How ‘The Afterparty’ could boost Paul Walter Hauser’s Emmy chances for ‘Black Bird’

Luca Giliberti
·5 min read
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Season 2 of “The Afterparty” may not be eligible at the Emmys until next year, but it could very well help one of its cast members prevail for a completely different show at the 2023 awards (that will be held in 2024).

Paul Walter Hauser has been the odds-on favorite to take home the Best Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actor prize for Apple TV+’s “Black Bird” basically all season long. And for good reason. He has triumphed at almost every occasion leading up to the Emmys, having raked in wins at the Critics Choice and Golden Globe Awards. His only loss so far has been at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where he fell to “1883” star Sam Elliott, but he was always going to have a tough time claiming the victory there as the lone supporting player in the single limited series/TV movie actor lineup who was also up against his “Black Bird” co-star Taron Egerton.

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But that doesn’t necessarily mean Hauser has the Emmy locked up. Though “Black Bird” earned a respectable three bids for acting — the other two for Egerton in lead and Ray Liotta posthumously in supporting — it received only four in total, missing out in all other above-the-line categories, including Best Limited Series. While Hauser wouldn’t be the first person to win this category without his series shortlisted for the top honor, it’s worth noting that the champ has come from a program nominee six of seven times since the popular vote system was instated in 2016, with 2019 winner Ben Whishaw (“A Very English Scandal”) being the only outlier. This trend could give the edge to one of Hauser’s three rivals who are in series contenders — Joseph Lee and Young Mazino of projected frontrunner “Beef” and Richard Jenkins of No. 2 “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” — not least because their shows also still appear to be more top of mind than “Black Bird” at the moment. Of all the series represented in the category, the gritty crime drama, which premiered in July 2022, came out the earliest and could be a distant memory for voters by now (Liotta, “Welcome to Chippendales'” Murray Bartlett and “Love & Death’s” Jesse Plemons round out the lineup).

SEE Paul Walter Hauser says ‘people-watching’ prepared him to play serial killer on ‘Black Bird’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

This is where “The Afterparty” could come into play and give Hauser a last-minute boost. The 10-episode second installment of the Apple TV+ murder mystery comedy premiered with two episodes on July 12, the day Emmy nominations were announced, and will run through Sept. 6. This means it will have aired throughout the entirety of Phase 2, including during final voting, which began on Aug. 17 and closes on Aug. 28. So if voters have been tuning in to the new season of the anthology series, they have been watching Hauser deliver what is arguably another awards-worthy turn throughout the past few weeks.

Hauser joined “The Afterparty” in Season 2 as Travis Gladrise, an avid Redditor with a fondness for digging into murders who becomes a murder suspect himself after his ex-girlfriend Grace’s (Poppy Liu) new husband, Edgar (Zach Woods), is found dead the morning after their wedding. The role allows Hauser to fully flex his comedic muscles, especially in the third outing of the season, “Travis,” in which his character tells his version of events in the style of a black-and-white noir crime drama (watch a clip below). It’s a full-on showcase for Hauser that was released early enough — on July 19 — for Emmy voters to have caught up with it before the start of voting and goes a long way in highlighting the performer’s range.

After all, his role on “Black Bird” could not be more different from Travis. On the six-part series — which is based on James Keene‘s 2010 memoir that he wrote with Hillel Levin, “In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer” — Hauser plays Larry Hall, a convicted serial killer and rapist accused of murdering 14 women. He completely disappears into the character, playing the alleged murderer with a breathy, high-pitched voice — one that, Hauser told Gold Derby last year, he based on only around 10 to 12 seconds of available audio and you can hear in the clip below — and imbuing him with an enigmatic quality that keeps you on the edge of your seat before unleashing the true monster in him you know is underneath. It’s the type of transformative work that actors in the TV academy typically eat up and may not be able to resist if it’s still front of mind for them.

So, if nothing else, Hauser’s appearance in Season 2 of “The Afterparty” could remind Emmy voters of his versatility as an actor and give them a renewed incentive to recognize him for his career-defining performance on “Black Bird.”

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