Making history. Nathan Lane just broke a major record for the Primetime Emmy Awards – and it’s all thanks to his work as Teddy Dimas on Only Murders are allowed in the Building.
Three-time Tony winner, 66 was nominated for his seventh Emmy nomination in July for Outstanding Guest Actor In a Comedy Series. This made him the most well-known actor in this category.
“I’m old,” Lane joked about the achievement during an interview with Gold DerbyIt was at that time. “It means I’ve gotten very old, older than I’ve ever wanted to be. It’s a lovely thing. I mean, it sounds impressive until you actually realize I haven’t actually won. But it’s nice to be invited to the party and be part of the conversation for sure. It has a lot in common with the quality of your show. Only Murders are allowed in the Building.”
The mystery-comedy series was created by Steve MartinAnd John Hoffmanhe follows three strangers: Charles, Martin, and OliverMartin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) as their love for true crime podcasts leads them to solve a real murder.
The ProducersStar plays Teddy, the Upper West Side’s deli king and arch nemesis to Oliver. He agrees to sponsor Oliver’s new podcast with Charles and Mabel, but quickly gets implicated in the murder of Tim Kono (Julian Chi). The seventh episode of season one, “The Boy from 6B,” served as Lane’s Emmy submission and is told from the perspective of Teddy’s deaf son Theo (James Caverly).
Charles says only one word in the final minutes. The rest of the hour is completely dialogue-free. It also offers a deep look into the father-son relationship between Teddy and Theo. Lane, for his part, had six weeks to learn American Sign Language for the role — something he referred to as a “thrilling challenge.”
“Sometimes they would change things and you would go, ‘Oh, don’t do that. It took me long enough to learn the first version,’” he quipped to Gold Derby. “Very often, they wrote things that were hard to translate to American Sign Language and [ASL coach] Doug [Ridloff]It was necessary to reinterpret some things. You don’t want to embarrass yourself and you want to make it look as if you’ve been doing this for a while, but one of the helpful things about the character of Teddy Dimas was he was someone who was ashamed he had a deaf son and didn’t learn American Sign Language for a long time, so he’s not supposed to be so great at it.”
The New York native credits his success to Ridloff, Caverly, his 24-year-old scene partner, and Lane. “So much of what I had to do is about that relationship and my work with him, so I like to think this is a nomination for the both of us,” the Lion King voice actor explained.
While Lane’s 2022 Emmy nomination is attached to his performance from the show’s first season, the Modern FamilyIn 2023, the alum will also become eligible for season 2, in that he played the role as Dimas. However, for now, Lane is focused on his current nomination — and hopefully taking home his first ever Primetime win.
