Alexander Skarsgård will make history with SAG Award bid for ‘Succession’
When the stars of “Succession” won the 2022 Best TV Drama Ensemble SAG Award for their third season, then-recurring guest actor Alexander Skarsgård did not share in the victory, but he is now on track to be honored for his larger contribution to the HBO show’s fourth batch of episodes. Indeed, a staggering 93% of Gold Derby’s 2024 SAG Awards predictors believe the “Succession” cast will have no trouble going two-for-two in this category by winning for their final season. Before they reach this collective achievement, Skarsgård – who has previously competed here with two other casts – will make his own bit of history as the youngest recipient of SAG ensemble nominations for three different drama series.
Skarsgård appears in 10 of the final 13 “Succession” episodes as Lukas Matsson, a Swedish tech billionaire entangled in a business acquisition deal with the central Roy family. The role was his fourth regular one on an HBO series following stints on “Generation Kill,” “True Blood,” and “Big Little Lies” over the preceding 15 years. For the last two of those programs, he picked up group SAG Award bids in 2010 and 2020 but lost those races to the casts of “Mad Men” and “The Crown.” When it comes to individual SAG honors, he has one under his belt for “Big Little Lies” that he clinched in 2018 when the show was classified as a limited series rather than a continuing drama.
By reaching three-series nominee status within a 14-year period, Skarsgård would match the speed of Jimmy Smits, who currently stands as the only man who has achieved the feat in this category alone. He earned the distinction in 2009 when, at the age of 53, he received his sole ensemble notice for “Dexter” after having competed as a member of the “NYPD Blue” (1995-1999) and “The West Wing” (2006) casts. He only triumphed on his first outing, which preceded four solo bids for the same ABC police procedural.
Skarsgård, who will be 47 when this year’s SAG Award nominations are announced, will follow just one more triple drama ensemble contender: sole female representative Julianna Margulies. She joined this small club just last year (at age 55) as part of the cast of “The Morning Show” after having been recognized for her work on “ER” (1995-2000) and “The Good Wife” (2010-2012). Her middle four nominations for “ER” were all successful, and she individually won a pair of consecutive trophies for each of her first two series (1998-1999; 2010-2011).
“Succession” itself would be far from the first repeat winner of this ensemble award, but it would only follow “Downton Abbey” (2015-2016) as the second series to be lauded here for both of its closing two seasons. With its cast nomination and Skarsgård’s resulting personal achievement practically assured, the pressure falls on it to sweep all three drama categories at this year’s SAG Awards ceremony, which, according to the vast majority of our participating users, should be a piece of cake.
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