2023 Emmys: How much screen time does each Best Drama Supporting Actor nominee have?
The only one of last year’s dramatic acting Emmy winners who can possibly score a second consecutive victory is Matthew Macfadyen, who is seeking another supporting trophy for HBO’s “Succession.” If he does retain his title, he will join a group of six other men who were each awarded the Best Drama Supporting Actor prize for multiple sequential seasons of a single series, the last of whom was Peter Dinklage (“Game of Thrones,” 2018-2019). Having initially been lauded for his eight minutes of screen time in the third season closer, “All the Bells Say,” he has now asked voters to honor a performance close to twice as long.
Macfadyen’s exact screen time in his fourth season submission, “Tailgate Party,” is 14 minutes and 56 seconds, or 24.14% of the episode’s entire length. In terms of both actual time and percentage, he lands comfortably above his eight-slot lineup’s averages, which are 11 minutes and 57 seconds and 18.75%. This data was calculated using a simple definition of stand-alone screen time, which is any time a given actor can be seen on screen or heard off screen. Contiguous moments wherein the performer silently and non-visibly remains in scenes were not counted.
The only current competitor of Macfadyen’s who outpaces both his raw and proportional screen time totals is his own “Succession” cast mate, Alexander Skarsgård. After earning a 2022 guest nomination for the same series, the full-fledged regular could now achieve a supporting win for his 18 minutes and eight seconds of work in “Kill List,” which amounts to 30.19% of the episode. Ranking ahead of Macfadyen by actual time only is Will Sharpe of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” who appears in 16 minutes and 50 seconds (or 21.85%) of the second season finale, “Arrivederci.”
In the middle of this group are two more “Succession” actors, the first of whom, Nicholas Braun, has been nominated here twice before. On his last outing as Greg Hirsch, he clocks in at 13 minutes and 31 seconds (or 20.79%) in the antepenultimate episode, “America Decides.” Next in the ranking is Emmys newcomer Alan Ruck, whose long-awaited first “Succession” notice is tied to his nine-minute and 44-second performance in “Rehearsal,” which translates to a percentage of 16.66.
The final three contenders in this bunch are all “White Lotus” actors who appear in less than nine minutes and 14% of their chosen episodes. The most prominent of them, F. Murray Abraham, has submitted “Abductions,” which features him on screen for eight minutes and 15 seconds (or 13.18%). The remaining two – Michael Imperioli and Theo James – both picked “That’s Amore,” in which their respective screen times are seven minutes and 37 seconds (12.44%) and six minutes and 36 seconds (10.78%). Imperioli happens to have already won this award for two 2004 installments of “The Sopranos” in which his combined screen time totaled 24 minutes and 29 seconds.
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions