Everything was going Claire Foy’s way on the awards scene for the first season of “The Crown,” which premiered in the fall of 2016. For playing Queen Elizabeth II she won both a Golden Globe and SAG Award. But then Elisabeth Moss entered the competition when “The Handmaid’s Tale” debuted the following spring and snatched the Emmy for Best Drama Actress away from Foy. Moss got the better of her again at the 2018 Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. Moss was expected to win the SAG Award too, but her winning streak abruptly ended with Foy instead winning SAG for the second time. Moss should be concerned heading into the 2018 Emmys as drama actresses who win two SAG Awards almost always win Emmys.
Gillian Anderson (“The X-Files”) was the first two-time SAG Award winner among drama actresses, winning in 1996-1997; she also won the Emmy in 1997. Juliana Margulies (“ER”) was already an Emmy winner for Best Drama Supporting Actress before she won back-to-back SAG Awards in 1998-1999; she is the only two-time SAG winner not to follow up with a Drama Actress Emmy win.
Alison Janney won back-to-back SAG Awards for “The West Wing” from 2001-2002, and she actually won Emmys in both years: Drama Supporting Actress in 2001 and Drama Actress in 2002. Margulies would again win back-to-back SAG Awards, this time for “The Good Wife,” in 2010-2011; she also won the Emmy on her second try for that show in 2011. Viola Davis won both a SAG Award and an Emmy for the first season of “How to Get Away with Murder” in 2015, and then a second SAG Award in 2016. Edie Falco was a three-time non-consecutive SAG winner for “The Sopranos” (2000, 2003 and 2008) and was also a three-time non-consecutive Emmy winner (1999, 2001, 2003).
Additionally benefiting Foy is the outrage many in the Hollywood community have expressed since it was revealed she was paid less than her co-star Matt Smith even though Foy played the lead character. In the wake of the #MeToo and “Time’s Up” movements it could become a rallying cry, giving Foy added momentum to win the Emmy that alluded her for the first season.
But let’s not forget the strength of Foy’s performance that the Emmys will be voting on. Consider the episode “Vergangenheit,” in which Foy must deal with the fact that her uncle David, the Duke of Windsor (Alex Jennings), was a Nazi sympathizer during WWII. Foy gives a conflicted performance as she wrestles with the decision to either forgive him or exile him for what he was willing to do to his own family. Sophie Gilbert (The Atlantic) called Foy “the MVP of season two, capturing the complicated emotions of a woman who’s rarely able to say what she feels.” And Jen Cheney (Vulture) added that Foy “sinks even more comfortably into the skin of the fusty, old-fashioned, but sometimes surprisingly generous ruler of England.”
Currently Foy sits in second place in our predictions with odds of 4/1, right on the heels of her awards nemesis Moss who leads with odds of 10/3. Those odds are based on the combined forecasts of more than 1,100 Gold Derby users who have already entered their predictions thus far. But for Emmy voters this is also their last opportunity to award Foy since all the major roles on “The Crown” are being recast for season three as the series advances to the next period in the lives of the royal family. It would be a shame if Foy lost again only to possibly watch her replacement Olivia Colman crowned the Emmy champ when she puts on the tiara for the third season.
Be sure to make your Emmy predictions today so that Hollywood insiders can see how their TV shows and performers are faring in our odds. You can keep changing your predictions as often as you like until just before nominees are announced on July 12. And join in the fun debate over the 2018 Emmys taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our television forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
