Kimmel-isms
Downton Abbey "really gives you a
sense of what it must have been like to grow up in Mitt Romney's house,"
host Jimmy Kimmel said in his opening monologue. "Television is an
American institution, and yet one out of every five nominees tonight is
British, which I don't understand. I guess we're supposed to reward them
because their actors went to the Royal Shakespeare Academy, and ours
were discovered at the mall."
"For the
first time ever, none of the four major networks are nominated in the
drama category. And you can't ignore that. The academy is sending a
pretty clear message: 'Show us your boobs.'"
Quotable winners (and their co-workers)
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Mitch Pritchett on ABC hit Modern Family,
stopped at the start of the evening to say, "We're a family. We're
rooting for each other," then stage-whispered an aside: "I want to win."
He and three other actors from the show -- Ed O'Neill and previous
winners Ty Burrell and Eric Stonestreet -- were nominated for supporting
actor in a comedy. Unfortunately for Ferguson, it didn't work out that
way.
In accepting his second Emmy, a
nonplussed Stonestreet hastened to note, "I wouldn't be standing here
without Jesse Tyler Ferguson. There is no Cam without Mitch. It's such
an honor to know you. I'm proud to call you a friend. I love you so much
as a person." Backstage, he told USA TODAY: "It's amazing. I was
pulling for Jesse or Ed. We want to spread the awards around on our
show. It feels a little gluttonous the second time, but I'm pleased and
proud and very honored. It feels really great."
Julie Bowen, after winning her second Emmy for supporting actress in a comedy for Family,
seemed more excited backstage by one of her colleagues' wins. "Steve
Levitan just won, Steve Levitan just won, Steve Levitan just won. Oh, my
goodness." Levitan, one of Family's co-creators, won for
directing in a comedy. And at the end of the night, Levitan was back on
stage, with the cast, accepting the show's third comedy Emmy in a row.
Comic Louis C.K., on winning two awards (writing for his variety special, comedy writing for his FX series Louie),
and why his earlier TV efforts were less successful: "I'm better than I
was before. And hopefully I'll be better later, too. If you think
everything you've done has been great, you are probably dumb. So I keep
trying to get better. It's fun to keep trying. I'm older, too. Older
people are smarter and funnier."
Jon Cryer said he was "stunned and flabbergasted" with his victory in the lead actor in a comedy series category for Two and a Half Men.
As he posed for photographers backstage, they had to ask him to smile
because he looked so stunned. "Sorry," he said, "I'll smile. I forgot.
I'm stunned." Photographers also had to ask him to hold up his Emmy,
which he was holding at his side. "This thing. Oh, yeah, I just won this
thing."
Claire Danes, winner as lead dramatic actress for Homeland,
was asked backstage how it felt to win and be pregnant at the same
time. "Well, thank God I'm not giving birth right now," she said. "I
think it will be some time before my child cares about this, or ever.
That's the big award, that puts it in perspective. But this person
(pointing to her stomach) might not care, but I do."
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, on her win as comedy actress for new HBO series Veep, and her third Emmy to date (after Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine):
"This is a hell of a lot of good fortune. I'm particularly fortunate to
get this for a third series. I need an Advil. It gives me a headache."
Statuettes and traffic jams
The Emmy winners pick up their awards from a table filled with dozens of golden statuettes. When Homeland's
Damian Lewis approached the table to get his award, his first, for lead
actor in a drama, he said, "I'm overwhelmed that I'm here." He signed
for his Emmy and said, "That's how my grandmother used to write. I'm
shaking." Following him was Aaron Paul, picking up his second for
supporting actor in a drama series, for Breaking Bad. He did something unusual -- shook it, then said, "The one I won last year had a jingle inside."
There was a run on statuettes when The Daily Show's
large staff came backstage to pick up their awards for variety series
-- the show's 10th in a row. It took a few minutes for more than a dozen
winners to sign for the awards as the happy recipients took pictures of
one another. Jon Stewart brought up the rear, asking the academy if
members still ship the pointy-winged statuettes to winners. "I have two
children with me," he explained.
Kevin Costner, winner for best actor in a miniseries for History Channel's Hatfields and McCoys,
was one of the very last to receive his statuette. By the time he got
to the table, the cupboard was bare. "They told me you had them, but now
you're out," Costner said. Then, suddenly from the side, an Emmy
appeared for him.
Happy to be nominated
Max Greenfield of Fox comedy New Girl
was humble about assessing how his character went from being a jerk to
the show's "it" guy: He credits the writing. Schmidt's success, he
said, is "the result of everybody's input." Is he being a bit modest?
His wife, Tess Sanchez, said, "Can I jump in here? I 100% agree. He put
his own spin on it, for sure." Greenfield, up for supporting actor in a
comedy, said he finds it difficult to accept praise. "You have to learn
to receive these things."
Phil Keoghan, who was nominated as host for The Amazing Race,
said, "Not in a million years did I think a guy from Christchurch (New
Zealand) would be nominated for an Emmy with Betty White, and I am. It's
a huge honor." Keoghan, accompanied by 16-year-old daughter Elle,
said, "She's excited about seeing people other than me."
Bill Hader, a first-time nominee for his supporting SNL duties, said he was "a little out of it. I did (SNL)
last night. We said goodnight, we walked off the stage, and we were on a
plane 20 minutes later." How did he handle the heat? "I'm pretending
it's cold. It's all in the mind."
Actor nominee Hugh Bonneville speculated on his drama Downton Abbey's
popularity with viewers. "I think it's good telly, simply. I think and
feel the same as when I first read it, and I think the audience
agrees."
What's on their DVRs?
Andre Braugher, who stars in ABC's new drama Last Resort (premiering Thursday, 8 ET/PT): "I'm a cable man. For me, it's got to be shows like Breaking Bad or Sons of Anarchy."
Judd Apatow, executive producer of HBO's Girls, and his wife, actress Leslie Mann: PBS' miniseries nominee Sherlock. Mann called star Benedict Cumberbatch "my second husband." "That's OK," said Apatow. "I'll take Watson."
And what does Cryer watch? "Porn, but I don't think that's surprising. You see me and go, yeah, porn. No, I watch NCIS. I have kids, so I'm watching Dinosaur Train, old Blues Clues. That Steve guy is a genius."
USA Today