When Sam Rockwell popped up in last week’s fifth episode of The White Lotus and delivered an instantly classic monologue, Emmy pundits assumed the actor would be a frontrunner to win the Best Drama Guest Actor category. But there’s one problem with that assumption: the Emmys have quirky rules.
Because of a regulation enacted in 2015, and recertified in 2024, only performers who appear in fewer than 50 percent of a show’s episodes are eligible to contend as a guest star. If someone appears in 50 percent or more, they must submit in supporting or lead. Gold Derby has confirmed that Rockwell appears in Episodes 5, 6, 7, and 8 of the eight-episode season, meaning he cannot be nominated as a guest star.
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HBO has declined to comment.
Here is the 2024 version of the ruling:
Guest Performers are defined as appearing in less than 50% of all eligible series episodes. To ensure that a guest performer’s role is significant to the episode being submitted, the following rule has been added for Guest Performer categories: “The minimum stand-alone and contiguous-screen time (performer has an ongoing engagement in the scene, on or off camera) for eligibility is 5% of the total running time of the submitted episode.”
The Hollywood Reporter was the first to report Rockwell’s ineligibility in the guest category.
Rockwell won the Oscar for Best Supporting actor in 2017 for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and he happens to be married to one of the stars of The White Lotus, Leslie Bibb, who plays Kate. Rockwell is also tight with Walton Goggins, who plays the troubled traveler Rick on the current incarnation of The White Lotus. The two share a storyline in the Mike White-penned series.
During the fifth episode, Rockwell made an unforgettable appearance as Frank, who reconnects with longtime friend Rick. Rick is seeking vengeance on the man he believes killed his father. Now sober, Frank shares with Rick his experiences in Thailand, including the fresh perspective he has gotten about his sexuality (watch below).
The lengthy speech already has both The White Lotus fans and costars calling for Rockwell to win his first Emmy Award. He was previously nominated for starring in and producing Fosse/Verdon (2019).
“I think initially there was someone else that was going to play this, and so when that didn’t work out for whatever reason, it was really only one person — and that was Sam Rockwell,” Goggins explained in an interview with Vanity Fair. Goggins and Rockwell’s friendship dates back 15 years to the feature film Cowboys & Aliens.
The first two season of The White Lotus won 15 total Emmy Awards. The program is used to category-switching at the Emmys, with its first cycle competing as a limited series and its second as a drama series. Supporting actress Jennifer Coolidge won both times, regardless of where she was submitted.
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