path Allen has walked before<\/a>. She won a Daytime Emmy earlier in her career for a self-submitted turn on the soap opera \u201cAll My Children.\u201d HBO has also seen self-submitting pay off for actors in the past. In 2019, three performers submitted themselves for the final season of HBO\u2019s fantasy juggernaut \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d: Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy) and Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth) landed in the supporting drama races, while Carice van Houten (Melisandre) was nominated for guest drama actress. Another example came in 2018, when Kelly Jenrette earned a guest drama actress nom for her role as Annie in the sophomore season of Hulu\u2019s dystopian drama \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tAllen, who grew up in a suburb of Toronto with no family ties to the business, has made a habit of thriving when written off. It is a posture she leaned into throughout her campaign for Roxy.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI tend to do well when I\u2019m in an underdog position, and this business gives you plenty of opportunities to be put in that position,\u201d she shares. \u201cI get fired up when I get a no. I see doors close around me, and I go, \u2018Wait a minute, no. I want to be on the other side of that door. I\u2019m going to kick it down.\u2019 It reminds me of my own capabilities and my own power.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe role itself, she says, remains the achievement that matters most.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBringing Roxy\u2019s storyline to the screen was one of the greatest honors of my career and of my life, to be able to tell a story that all of us will face in one form or another,\u201d Allen says. \u201cTo feel the reaction of people who were touched by it has been a great, deep honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHer message to performers still chasing a break was direct.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cJust keep going. Keep honing your craft,\u201d she says. \u201c\u2018The Pitt\u2019 came about because I just stuck with it year after year. I didn\u2019t let the rejections make me run back home. I stayed here and kept focusing on the work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\n\tKober, 72, arrives at his nomination four decades into a career built on scene-stealing guest turns across prestige television, from \u201cNYPD Blue\u201d to \u201cER\u201d to \u201cLost.\u201d He earned a Daytime Emmy in 2022 for \u201cGeneral Hospital,\u201d another prize won through self-submission, and he approached the morning of the nominations with characteristic calm, choosing to spend it with a group that practices spiritual living rather than watch the announcement.<\/p>\n
\n\tHis longtime manager delivered the news.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI was happier for her than I was for myself. She was crying,\u201d Kober says. \u201cShe\u2019s the one in the trenches all the time, seeing something in her clients that she wants other people so desperately to see. Every once in a while, it all lines up, and this is one of those times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tKober\u2019s path to the role was a sprint. He landed the audition on a Wednesday morning with hours to turn it around.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI got a call at 9:30 and the audition had to be in at 5 o\u2019clock that evening. I cleared my calendar, worked on these six pages and shot it that afternoon,\u201d he recalls. \u201cWhen I went to put it together to send it in, my microphone batteries were dead, so I had to do it again. But it was perfect, because something magical happened that last time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLike Allen, Kober framed his decision to self-submit as a matter of conviction rather than calculation.
\u201cI just felt like I wanted this to be seen, regardless of the consequences or the outcome. I felt like it was strong work, and I wanted it to be seen,\u201d he says. \u201cOne of the great things about being an actor is the constant work of bringing the definition of yourself inside rather than needing to find it outside. When you don\u2019t need approval, you\u2019ve got your own back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe was philosophical about the timing of the recognition.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been blessed to have lots of opportunities over the last 40 years. Every eight or 10 years or so, you get a job where you really get to fly with it. It\u2019s in your wheelhouse, you find yourself in the pocket and everything supports the work,\u201d Kober says. \u201cThis is just a time when that happened, and it got seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAs for his future on \u201cThe Pitt,\u201d with Season 3 currently in production, he does not expect to return.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe script has not crossed my desk, so I don\u2019t believe I\u2019m a part of season three. Maybe I die off-screen, I don\u2019t know,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut so far I\u2019m not a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHowever, he would jump at the chance to come back.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOh my god, yeah. I love that character, and I love the relationship with Noah Wyle\u2019s Dr. Robby,\u201d Kober says. \u201cIt really was so very special in every way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBoth nominees now head into the phase two campaign for a series that suddenly cannot forget either of them. Allen received a congratulatory email during our interview. Kober, who at the time of the interview had not yet heard directly from the network, though it had reached out to his manager, put it plainly.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSomeone sent me a picture of myself with a nomination, with HBO on it,\u201d he says. \u201cI guess they\u2019re aware of me now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThose two self-submissions proved decisive. They handed \u201cThe Pitt\u201d two additional nominations, lifting its total to 25 and nearly doubling its haul from its inaugural year. HBO Max\u2019s \u201cHacks\u201d finished close behind with 24. Without Allen and Kober, \u201cThe Pitt\u201d would not be the leading series of the day. <\/p>\n
\n\tLast year\u2019s guest drama actor winner, Shawn Hatosy of \u201cThe Pitt,\u201d announced that he would submit his role as Dr. Jack Abbott in the supporting drama actor category for Season 2, where he was ultimately nominated.<\/p>\n
\n\tFinal-round voting takes place Aug. 17-26 ahead of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards and Governors Gala on Sept. 5-6. The Primetime Emmy Awards will air Sept. 14 on NBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollywood, meet the King and Queen of Emmy self-submissions. When HBO Max notified \u201cThe Pitt\u201d guest cast members…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[70348,6491,1825,96,227522,62820,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-681564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-brittany-allen","tag-celebrities","tag-emmys","tag-entertainment","tag-jeff-kober","tag-the-pitt","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}