First-time Emmy winner Henry Winkler was so excited, he carried a cue card memorializing his win backstage at the Microsoft Theater Monday evening, along with his golden statuette.
“This is so wonderful I can’t even begin to tell you,” Winkler said of his supporting actor win for his portrayal of an acting teacher unknowingly coaching an assassin in the HBO comedy “Barry.”
“I think that I have the longest drought between nominations of anyone in the Academy … I was 27 when I started doing the Fonz and now I’m 72, standing here with her,” Winkler said, pointing to the Emmy statuette.
The actor was last officially nominated for an acting award in 1978, though he was briefly nominated in 2000 for work that was later deemed ineligible because of the timing. He is still probably best known for his starring role as The Fonz in the 70s-era hit television comedy “Happy Days.”
Asked to offer advice to young actors, Winkler said, “Being a star has nothing to do with what we do,” though he acknowledged that stardom was what finally convinced his parents he made the right career choice.
“Be yourself, be honest about your ability, prepare so that you are not a flash in the pan,” he said.
The actor joked that his own choices were limited.
“I’m very dyslexic … I don’t know that I could have done anything else,” he said.
“My mind and my mouth are not always friends,” Winkler said, telling reporters about how Bill Hader, who co-created and stars in “Barry,” begs him to read his lines as written instead of ad libbing.
But he praised Hader’s work.
“When he is producing and directing, he is not a comedian, he is focused and serious,” Winkler said.
Hader also won an Emmy Monday night for his starring role as Barry, an assassin trying to access his feelings as an aspiring actor.
As excited as Winkler was about his win, it’s the day-to-day work of acting that he says truly thrills him.
“(It’s) an amazing challenge … to create a living, breathing human being,” he said.