"I mean, the competition is really created by the buzz around the Emmys. It's a totally subjective thing"
About this Quote
Hall punctures the Emmy mystique with the casual precision of someone who’s watched the machine from the inside. The key move is his framing: “competition” isn’t an inherent reality of the work; it’s “created” by “buzz.” That word choice shifts the Emmys from arbiter to amplifier. Awards culture, he implies, doesn’t simply recognize excellence so much as manufacture a storyline where art is forced to behave like sport.
The hedge of “I mean” matters, too. It’s not a manifesto; it’s an actor shrugging at an industry ritual he knows he’s still participating in. That shrug is the subtext: he’s both skeptical and stuck. You can hear the double-awareness of prestige TV’s boom years, when awards weren’t just ego fuel but economic leverage - the difference between a show being “important” and being merely watched. In that ecosystem, buzz is currency, and “competition” is a marketing format that keeps the currency moving.
Calling it “totally subjective” isn’t naïve; it’s strategic honesty. Hall isn’t arguing that awards are worthless, he’s disputing the pretense of objectivity that lets the whole enterprise feel fair. Performance is difficult to quantify, taste is tribal, campaigns exist, narratives calcify. By naming subjectivity outright, he undercuts the idea that losing means failure or winning means proof.
In context, it reads like self-preservation and cultural critique at once: a way to resist the psychic trap of validation while gently exposing the Emmys as what they often are - a consensus-building exercise dressed up as a contest.
The hedge of “I mean” matters, too. It’s not a manifesto; it’s an actor shrugging at an industry ritual he knows he’s still participating in. That shrug is the subtext: he’s both skeptical and stuck. You can hear the double-awareness of prestige TV’s boom years, when awards weren’t just ego fuel but economic leverage - the difference between a show being “important” and being merely watched. In that ecosystem, buzz is currency, and “competition” is a marketing format that keeps the currency moving.
Calling it “totally subjective” isn’t naïve; it’s strategic honesty. Hall isn’t arguing that awards are worthless, he’s disputing the pretense of objectivity that lets the whole enterprise feel fair. Performance is difficult to quantify, taste is tribal, campaigns exist, narratives calcify. By naming subjectivity outright, he undercuts the idea that losing means failure or winning means proof.
In context, it reads like self-preservation and cultural critique at once: a way to resist the psychic trap of validation while gently exposing the Emmys as what they often are - a consensus-building exercise dressed up as a contest.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
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