The most exciting part of watching the Emmys as a Westworld fan is finding out how many more of those 21 nominations the show is taking home.
Westworld has already nabbed 3 creative arts Emmys ahead of the big night, and it looks like there will be even more golden statues coming their way. The series certainly has a lot going for it at the 70th Annual Primetime Emmy awards.
Season 2 featured even more creative twists and turns, new complicated characters and beautiful visuals. After an incredibly successful first season, Westworld managed to remain consistent with skilled acting, stunning special effects, and even better storytelling.
The show’s only con lies in how the multiple storylines in season 2 confused fans. While some understood the complexity of the story once it was unraveled, others felt that the effort it took to make sense of it all wasn’t even worth it. Unfortunately, this may affect the results of Westworld’s nominations.
Nevertheless, Westworld is still a strong contender with some of the best actors in the industry nominated for an award. Jimmi Simpson, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, and Thandie Newton have made amazing contributions to the show’s success with their talent for creating characters that we adore.
And we believe (and hope!) that the following awards will go to Westworld actors because of their spectacular work this season:
Outstanding Supporting Actress–Thandie Newton
Maeve is hands down the most loved character in Westworld. But there’s more to the character than saucy responses and resolute bluntness, she’s a host that is self-aware of her synthetic existence and still pours every inch of her mechanical soul into finding her daughter. Maeve takes a gang of accomplices risking their lives and her own to save the being that she loves most with unflinching focus.
Newton plays the role of Maeve with such ease it’s hard to remember she is a separate person putting on a show. Newton was tasked this season with playing a self-aware host that continues to have human-like objectives, but she also had to show how this host, in the end, was human.
And when I say human, I mean that Maeve showed she had ingrained within the compassion and selflessness of a human mother when she let her daughter go into the Valley Beyond for a better life. Maeve showed her humanity in those final moments and Newton did an astounding job at making it believable.
Outstanding Drama Actor–Jeffrey Wright
Jeffrey Wright has a reputation for his work as an actor, but there’s been nothing in his filmography quite like his character Bernard. In season 2, Bernard is a host that recently became aware of his reality. And for most of the season, Bernard’s memory was in disarray because he had taken measures to make sure that the humans weren’t able to extract the biggest secret of the season just by cleverly commanding him.
In considering Wright’s work, you have to realize that as an actor he played so many ranges, emotions, and did real justice to bringing Bernard to life. Wright had to change pace many times through the season because he had to play someone who was piecing the memories from the past 11 days to understand what took place. What’s also interesting is that within that time Bernard was once again in a state of confusion trying to figure out Dolores’ end game.
It’s almost as if Wright played many characters. The character Bernard allowed Wright to play the role of human, host, savior, and detective. In the end, Bernard ended up discovering his own voice, an unexpected gift, when he realized that Ford had been right all along and that he would have to bring Dolores back. With that realization, Bernard took control of his own life, much like Maeve, and decided how the story would play out.
Best of luck to all of the Westworld Emmy nominees! Tune in to NBC on Sept. 17th to see if our Westworld predictions come true at the 70th Annual Primetime Emmys!