Fortunes rise and fall in an industry as fickle as Hollywood; performers face career droughts, sure, but they can also find themselves transformed overnight from working actor to star. During a tumultuous 2020, a handful of actors acquitted themselves brilliantly, leading or supporting more than one buzzy film or television series. We at Backstage enjoy saluting those hardworking stars, each year naming the list of screen MVPs. Without further ado, welcome to the Zendaya Awards!
Jim Carrey
Although no longer headlining every comedy feature, Carrey hasn’t hung up his hat for good. Far from it; he basically cannonballed into living rooms around the world, bringing his “Saturday Night Live” version of Joe Biden to life last fall. In addition to showing he still has the chops on his Showtime comedy series, “Kidding,” he also lent his can-do-anything persona to the animated box office hit “Sonic the Hedgehog.”
Lily Collins
It’s a trademark of Collins’ career that she never stays too long in one genre; 2020 showcased her ability to jump from one tone, era, and place to another. She stood out in the black-and-white “Mank” and firmly left her footprint in popular TV on “Emily in Paris,” in which she plays the series’ central fish out of water—with the impractical designer wardrobe to match.
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Her Role on ‘The Crown’
The Cast of “The Crown”
It’s no surprise that the ensemble of one of the most cinematic shows on TV, “The Crown,” can step easily into feature film roles. This was true in 2020 with Olivia Colman in “The Father,” Helena Bonham Carter in “Enola Holmes,” Josh O’Connor in “Emma.,” Charles Dance in “Mank,” and multihyphenate Emerald Fennell writing and directing “Promising Young Woman.”
Giancarlo Esposito
What TV show doesn’t Esposito appear on these days? In addition to the acclaimed films “Unpregnant” and “Stargirl,” everyone’s favorite villain lent distinct menace to a succession of bingeable series: “The Boys,” “The Mandalorian,” and, of course, “Better Call Saul,” as the iconic Gus Fring.
Piecing Together Giancarlo Esposito Julia Garner
When a casting director says they can’t describe why but they just know that someone is right, Garner is the shining example. She brings “it” to every role, making each of her performances unforgettable. Not only is she a twice-in-a-row Emmy winner for “Ozark”; she also starred in the Gotham Award–nominated indie “The Assistant,” a gutting portrayal of abuse of power in Hollywood that brings fiction almost too close to reality for comfort.
Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman
Scratching our murder-mystery itch better than any screen project this past year, HBO’s “The Undoing” let Kidman and Grant show off their thriller chops. Grant keeps pushing the limits of what he can do—and what his devoted audience can accept—both on this buzzy series and in the swanky “The Gentlemen.” Kidman, meanwhile, has made our MVP list for years now but shows no signs of slowing, reminding us of her musical bona fides in “The Prom” and continuing her powerhouse producing streak.
Jonathan Majors and Jurnee Smollett
You can tell if someone is a breakout star when they appear on a buzzy TV series, and you realize you’ve just seen them in a recent film you loved. “Lovecraft Country” stars Majors and Smollett became certified platinum in 2020. Spike Lee handpicked Majors for his Vietnam War epic “Da 5 Bloods,” while Smollett appeared on “The Twilight Zone” and knocked our socks off in “Birds of Prey.”
Leslie Odom Jr.
Freeform’s “Love in the Time of Corona.” Sia’s film “Music.” The Apple TV+ musical series “Central Park.” Regina King’s “One Night in Miami,” for which he’s already getting Oscar buzz. Everywhere you looked in 2020, there Odom was. And while Broadway audiences have known it was only a matter of time before he became a household name, now TV audiences know it, too: Disney+’s “Hamilton,” featuring Odom’s Tony-winning turn as Aaron Burr, remains one of the year’s highlights.
Pedro Pascal
“The Mandalorian” was a smash hit in its sophomore season thanks in large part to an actor who somehow commands attention while hardly ever showing his face. Between that primo quarantine-era Disney+ hit and his goofier turns in “Wonder Woman 1984” and “We Can Be Heroes,” it’s Pascal’s world, and we’re just lucky to be living in it.
Anya Taylor-Joy
If you look too long, you might fall into Taylor-Joy’s huge, cinematic eyes. Well, that can’t actually happen, but they are impossible to look away from, whether she’s playing the brassy Jane Austen heroine in “Emma.” or an unlikely chess prodigy from the 1960s American South on “The Queen’s Gambit.” At just 24 years old, Taylor-Joy has proved her mettle at the center of both a feature film and a Netflix series, and has left us wanting more in 2021.
The cast of “Troop Zero”
This charming Amazon Studios indie kicked off 2020, signaling an auspicious year for its cast. There’s no stopping lead youngster Mckenna Grace, who continued her stellar work on “Fuller House” and “Young Sheldon.” Allison Janney starred in “Bad Education” and extended her TV reign with “Mom,” while Jim Gaffigan cracked us up with his comedy special “The Pale Tourist.” And Viola Davis, the most V of all MVPs, ended her game-changing run on “How to Get Away With Murder” this year, only to follow it with Netflix’s documentary “Giving Voice” and another awards-caliber take on August Wilson with “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
Zendaya
Can Zendaya do any wrong? She is simply a force of nature. In 2020, she continued to prove her range, winning a historic Emmy Award for “Euphoria” as the damaged Rue and playing the titular Marie in “Malcolm & Marie.” Zendaya’s budding career, in which she has conquered screen genre after screen genre, has fully blossomed.
This story originally appeared in the Feb. 18 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe here.
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