Atlanta‘s Teddy Perkins Made a Very Mysterious Appearance at the Emmys
Photo by Guy D'Alema/FX TV News emmys
The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards were presented on Monday night, and it would appear that one of the nominees went so far as to carry his performance into the awards ceremony itself: Someone appeared at the Emmys dressed as Teddy Perkins, Donald Glover’s unforgettably freaky character from Atlanta’s season two episode of the same name.
Teddy lives. pic.twitter.com/Bfe8acTR4u
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) September 18, 2018
Teddy Perkins sat front row at the show, even congratulating a nearby Bill Hader when he topped Glover to take home the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. (Find the full list of winners here.) Hader said backstage, “I don’t know who that was I hugged but it was the guy from Atlanta, he showed up.”
Teddy Perkins also loves Bill Hader. pic.twitter.com/YO30LnibPc
— Gilbert Cruz (@gilbertcruz) September 18, 2018
And despite the fact that Glover came up empty on the five awards for which he was nominated—in addition to Hiro Murai (pictured with Teddy below) losing out on a directing Emmy for “Teddy Perkins” itself—his show’s stunt ended up dominating the Emmys conversation regardless: While many assumed it was Glover himself under all that makeup, the dapper actor was seen elsewhere out of costume, sending numerous entertainment obsessives headfirst down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out who exactly it was in the Teddy Perkins get-up.
As Ben Schwartz pointed out, Teddy’s presence must have been far more unsettling for those not in on the Atlanta joke. Indeed, Paste’s Jacob Oller aptly described the character as “Lynchian uncanniness jammed into a Scrooge McDuck bathrobe” in his review of the episode.
The only thing more intense than Teddy Perkins being in the front row of the Emmys is trying to explain to someone who doesn’t watch Atlanta who Teddy Perkins is.
— Ben Schwartz (@rejectedjokes) September 18, 2018
Beneath it all, the question remains: Who played Teddy at the Emmys? Glover was seen elsewhere and has a beard that surely would play havoc with all that makeup. His Atlanta costar Lakeith Stanfield, too, was spotted at the ceremony at places and times that likely rule him out, as Vulture found. And both actors were seen alongside Teddy at an afterparty, further thickening an already impenetrable plot.
Most likely, the Atlanta crew enlisted some third party to play the character, but there’s one possibility that keeps dogging us … What if that was just Teddy?
No, that is I. https://t.co/vXfSxw2kWz
— Teddy Perkins (@TeddyPerkinsATL) September 18, 2018