Our Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actress Emmy odds currently have Eliza Scanlen in eighth place, but not so fast, say nine of our Top 24 users, who are urging you to keep a sharp lookout for the “Sharp Objects” breakthrough performer — so it’s time to go tell mama.
Scanlen was a real scene-stealer in the eight-part limited series, which ran from July to August last year and is based on Gillian Flynn’s novel of the same name. She played Amma Crellin, a well-behaved, innocent and somewhat helpless daughter of mother Adora (Patricia Clarkson) at home, but a mysterious roller-skating bad girl outside of it.
In comparatively sparse screen time, Scanlen crafted a performance that was layered and nuanced, haunting and unsettling, but most notably ominous until the very end when Amma dropped the biggest bombshell of them all: “Don’t tell mama.” This is when Camille (Amy Adams) finds teeth arranged as floor tiles in her half-sister’s dollhouse and realizes that they belong to the teenage girls who were recently killed. Two post-credit scenes finally reveal Amma as the Wind Gap killer and as the new killer in her new hometown of St. Louis.
“Sharp Objects” performed relatively well at the precursors, nabbing four Critics’ Choice and three Golden Globe Award nominations, as well as nine nominations from eight different guilds, including two at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Adams and Clarkson were the only actors to reap the trifecta of Critics’ Choice, Golden Globes and SAG bids, with the former tying Patricia Arquette (“Escape at Dannemora”) at Critics’ Choice and the latter winning at Critics’ Choice and the Globes. The only other actor to get nominated for the show was Elizabeth Perkins, at Critics’ Choice, who didn’t have the requisite amount of screen time to compete in the limited Series/TV movie supporting actress race at the Emmys.
While Scanlen hasn’t landed a single nom for “Sharp Objects” so far, you can’t rule her out at the Emmys. Amma’s final one-liner, followed by an abrupt cut to back and two unexpected post-credit scenes are the types of shockers Emmy voters might still remember now, almost an entire year after the show aired. In hindsight, Scanlen’s portrayal of this character is all the more impressive if you consider the many different sides of Amma she had to portray, let alone the difficulty of making the idea of this 15-year-old girl being a killer believable.
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But how does she, now 20 years old, fit into this category? In the last two decades, it has recognized more veteran actresses than younger ones, with very few nominees being below the age of 30. This doesn’t mean Scanlen is too young to get nominated, especially since, for instance, Letitia Wright – who was also having a breakthrough 2018 – made the cut last year for her turn in “Black Mirror: Black Museum” at 24. And even though Scanlen isn’t a well-known name yet, she plays Beth March in Greta Gerwig’s anticipated big-screen adaptation of “Little Women,” which hits theaters on Dec. 25.
Currently, Clarkson is leads our odds and is trailed by Patricia Arquette (“The Act”), Emily Watson (“Chernobyl”), Carmen Ejogo (“True Detective”), Sally Field (“Maniac”) and Emma Thompson (“King Lear”).
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