Actor Michael Emerson. Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images
LOST's Michael Emerson won the 2009 Emmy Sunday night for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. The third time seemed to be the charm for Emerson as this was his third nod for his riveting portrayal of Other Benjamin Linus.
Emerson accepted the golden statue with personal and professional gratitude. “I feel like I’m living out a character actor’s dream,” he said. “One day I flew to Hawaii to do a guest spot, and four years later it’s become the role of a lifetime.”
“As they say in Honolulu,” he remarked in homage to his time on the island (of, um, Hawaii), “Mahalo nui loa.”
This was the second career Emmy for Emerson (who won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama for his stint on The Practice in 2001), and only the fourth major Emmy for LOST – major being defined as those presented during the televised portion of the Awards on Emmy night. The show has won a total of nine Emmy Awards throughout its run, including 2005’s Outstanding Drama Series.
Emerson’s transformation into Ben Linus is quite familiar to LOST fans, but he was only slated to do a guest stint as the suspicious Henry Gale. As is often the case on the island, however, LOST’s trademark hand of destiny vs. fate intervened. [Even protagonist Jack Shepherd was never supposed to make it past the pilot episode.] Four years later and going into LOST’s sixth and final season and … well, you know the rest.
In defining Emerson’s performance, one reviewer said it best: “His schemes, manipulations and lies have become the show's plot engine, and each twist in his character arc — he's good, wait, he's bad, no, no, he's simply misunderstood — has forced us to recast our idea of where the show is headed and what it's been about the entire time.”
Always in character, Emerson never blinks, never raises his voice. His delivery vacillates between uber-creepy and hilarious. And he does it all with a completely stoic face. Fans will tell you that any Ben-centric episode is always a good one.
Just for fun -- “Say something funny," the lighter side of Ben Linus:
LOST returns in early 2010.
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About the broadcast:
This year, Emmy producers grouped awards together by genre – launching the night with comedy ratings-winners, then reality programming, mini-series, variety and finally (for drama’s sake) drama. The order of presentations was posted online so LOST fans knew exactly when to be glued to their television sets.
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences expanded the number of nominees in top categories, including best comedy and drama and the lead and supporting actor and actress categories. This made competition stiffer, but also more interesting.
More on the Emmys and LOST’s nominations.
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