Robert Downey Jr. and Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s remarkable awards run in 2024 continued with this morning’s Emmy nominations, where both performers earned nods. Randolph is nominated for guest actress in a comedy series thanks to her performance on Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” while Downey landed a nomination for supporting actor in a limited series for HBO’s “The Sympathizer.” Variety’s senior awards editor Clayton Davis currently lists Downey as the frontrunner to win the Emmy in his category.
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The Emmy nominations for Randolph and Downey this year are notable as both actors took home Oscars in March, thus setting them up for a history-making moment of winning an Oscar and an Emmy in the same calendar year. Randolph was awarded the Oscar for best supporting actress thanks to “The Holdovers,” while Downey took home the supporting actor prize for “Oppenheimer.”
Both actors swept the film awards season with their performances in “The Holdovers” and “Oppenehimer,” clinching rare sweeps of the pre-cursor awards. Prior to winning their Academy Awards, Randolph and Downey nabbed supporting wins at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, SAG Awards and BAFTA Film Awards.
Speaking to Jodie Foster for Variety ‘s “Actors on Actors” series earlier this year, Downey said that the heavy toll of filming “Oppenheimer” led him to accept the offer for “The Sympathizer.” He appeared as four different characters in the show, all of whom were antagonists. The series was based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2015 novel of the same name and centers on a North Vietnamese soldier in the South Vietnamese army who is forced to flee to the United States with his general near the end of the Vietnam War. While living within a community of South Vietnamese refugees, he continues to spy on the community and struggles between his original loyalties and his new life.
“I wanted the four characters to be a little two-dimensional,” Downey said of his villains. “The congressman was probably my favorite, because it was every midcentury politico.”
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Prior to the Emmy nominations announcement, many awards pundits expected Downey and Randolph to be joined by a third 2024 Oscar winner: Emma Stone. Thanks to her acclaimed performance in Showtime’s “The Curse,” Stone was being eyed as a contender for an Emmy nomination in the drama actress race after she won the Oscar for best actress thanks to “Poor Things.” Stone was ultimately snubbed for the Emmy nom.
Another 2024 awards favorite, Ryan Gosling, did land an Emmy nomination for guest actor in a comedy series thanks to his hosting stint on “Saturday Night Live,” although he did not win an Oscar this year. Gosling was nominated for supporting actor with “Barbie,” but Downey won the Oscar.
Randolph will face off in the guest actress comedy race against Olivia Colman (“The Bear”), Jamie Lee Curtis (“The Bear”), Kaitlin Olson (“Hacks”), Maya Rudolph (“Saturday Night Live”) and Kristen Wiig (“Saturday Night Live”). Downey, meanwhile, is a limited series supporting actor contender opposite Jonathan Bailey (“Fellow Travelers”), Tom Goodman-Hill (“Baby Reindeer”), John Hawkes (“True Detective: Night Country”), Lamorne Morris (“Fargo”), Lewis Pullman (“Lessons in Chemistry”) and Treat Williams (“Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”).
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