Harrison Ford Deserved Better From the Emmy Nominations

In many ways, 2023 has been the year of Harrison Ford — unless you ask the Emmys. The veteran actor, who celebrates his 81st birthday on July 13, has had quite the renaissance over the past few months, leading two high-profile TV shows and a blockbuster action movie. He therapized alongside Jason Segel and Jessica Williams in Apple TV+'s Shrinking, and led the Dutton family and their ranch through extreme hardship alongside Helen Mirren on Paramount+'s 1923. And in the fifth and final Indiana Jones movie, he reprised his role as Indiana Motherflippin' Jones. At all times, he was giving us classic Harrison Ford, and at many times, he was giving us even more. He's a celebrity worthy of his A-list status, but he's also a damn good actor. And yet, he was completely left out of the 2023 Emmy nominations. 

1923 was snubbed entirely, alongside every other Taylor Sheridan show, despite great performances by both Ford and Mirren in the Yellowstone prequel. But Shrinking earned nominations for both Segel and Williams, leaving Ford out — and on the eve of his birthday, too. Awards voters traditionally love a big star, so what is it about this particular big star that didn't catch their attention? Is it Star Wars fatigue? Or a general disdain for action heroes, regardless of any other characters they play? 

Ford has never been nominated for an Emmy, and his only Oscar nod was in 1986 for the movie Witness, despite a long and respected career. If two well-received TV shows and a revival of a beloved character at the age of 80 aren't enough to get the guy some recognition, is anything? What does the man have to do? 

Of course, there are many other deserving actors who constantly find themselves snubbed by Hollywood's major awards, and perhaps it feels a bit tone-deaf to complain about an elderly white man not getting nominated. And if it's this hard for Harrison Ford, how hard does a person who's not Harrison Ford have to work for it? Do the awards even mean anything at all? (Now there's a question for another essay.)

Perhaps the only answer at this point is for Ford to star in the next season of The White Lotus. And while we're at it, put Helen Mirren on it, too. Emmys for all.