For thirty years and more Linda Cardellini hath pursued her singular art upon stage and before the camera, and on Sunday night, at last, the long waiting found its termination. She stood before the Academy, tears upon her cheek, and received the Emmy for her performance in DTF St. Louis, a triumph she pronounced, in a voice broken with feeling, “a real dream come true.”
Words Spoken Before the Academy
“It’s a little embarrassing, but this has just been an extraordinary journey,” Cardellini said, her calm quite overcome by the moment. She gave thanks to her family, to her friends, to her fellow players, to the creator Steve Conrad, and to the producers and her team who had stood beside her through this remarkable passage. “And thank you to the Academy and thank you to all who, along this way, all these years, have helped me get to this moment,” she continued. “It’s a real dream come true.”
Her Rivals for the Honor
Cardellini’s victory came in the class of best supporting actress in a limited or imaginative series or motion picture, a field of no small distinction. Arrayed against her were Dakota Fanning for All Her Fault, Laurie Metcalf for Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Joy Sunday for DTF St. Louis, Youn Yuh-jung for Beef, and Constance Zimmer for Love Story. It was a company any performer might tremble to enter, and yet it was Cardellini who prevailed.
Waiting Since Mad Men
This was no sudden or accidental fortune. Cardellini had stood among the chosen before—once in 2013 for her guest performance in Mad Men, and twice more in 2020 for her work in Dead to Me—yet the Emmy itself had eluded her grasp until now.
Harbour Wins Too
David Harbour, her companion in DTF St. Louis, claimed the corresponding honor for best actor, his own first Emmy as well. It seems a fitting likeness that these two players, so long laboring without this particular prize, should find it together in the same singular hour.
The Fortunes of DTF St. Louis
The production itself did not want for honors. DTF St. Louis entered the ceremonies with 13 nominations in total and departed—at the time of this writing—with six wins, including best writing and directing for Steve Conrad, picture editing, cinematography, and supporting actor in a limited or imaginative series or motion picture. A dreadful trial of competition, and yet the work prevailed again and again.
Two Nights at the Peacock Theater
The Creative Arts Emmys, as is now their custom, were celebrated across two evenings at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, neither ceremony carried live to the public. This marked the first year in which the classes of supporting actor and supporting actress in a limited series or motion picture were determined during these Creative Arts proceedings rather than upon the main broadcast.
What the Television Academy Explained
The Television Academy had announced this alteration in July, moving the classes of supporting actor and actress, along with writing for a variety series and writing and directing for a limited series or motion picture, away from the principal broadcast. Their notice explained the matter thus: “Given the extraordinary extent of work recognized each year and the limited time available within a broadcast three hours long, a select number of classes will be moving to the Emmy ceremonies taking place the week prior to the broadcast.”
A curious ordering of scheduling, perhaps, but one that in no way diminished the weight of what Cardellini won upon that stage.
The full winners list for night two accompanies this account, and those curious as to the honors bestowed the evening prior may consult the separate accounting of night one’s winners. For Cardellini, whatever the arrangement of broadcast and ceremony, the moment itself required no further embellishment than the tears upon her face and the words she offered in gratitude. THR Newsletters will continue to follow the unfolding of this remarkable season, delivering such news, as ever, straight to the reader each day.
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