Emmys 2017 picks: Ron Cephas Jones should win Supporting Actor in a Drama
Give Ron Cephas Jones the 2017 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his performance as William on This Is Us.
Look, we cry a lot watching This Is Us. Everyone does. It’s kind of the show’s thing. We all embrace it. And no 45 minutes of Pearson drama made us cry more than “Memphis,” the extremely emotional road trip slash bucket list episode in which Randall and William visit the latter’s hometown, interspersed with flashbacks to William’s childhood with his mother, his move to Pittsburgh, meeting Randall’s mother and the development of their respective drug addictions. Oh, and then, in the present, before he can see the ducks, he’s hospitalized, gives his son a helluva goodbye speech and then DIES.
The “Memphis” episode alone would be case-enough to give Ron Cephas Jones, who plays William Hill on the NBC show, an Emmy, really to give him any award he wants. But the reason the episode packed such an emotional punch — besides the fact of the This Is Us producers are master manipulators and we have total Stockholm Syndrome — is the work Jones did over the course of the season to break his character out of stereotype and stock and create a fan favorite on a show full of favorites.
In an interview after his nomination for the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series was announced, Jones told Gold Derby how, on paper, William can come off as a cliche: “African American man, drug addict, on the skids, having not provided well in his life.”
But it’s the job of any actor to raise a character out of stereotype, as well as the writing allows you to. And so what made Jones’ performance so enjoyable wasn’t just that he quickly dispensed with the absent black father trope, but how quickly he made those aspects the least interesting or notable things about his character. You could just as well describe him and his past without ever mentioning the drugs or the abandonment.
In the present day, his storyline was not defined by the tragedy or trauma of his diagnosis or his past. He was a perfect foil to Randall and his nerdy and often anxious ways. But his performance wasn’t confined to Randall either. His scenes with Randall’s girls were adorable, his advice to Kevin was heartfelt and sincere. William and Beth shared some of the most humorous moments of the entire series. Their relationship was a sneaky highlight of the show that you, perhaps like her, didn’t fully recognize until he was gone — her struggle with not getting to say goodbye and his postcard was heartbreaking. And he had his own life, explored both in “Memphis” but also with his cat and Jessie. (His sexuality was also one of the most casual depictions of being bi on TV.) And when, after his death, the postman and various strangers spoke to Randall about how William had changed their lives, it was news to Randall, and us, but not surprising.
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Jones made William the kind of character, person, with whom you wanted to spend time. He made William into a character you wanted in your family and you could immediately understand the impact he had on Randall and everyone else in his orbit in such a short time. Because he had a similar impact on you, over the course of the season.
The drama, the plot — the drugs, the abandonment, the death — was far from the most memorable thing about Jones’ performance on This Is Us. He was smart, caring, creative — a musician, a poet, a partner. And it was his performance of those attributes that made him such a joy to watch.