While the Hollywood Foreign Press Association gives Golden Globe Awards to the brightest stars of the big and small screens (and plies them with booze on live TV!), we at Backstage are throwing a celebration of our own. Well, not an outright celebration, but a distinguished distribution of honors nonetheless.
Each year, we salute the most valuable players of film and TV, the most active, hardworking performers who have appeared in multiple high-profile projects in both mediums. These accolades have been informally dubbed the Nicole Kidman Awards, after the particularly busy star who first topped the list. So, without further ado, we present Backstage’s film and TV MVPs of 2019!
READ: For Nicole Kidman, Acting Is in Her Blood—and the Results Are Revelatory
The cast of “Big Little Lies”
Compiling this list of multifaceted stars, we noticed a theme: the “Monterey Five” are booked and busy this year. In addition to a pulpy second outing with Celeste, Madeline, Jane, Bonnie, Renata, and now the scheming Mary Louise, HBO’s “Big Little Lies” ensemble brought life to other roles, as well. Kidman wowed in “The Goldfinch” and “Bombshell,” Reese Witherspoon stunned on “The Morning Show” and produced “Lucy in the Sky,” Shailene Woodley led the semi-improvised “Endings, Beginnings,” Zoë Kravitz was cast as Catwoman, and “Little Women” reunited Laura Dern (also in “Marriage Story”) and Meryl Streep (“The Laundromat”).
Sam Rockwell
No sooner had Rockwell secured his first-ever Emmy nods for producing and starring as Bob Fosse on FX’s “Fosse/Verdon” than film awards pundits noted his appearances in two buzzy contenders. The Oscar winner is sympathetic in Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell” and outrageous in Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit.”
Elisabeth Moss
Appearing on this list for the second year running, Moss continues to shine on the small screen as producer and star of Hulu’s Emmy-winning “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Additionally, her volcanic performance as a rock star and addict in Alex Ross Perry’s “Her Smell” had critics foaming at the mouth, and she stole the show in Jordan Peele’s “Us” and Andrea Berloff’s “The Kitchen.”
Alfre Woodard
It’s not quite a comeback, considering Woodard has worked steadily for years and amassed 17 Emmy nods, but 2019 was quite the year for this acting maestro. Sundance favorite “Clemency” made Woodard an Oscar contender, plus she delighted in Netflix’s “Juanita,” voiced a lioness queen in “The Lion King,” and grounded the new fantasy drama “See” from Apple TV+.
Jharrel Jerome
Jerome’s star was on the rise before he played Korey Wise on Ava DuVernay’s Netflix hit “When They See Us.” But Angela Bassett’s exalted announcement of his name as the 2019 Emmy winner for miniseries actor confirmed it. We’re seeing just the beginning of this young actor’s career, with impressive turns on this year’s season of Audience Network’s “Mr. Mercedes” and in indie film “Selah
and the Spades.”
Emilia Clarke
Clarke proved her romcom bona fides with Paul Feig’s holiday romp “Last Christmas” opposite Henry Golding, and played subdued in the based-on-a-true-story thriller “Above Suspicion.” Of course, what made 2019 Clarke’s year was the grand finale of HBO’s Emmy-dominating “Game of Thrones,” which saw the dramatic end to her Queen Daenerys’ reign.
Olivia Colman
Speaking of reigning queens, Colman collected an Oscar for playing Queen Anne only to trade that crown for another one. Her performance as Elizabeth II on “The Crown” Season 3 is generating yet more buzz, and that’s after her Emmy-nominated scene-stealing on Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s “Fleabag.” Not content with two of the year’s buzziest phenomena, Colman also appeared on a “Les Misérables” miniseries and on the big screen in “Them That Follow.”
Robert De Niro
Reuniting with Martin Scorsese for “The Irishman” would have been enough to make this a career-high year for De Niro, but the veteran actor went above and beyond. The 2020 SAG Life Achievement Award recipient also starred in Todd Phillips’ “Joker” and on “Saturday Night Live” as a hilariously accurate Robert Mueller.
Zazie Beetz
Did Beetz take any days off in the calendar year of 2019? Steven Soderbergh’s “High Flying Bird,” Jordan Peele’s “The Twilight Zone,” Benedict Andrews’ “Seberg,” Noah Hawley’s “Lucy in the Sky,” and alongside De Niro and Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker”—somebody book this star a well-earned vacation!
Gina Rodriguez
With the CW’s masterful telenovela “Jane The Virgin” concluding this year, it was smart of its director-producer-star to line up a plethora of different gigs: Rodriguez took on the charming “Someone Great,” voiced Netflix’s animated “Carmen Sandiego” and “Big Mouth,” and led action blockbuster “Miss Bala.”
Tracy Letts
Letts’ acting career is catching up with his impressive writing one. He’s wonderfully hammy in the hit “Ford v. Ferrari,” with other striking supporting turns in Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” and on Season 2 of “The Sinner.” Did we mention the Tony and Pulitzer winner also continues to get his plays mounted on Broadway? He’s got two this season alone.
READ: Tracy Letts Is Making It up as He Goes—and It’s Working
Helen Mirren
It’s always good to spend time with Mirren on screens of any size. You just know you’re in good hands. Check out her superb leading turn as the titular tsarina of HBO’s “Catherine the Great,” and don’t miss the Oscar winner at the multiplex in “The Good Liar,” “Anna,” “Berlin, I Love You,” and, best of all, “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.”
Tim Blake Nelson
Nelson is proof that you can book more and more gigs with age, especially if you’re a chameleonic character actor. He disappears into audacious roles in “The Report,” “The True Don Quixote,” and “Just Mercy,” and proves endlessly fascinating even under Looking Glass’ mask on HBO’s “Watchmen” sequel series.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Some actors are reliable playing any role in every conceivable genre. With Edward Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn,” Julia Hart’s “Fast Color,” Netflix’s new “Dark Crystal,” and a pivotal role on Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show,” Mbatha-Raw’s strategy seems to be booking as many such roles as possible, and she deserves recognition for remaining convincing every time she shakes things up.
The cast of “Unbelievable”
The women of “Big Little Lies” weren’t the year’s only collectively busy cast. This astonishing Netflix miniseries about an alleged rape victim and the detectives on the case stars Kaitlyn Dever (a funny and touching breakout in Olivia Wilde’s “Booksmart”), Merritt Wever (a scene stealer in “Marriage Story”), and Toni Collette (equal parts snobby and campy in “Knives Out”), all hitting career highs.
Dwayne Johnson
It’s hard to imagine Johnson has much of a work-life balance, given his shooting schedule. Even before this year’s “Hobbs & Shaw,” “Fighting With My Family,” the “Jumanji” sequel, and Disney’s upcoming “Jungle Cruise,” it’s become clear he’s one of Hollywood’s sure things at the box office. All the while, he’s kept his leading performance on HBO’s “Ballers” fresh and funny. Give the man an award for sheer stamina.
This story originally appeared in the Dec. 19 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe here.
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