Only at the Emmys can you see TV producer and writer Mike Schur speaking in the main aisle of the Peacock Theatre as a crowd including “Hacks” star Jean Smart and “Baby Reindeer” star Jessica Gunning file past him on their way to their seats. “I’m just trying to process all of this,” Gunning tells us, just before etching his own name on a statuette.
Heading to the bathroom? You’ll see Dulé Hill exchange hugs with “Palm Royale’s” Kristen Wiig and watch “Fellow Travelers” star Matt Bomer and “Shōgun’s” Nestor Carbonell — who won his first Emmy for guest actor in a drama at last week’s Creative Arts ceremony — catch up while answering selfie requests from fanatic attendees looking to offer their praise for their recent performances. Then an event staffer pulls out a megaphone and declares, “Concession stands will close at 4:30! Grab your snacks and head to your seats!” as “Saturday Night Live’s” Bowen Yang and “The Crown’s” Dominic West join the crowd in getting inside.
Inside the main hall, a voice booms out with instructions about time limits for speeches before the theme song from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” provides the soundtrack — and all before the show even begins! In that spirit, the Times staffers who were on hand for the 2024 Emmys are offering highlights from the night that weren’t seen on TV.
It was a golden night for the golden girls: “The Bear” star Liza Colón-Zayas, a first-time winner, may be living her moment, but in the press room she emphasized, among other things, that she “has no expiration date.” It’s a message that Colon-Zayas, 52; Smart, 73; and “True Detective: Night Country” star Jodie Foster, 61, embodied when they accepted trophies for more career-advancing projects on Sunday. Offscreen, Smart, who received her award from Candice Bergen, an Emmy legend in her own right, said she was grateful “that my career has been a very gradual sort of climb.” Though she admits, “I wouldn’t mind if it was a little bit faster.”Alexandria of the Rosary
Lamorne Morris, Emmy winner for supporting actor in a limited series for “Fargo.”
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
We had an interview with an Emmy winner: If you’re a “New Girl” fan, you’ve witnessed the elegance Lamorne Morris can bring to the (park) stage. As Winston Bishop on the Fox comedy, Morris was aided by bells and gloves to demonstrate his grace and (comic) power; on Sunday, the actor was carrying a heavier bell on his back: his first Emmy trophy, after winning an award for supporting actor in a miniseries or movie for his role as trusted North Dakota agent Witt Far in the fifth season of Noah Hawley’s “Fargo.” We were lucky enough to spend the day with Morris as he prepared for the big show at his Encino home. He was surrounded by friends and family, including his playful daughter, Lily, who had just celebrated her fourth birthday the night before (“I ate vanilla cake because I’m 4 now,” he declared). His mother, Gwennett, who flew in from Chicago for the occasion, was already beaming as she thought about the night ahead: “The irony of it all is that when I was young, I took drama classes, but I stopped. He kept going. He carried on what I couldn’t.”
Little did he know he’d give her a hilarious salute on national television while holding his trophy. “I keep thinking someone’s going to run up and steal this s— from me,” Morris said backstage after his win, according to my colleague Alexandra Del Rosario. “I can’t believe it. I kind of blanked out for a while when they called my name.” The hustle doesn’t end there, either. This week he begins work on Prime Video’s Marvel series “Spider-Noir,” led by Nicolas Cage; and Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” in which he plays Garrett Morris, an original member of the “SNL” cats, premieres later this month. So how does he handle it all? “You don’t,” Morris told The Times. “You just go off-book. You memorize your lines, you break down your character, and then when you get on set and you’re in front of Nic Cage in rehearsal, all of that can go out the window.” And no, he doesn’t plan to do a Cage impression. —Yvonne Villarreal
D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, wearing a red handprint on his face to raise awareness for missing and murdered indigenous women, arrives at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
And I learned more about the important message from a first-time nominee: There was no missing the red handprint stretched across Indigenous actor D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai’s mouth as he arrived at the Emmys. Woon-A-Tai, who is of the Oji-Cree First Nations and Guyanese, was nominated for his first Emmy for the role of Bear Smallhill on the FX dramedy “Reservation Dogs,” which delves into the lives of Native American youth in Oklahoma. The handprint, Woon-A-Tai said, represents “missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit individuals.” While waiting in line to enter the Governors Ball after the show, Woon-A-Tai explained a little more. “We find that in North America, many of our sisters and family members are going missing at an alarming rate, and it’s not often that the public is notified or made a priority by law enforcement.” The red color represents “blood and violence against women and our Two Spirit relatives,” she said, and the palm print represents “silencing our relatives.”
“It’s a problematic epidemic that’s happening in our communities across North America and also in South America, and it’s something that’s not talked about a lot and nobody knows what it is, so this is what I’m wearing,” she said.Jessica Gelt
Jon Stewart, center, and the rest of the winning cast of “The Daily Show” at the 2024 Emmys.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Jon Stewart is a man of the press: “They need better lighting,” Stewart informed dozens of reporters in the press room as he and the team of producers and correspondents from “The Daily Show” entered the room following their win in the talk series category. “It’s inhumane, these conditions,” he joked of the dim lighting in the JW Marriott ballroom. “You guys are not animals!” Stewart, after musing about the 2024 presidential election and the possibility of a Trevor Noah comeback (he joked, “Am I getting fired?!”), conducted another wellness check on the press, asking about the snack situation. For curious readers, the press room included asparagus risotto, braised short ribs, hamburgers and an assortment of sweets.From the Rosary
Jonathan Pryce arrives at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Commercial breaks are more fun inside the theatre: If there were a Spotify playlist for the music that plays between Emmy commercial breaks, it would be a rundown of songs from TV shows like “Full House,” “In Living Color” and “Little House on the Prairie.” While viewers at home watched ads for diapers and spaghetti sauce, guests inside the Peacock Theater jumped out of their seats to buy $17 cocktails and ice-cold cans of Modelo beer in the lobby. Fiji water, Haribo gummies and popcorn were also ordered. And if the background music made the race to the lobby feel like a nostalgic wonderland, watching Seth Meyers walk past “Dance Moms” personality Abby Lee Miller, in a sequined suit, made it feel like a fever dream.
During a commercial break, “Only Murders in the Building” producer Dan Fogelman waited in the snaking concession line. A few feet away, “The Crown” star Jonathan Pryce watched as his date perused a wall of drinks — an assortment of cans of soda, water and to-go alcoholic beverages. Pryce got a can of Paloma grapefruit-flavored Absolut vodka. A person might also rub elbows with Laura Dern trying to find her seat, or see “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder wave to friends as she walks down the aisle. It’s possible to step into a bathroom stall just vacated by “Fallout” star Ella Purnell and her silver dress; or see “Slow Horses” hacker Christopher Chung take selfies with fans in what appear to be velvet bell-bottoms. After three or four minutes, it’s game over again, and the race back to the theater begins. If the doors close, you're out in the cold until the next commercial break.Jessica Gelt and Yvonne Villarreal
“Baby Reindeer’s” Richard Gadd, left, and Jessica Gunning, right, pose with Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup at the Emmy Awards after-party on Sunday.
(Allen Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Winning leaves you without strength: The Netflix miniseries “Baby Reindeer” swept the Emmys, with three Emmys for its star and creator, Richard Gadd, for its harrowing autobiographical tale of stalking by an unhinged, lonely woman. Onstage, Gadd spoke about the lowest point in his life just a decade ago — not with arrogance, but as a message of encouragement for anyone going through a tough time. Things get better, Gadd said. You just have to hang in there.
Given Gadd’s (and the series’) Cinderella story, it wasn’t surprising to see him and co-star Jessica Gunning, who also took home an Emmy on Sunday, looking dazed and overwhelmed as they taped their trophies at the Governors Ball. Camera flashes popped all around as Naomi Watts and her Emmy-winning husband Billy Crudup stood alongside the “Baby Reindeer” stars, smiling and hoisting their statuettes. Later, Gadd dodged the spotlights, trying to get a moment to himself. Fans kept asking for selfies, press kept asking for interviews. “Thank you,” Gadd said, declining an interview. “But I think we’ve said enough for tonight.” He looked exhausted and delirious. His dreams had come true, and it seemed almost too much to process.Jessica Gelt
