CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Christina Hendricks, Julianna Margulies; Terry O'Quinn; Ty Burrell; Bryan Cranston; Jim Parsons; Toni Collette; Lea Michele
They're the television performers who've made the channel surfing stop, caused shows to linger in your DVR for repeat viewings and put Hulu in your bookmark bar. Los Angeles Confidential gets tuned in to eight of the past season's small-screen standouts whose star turns had wings - just like a certain TV trophy. Regardless of who walked away with an award in hand, we think these eight Emmy nominees deserve a standing O.
Toni Collette
Toni Collette considers the question again: Does being an actor who regularly assumes other identities give her special insight into playing a person with multiple personalities? “At first I thought it was ludicrous,” she says. “But now I think it really may have allowed me some unexplainable knowledge about being someone else quite a bit of the time. The difference is I have control and can choose to walk away, turn it off.”
The chameleonesque Collette turns the faces of United States of Tara’s tragic-comic lead on and off with startling authenticity, creating seven (so far) distinct personas within one woman. “I love ’em all,” she says of Tara’s alters, including her redneckish masculine side. “Initially Buck was the most challenging, but he comes frighteningly easy to me now.”
Tara’s inner rebellious teen delights her. “I love T. She does so many things that are entirely socially unacceptable,” says Collette. However, she didn’t love her body-baring wardrobe so much at first. “I had to wear a thong. I had just given birth three months prior to shooting and felt very vulnerable. In the first take I actually ran into the furniture. Totally embarrassing.”
After a diverse array of film work, Collette embraced the TV role that has earned her some of TV’s highest accolades. “Tara came along when I was pregnant, and it allowed me to work without overcommitting myself as a new mum. I wasn’t looking to work in TV, but it has turned out to be one of the most satisfying creative experiences of my life.”
“The possibilities are kind of endless,” says Collette—even if the multiples multiply. “As many as they throw my way. The more the merrier.”
Bryan Cranston
“Dark,” “bleak” and “harrowing” are typical adjectives applied to Bryan Cranston’s turn as Breaking Bad’s cancer-stricken teacher-turned-meth dealer. But his own choice of words makes it sound more like a wild carnival ride. “It’s scarier and more fun for me if I don’t know exactly where that twisting and turning rollercoaster is going next,” says Cranston. “When I read the script of the episode we’re going to shoot, I often say, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this!’ Just buckle up and hold on!”
