'I don't even believe in God, but I'm going to thank her tonight,' Newton said after beating out three 'Handmaid's Tale' stars.
Thandie Newton is an Emmy winner!
The 45-year-old actress took home her first Emmy at the 2018 awards show on Monday. It was Newton's second nomination for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series for her role as Maeve in Westworld -- and a big surprise considering she was up against three Handmaid's Tale stars (Ann Dowd, Alexis Bledel and Yvonne Strahovski).
"I don't even believe in God, but I'm going to thank her tonight," Newton said to applause from the crowd. "I am so blessed."
The actress seemed to let a swear word fly as the next sentence of her speech was bleeped, but she continued to thank those she worked with on Westworld. "I can't believe I'm here. The cast and crew of Westworld, I love you all so much. Lisa Joy, Jonah Nolan, Home Box Office. J.J. Abrams, our guardian angel," she said. "My family -- my daughter Ripley turns 18 today, and I get to guide you and love you and protect you, which is my North Star. I love you so much, baby; thank you for this."
Newton delivered the performance of her life in season two of Westworld, previously telling ET that the episode that earned her this year's Emmy nomination was "punishing." The episode followed Maeve as she traveled through Westworld's Japanese-themed counterpart, Shogun World, in search of her daughter.
“It was such a privilege and I loved every moment of it,” Newton said. She spent three weeks preparing for the episode, which was filmed mostly in Japanese, meeting with a language coach and receiving extra guidance from the episode’s guest stars, Hiroyuki Sanada and Rinko Kikuchi. “I swear to God, at first I was horrified … but I wanted to embody it,” she recalled.
“That's something I think we're going to be seeing in Westworld as it continues season after season, is how it just shines a gaze on a particular time in history, but also a particular filmmaker's tradition of filmmaking,” continued Newton, whose character died in the season two finale (though we're holding out hope for her return). “It's such a joyride for us as actors, and contributors too, because, more and more, they're opening up to allowing us to really collaborate with how we see our characters in these situations.”
“It's about self-awareness and self-determination," she added. "It's really powerful.”
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