This story on Carrie Coon first appeared in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s Emmy magazine.
“I’m so tired, I hope I make sense,” said Carrie Coon when she spoke to TheWrap about her Emmy nomination for “Fargo.” She had good reason to be weary: Not only did Coon star in two acclaimed dramas this season, “Fargo” and the final season of “The Leftovers,” but she’d just arrived back in New York after a weekend in Los Angeles where she won the Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Drama, in which she’d competed against both men and women.
“I’m totally spoiled being on two shows in one season, and I feel really humbled to be singled out in such a wildly rich season,” she said. “I think the benefit of being in the air in two prestige dramas is that it gives you a kind of street cred. Those are shows that people in my industry watch, which means that I have access maybe to rooms that I wouldn’t have gotten in before.”
She also has access to the starriest category at the Emmy Awards. Every other nominee in her category, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie, has been nominated for an Academy Award, and four of the five — Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon for “Big Little Lies” and Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon for “Feud: Bette and Joan” — are past Oscar winners; only Felicity Huffman of “American Crime” is a mere Oscar nominee, but she’s also a past Emmy winner.
“I’ve been asked a lot if I’m intimidated by my category, and my answer is that I should probably just not go,” Coon said, laughing. “I’m thinking of staying home in my silky pajamas and eating popcorn in my bed. But I so look forward to meeting all these people I admire, so of course I’m going. I’ll take my husband so I’m not nervous, and I’ll applaud everybody who wins. You know, there are 9,000 shows on television right now, and I can’t believe I made the cut.”
And once she gets past the intimidation factor, Coon naturally gets a kick out of the Emmy company she’s keeping. “It’s ridiculous,” she said. “My mom and dad look at the list and it blows their minds. We’ve been watching these people act for decades, and these are women that I’ve looked up to my whole short career.” A pause. “My only fear is that I may have peaked a little bit early.”
Watch the video interview with Carrie Coon above.
Interview by Trevor Mack
