Don Cheadle Reacts To Emmy Nomination For 98-Second ‘Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Appearance

Don Cheadle is a great actor. He’s also one of Hollywood’s all-time nice guys. After 11 Emmy nominations and no wins, he surely deserves a little love.

He got it Tuesday with an unexpected Emmy nomination for his 98-second cameo in the premiere episode of Marvel’s Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

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Cheadle was as surprised as anyone, tweeting, “thanks, well wishers. sorry, haters. agreed, 🤷🏿‍♂️ers. i don’t really get it either. buuuuuuuuuut on we go…”

Some compared Cheadle’s nomination to Judi Dench’s Oscar win in 1999 for her scene-stealing eight-minute turn in Shakespeare in Love. Accepting her award, Dench said, “I feel for eight minutes on the screen, I should only get a little bit of him.” Cheadle’s reaction to his Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series nomination was similarly self-effacing.

The actor’s appearance on the show’s premiere episode created added continuity for fans of the Marvel movies. The actor first appeared as Colonel James Rupert “Rhodey” Rhodes — and his alter ego War Machine — in 2010’s Iron Man 2. He has been a steadying presence for fans — and Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark — through seven films.

In his 98 seconds on Falcon, Cheadle’s Rhodey Rhodes has a pivotal conversation with Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson about becoming Captain America. It’s a quiet moment as far as superhero scripts go, but it’s freighted with all the history and baggage the characters have from the Avengers films. There’s also the undercurrent of the significance of a Black man taking up Captain America’s iconic shield.

As Rhodey says to Sam in parting as they look at the shield and the star-spangled costume: “A new day, brother.”

Watch it below.

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