabeth II. Foy may not be “due” the same way Moss is for an Emmy, but she’s been quietly collecting honors all year long for her performance, namely the Golden Globe and SAG awards. Foy is attractive to a certain kind of voter, namely the contingent that kept pushing Downton Abbey into the Emmy race, even in the seasons when it significantly flagged in quality.
So, talent-to-talent, Foy has more than a fighting chance against Moss. Who voters pick will say a lot about what type of performance has more shine this year: a revolutionary performance capping off one of the best runs in modern TV acting, or a classic dramatic turn from a British up-and-comer whose poised to crossover into the mainstream.
Adding more weight to the race is the fact that these two women are representing two of the biggest streaming services in the game: Hulu and Netflix. Even though Netflix seems to have Hollywood in a chokehold, they still haven’t won a major Emmy Award (think Best Drama, Best Comedy, or Best Lead Actor or Actress in either genre). Hulu zoomed into the Emmys race this year with a zeitgeist-capturing hit that could very well wind up being the first streaming show to nab the Best Drama Emmy. The Handmaid’s Tale could very well succeed where Netflix has hitherto failed; It could win both Best Drama or Best Actress in a Drama. (You know, unless Golden Globes darling Claire Foy and The Crown spoils that for Hulu…)
So Moss vs. Foy is a juicy race if you’re interested in the relevance of streaming, or a good old-fashioned actress showdown. Still, there’s a messy political angle to the race itself. As the New York Post’s Robert Rorke posited, Moss could possibly lose votes because of her religion. Moss has been largely mum about her involvement in Scientology, but this year she publicly responded to a fan’s critical question on Instagram. Noted former Scientologist Leah Remini has already won an Emmy for her hit anti-Scientology docuseries Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. As Rorke puts it, “With Scientology facing such scrutiny in the Remini series — which just kicked off its second season during the Emmys voting period — one wonders whether the backlash will affect Moss’s chances on Emmy night.” It might and it might not. Nevertheless, Netflix has been putting its weight behind Foy’s chances since last year’s Emmys, when they ran an ad celebrating all their strong female characters (but focusing on Foy’s Queen Elizabeth II) during the broadcast.
This year’s Best Actress in a Drama Emmy race may not be the tightest or most contentious, but it is full of the inherent drama that compels us to tune into the Emmys. Whoever is chosen as the winner will reflect something of the state of mind of this year’s Emmy voters. Are they feeling political? Are they feeling old-fashioned? Are they feeling nostalgic for Mad Men or wistful for Downton Abbey? And which streaming service will get to claim their first Best Actress? Netflix or Hulu? This one race will tell us a lot.
Or will it be a true upset and will Westworld‘s Rachel Evan Wood win? (That would honestly be the biggest Westworld twist yet, but we’re not betting on it.)
