Game of Thrones top Emmy drama
Night of surprises as Porter makes history as first openly gay actor to win best drama series acting award
Game of Thrones resurrected the Iron Throne at yesterday’s Emmy ceremony, ruling as top drama on a night of surprises in which
Pose star Billy Porter made history and the comedy series Fleabag led a British invasion that overturned expectations.
“This all started in the demented mind of George R.R. Martin,” said
Game of Thrones producer David Benioff, thanking the author whose novels were the basis of HBO’s fantasy saga.
Porter, who stars in the FX drama set in the LGBTQ ball scene of the late 20th century, became the first openly gay man to win a best drama series acting Emmy.
“God bless you all. The category is love, you all, love. I’m so overjoyed and so overwhelmed to have lived to see this day,” Porter said.
Amazon’s Fleabag, a dark comedy about a dysfunctional woman, was honoured as best comedy and earned top acting honours for its British creator and star, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and a best director trophy.
“This is getting ridiculous,” WallerBridge said in her third trip to the stage to collect the top trophy.
Her acting win blocked Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus from setting a record as the most-honoured performer in Emmy history.
In accepting the writing award earlier, she called the Emmy recognition proof that “a dirty, pervy, messed-up woman can make it to the Emmys”.
English actress Jodie Comer was honoured as best drama actress for Killing Eve. She competed with co-star Sandra Oh, who received a Golden Globe for her role and would have been the first actress of Asian descent to win an Emmy in the category.
Bill Hader won his second consecutive best comedy actor award for the hit man comedy Barry. Peter Dinklage, named best supporting actor for Game of Thrones, set a record for most wins for the same role, four, breaking a tie with Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad. Ozark star Julia Garner won the best supporting drama actress trophy against a field including four actresses from Game of Thrones.
The auditorium erupted in cheers when Jharrel Jerome of When They
See Us, about the Central Park Five case, won the best actor award for a limited series movie.
“Most important, this is for the men that we know as the Exonerated Five,” said Jerome, naming the five wrongly convicted men who were in the audience.
They stood and saluted the actor as the crowd applauded them.
It was the only honour for the acclaimed Netflix series of the evening. Chernobyl won the best limited series honour.