There are perks to being a double Emmy nominee: twice the chance to win and double the recognition. For Julianne Nicholson, who earned two nominations for playing two very different characters in the same calendar year — a ruthless billionaire mastermind in Hulu’s twisty sci-fi drama “Paradise” (where she’ll vie for supporting drama actress) and a kooky dance mom in HBO Max’s comedy “Hacks” (where she’s up for guest comedy actress) — there’s another reason the achievement stands out.
And it involves Catherine O’Hara.
“It’s rare to [be nominated] in such different categories,” Nicholson said during a recent video interview. Knowing that she’s in legendary company with O’Hara — a fellow double nominee this year for her equally varied performances in Apple TV+’s “The Studio” and HBO’s “The Last of Us” — makes the milestone feel significant.
“[Catherine’s] been a goddess idol forever, so to be in any conversation that her name is also in is like, be still my beating heart,” Nicholson marveled. “I’ll just live in that moment.”
It’s a testament to Nicholson’s chameleon-like ability to transcend genres. A past Emmy winner for her soul-wrenching supporting work in the 2021 HBO miniseries “Mare of Easttown,” Nicholson admitted she was “shocked” that her portrayals in both “Paradise” and “Hacks” were given the Emmy stamp of approval. “It’s confirmation and validation of many years where maybe I wasn’t working or people weren’t seeing what I was doing,” Nicholson said. While both nominations are meaningful for different reasons, she acknowledged that “being recognized in a category I wouldn’t normally be thought of feels special to me personally.
It’s confirmation and validation of many years where maybe I wasn’t working or people weren’t seeing what I was doing.
“People think of me most as a dramatic actor. And if people think you’re good at one thing, they think you’re good at only that thing,” she continued. That inside-the-box mentality led her and her team to actively seek out opportunities over the past several years where she could do something off the traditional path. “That’s why we made a conscious decision to do the “Weird Al” movie a couple years ago. It was a small part, but it was fun to get to be in a comedy.”
And then “Hacks” came along.
“To play an off-the-rails character made it that much more fun to be able to flex those muscles and do something completely unexpected and surprise people.”
Just like in “Hacks,” Nicholson steals nearly every scene in “Paradise.” As Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond, the puppetmaster and tech financier behind the underground utopia constructed after an apocalyptic event, Nicholson skillfully gives life to a complicated villain, whose tragic backstory informs her unwavering mission to achieve a mysterious (and questionable) endgame.
Nicholson considers a flashback scene in the series’ second episode to be one of her crown jewels. In it, Sinatra heartbreakingly begs her therapist (played by Sarah Shahi) to give her the strength to keep her marriage and family going as she grieves the death of her son six months earlier. Because of the emotional weight of the scene, she made a choice not to rehearse extensively before cameras rolled. “I thought [the scene] did a good job of honoring that experience and talking about that experience [of losing a child], which I couldn’t ever begin to imagine,” Nicholson said.
For the past two months, the actress has been deep in Sinatra mode as she nears the end of filming for Season 2. “I had to be sprinting a lot yesterday in work shoes,” she said. “My muscles were definitely feeling that today. I guess it’s [physically] humanizing a villain.”
When the new season picks up, Sinatra — who was last seen in a hospital bed recovering from a gunshot wound to the chest — is “definitely more vulnerable than she’s ever been before,” Nicholson said. “With that comes a little humility. Maybe she oftens a tiny bit, but she still prefers being the one who’s calling the shots.” That means the character will be behind the eight ball more than she’s comfortable with. “The blind confidence she had in Season 1 has been shaken. And so it does feel like she’s rediscovering her feet and who she is.”
Though “Paradise” creator Dan Fogelman has indicated he has a grand, three-season plan, Nicholson is as in the dark about how Sinatra fits into the overall picture as everyone else. Considering how vital her character is to the show’s central lore, Nicholson said it’s been an “interesting challenge” using the breadcrumbs she’s been fed to help inform her performance.
“There are things revealed [about Sinatra] in Season 2 that I didn’t know when we were filming Season 1,” she said, “but I don’t think it will affect people’s perceptions of her or would have necessarily changed anything about my performance.”
If viewers thought the freshman season of ‘Paradise’ was shocking, Season 2 heads in an even more surprising direction — especially now that there’s an entire world outside the bunker to explore. “It’s wide open and it goes there,” Nicholson said. “It’s a fascinating world, and the characters that you meet have been able to survive in that world for the last few years. They are a fascinating bunch.”
Among them is Shailene Woodley, who joins the cast as a tour guide at Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate. Nicholson was coy, but she said Sinatra’s path only recently started crossing with the new characters’. “You get to meet all these other relationships within these different characters, and of course, it’s all tied together.”
This story first ran in the Down to the Wire Drama issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
