Will Antony Starr (‘The Boys’) parlay Critics Choice bid into Emmy nomination?

Marcus James Dixon
·3 min read
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The Best Drama Actor line-up is one of the toughest to predict at the 2023 Emmys, as the last two winners — Lee Jung-jae (“Squid Game”) and Josh O’Connor (“The Crown”) — won’t be back to reclaim their prizes. That opens up the door for a whole host of new and returning leading men to contend for the gold, and one person who shouldn’t be counted out is Antony Starr (“The Boys”). He was recently nominated at the Critics Choice Awards for the first time, proving he’s an actor on the rise thanks to the popular Amazon Prime Video comic book adaptation.

During “The Boys” Season 3, Starr’s character Homelander, an egotistical narcissist who masquerades as a patriotic superhero, takes center stage as Butcher’s (Karl Urban) group of renegades tries to kill him with the help of a long-thought-dead superhero named Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). Homelander’s entire existence is later flipped on its head when he learns that Soldier Boy is really his father.

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The best part of “The Boys” is that no one is ever presented as 100% good or 100% bad, and that’s never more evident than in the Homelander-Soldier Boy storyline. When Homelander learns the truth about his father, Starr chews up the scenery with Emmy-worthy aplomb as his character goes through every emotion imaginable, including our personal favorite, murderous rage (RIP Black Noir). Emmy voters, are you paying attention?

Starr’s co-nominees at the Critics Choice Awards were Jeff Bridges (“The Old Man”), Sterling K. Brown (“This Is Us”), Diego Luna (“Andor”), Adam Scott (“Severance”) and eventual winner Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”). Only four of those men can contend at the upcoming Emmys — Starr, Bridges, Luna and Odenkirk — due to the different eligibility periods of the awards shows.

SEESAG Awards nominee profile: ‘The Boys’ would be second superhero show to win for stunts

Potentially joining Starr in the roster of Best Drama Actor Emmy nominees will be the likes of Brian Cox (“Succession”), Jeremy Strong (“Succession”), Pedro Pascal (“The Last of Us”), Paddy Considine (“House of the Dragon”), Matthew Rhys (“Perry Mason”), Harrison Ford (“1923”), Kevin Costner (“Yellowstone”) and Dominic West (“The Crown”). Note that both Strong and Rhys have won this category before, for “Succession” (2020) and “The Americans” (2018), respectively.

Also in Starr’s favor is the fact that Season 3 of “The Boys” nabbed the highest critics’ reviews to date, with a 98% score at Rotten Tomatoes (compared to 85% for Season 1 and 97% at Season 2). As for specific reviews about the actor’s performance, Ana Yorke (PopMatters) singles out his “extraordinary turn” as the “demonic yet magnetic Homelander.” And Brandon Collins (Medium Popcorn) raves, “Antony Starr is incredible. One of the best TV villains EVER.”

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