Congratulations to Trent on his Emmy Pre-Nomination! He truly deserves it, and I believe this is his year to win!
After watching actors’ submissions in the past and seeing who has won over the years with certain material, I’ve come to these conclusions:
Emmy judges seem to pick winners based on episodes that not only have a lot of drama, controversy, and gripping plot, but also have a lot of obstacles for the actors themselves to overcome. They usually do not have a lot of down-time, i.e. unnecessary filler scenes. Winning submissions are also usually episodes that have that one defining moment in which you are stunned by what happens; whether it’s a reaction or an action – it’s that one “Wow!” factor that usually does it.
As well as Trent does comedy, it is unfortunately overlooked and underrated with Emmy judges. I feel in order for him to win, the best strategy is to go easy on the comedy/over-the-top side, and instead submit two dramatic episodes (as opposed to one of each, as in the past) that have just a little bit of humor or light-heartedness, in order to show the judges how versatile he is in comparison to the other actors in his category - without shying away in either episode from the key Emmy points that are usually judged. With that in mind, and after going over all of Trent’s clips from last year, here are my suggested picks for his episode submissions:
5/20/09 – Henry tries to right a wrong by winning back the $10,000 Katie and Brad lost in the adoption lawyer’s scam. He goes to Katie’s to offer them their money back only to learn that while he was working so hard to repair his friendship with Katie and Brad, Vienna miscarried their child while also trying to apologize to Katie. The defining moment is the switch in Henry from total happiness and pride in being able to help his friends out, after feeling so guilty, to total devastation and then resentment. Trent’s character goes from joy to sorrow to anger in a matter of a few minutes. The fact that he doesn’t shout throughout the entire argument his character has shows great skill and control. Instead, he allows the anger to slowly and quietly build before he lets it explode. Henry lashes out at Katie all of his built up feelings he’s had about their history with each other. Later on he shows his character’s softer side when comforting Vienna and grieving himself by watching a video he had made for his unborn child. The fact that Henry struggled with the fear of having a child/being a father until he found out Vienna was pregnant with his child instead of Brad’s (as a surrogate), and then was extremely excited about it, makes this episode even more emotional.
12/11/09 – Ghost Brad takes over Henry’s body. Henry struggles to get it back and fails. Brad tries to not give himself away and tries to act like Henry and goes to see Katie and Jacob. The defining moment is when Brad finally has the chance to see Katie again and to hold his child for the first time. Trent plays all of this perfectly with just the right emotion. He has all of AP’s mannerisms (as Brad) down, so viewers can distinctly tell the difference between Henry as Henry, Henry as Brad, and Henry as Brad trying to act like Henry. There is just the right combination of drama with a touch of light-hearted comedy, as well as the skill of portraying two characters at the same exact time, in this episode to give him a great edge over the rest.
Princess Sparky, where have you been? I've missed you and your wonderful contributions to Trent's website.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. A lot of actors don't do comedy well, but Trent does it ALL so well. And although I enjoyed the Geneva episodes, I love the two clips you had chosen because I believe they show him at his very best.
And, of course, I would like nothing better than to see Katie and Henry finish out ATWT together. Long live Kenry!
Thanks so much for taking the time to give such a succint analysis. Let's hear more from you in the future.
