Twelve times Game of Thrones stars should’ve won Emmys but didn’t
By Dan Selcke
Fairley as Catelyn Stark in Season 3, Episode 9. Helen Sloan/HBO
Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark): Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series — “The Rains of Castamere”
On a show as sprawling as Game of Thrones, it’s impossible to hold up any one moment as emblematic of the entire series. That said, if you were to make a list of candidates, Catelyn Stark’s bloodcurdling scream after her son Robb is killed at the Red Wedding would definitely be on it.
From the start, Michelle Fairley was the show’s secret weapon: steely and steady, she radiated a hard-won world-weariness we could hold onto when things were getting chaotic. Her melancholic monologues in season 3 always brought what could be a hyperbolic show back down to earth. She was like Sean Bean in that way; we didn’t think this was the kind of character the show would sacrifice.
But sacrifice her it did. The Red Wedding may be the most famous scene from Game of Thrones, with Michelle Fairley’s anguished cry being its crowning moment. This was right before Game of Thrones blew up into a cultural phenomenon. If Emmy voters were paying the show just a little more attention at this stage, I think Fairley would have walked away with a well-deserved statue.