Robin Wright’s final stint on “House of Cards” is getting some love from her fellow actors.
Wright’s performance as U.S. President Claire Underwood, in a final season that saw the veteran actor pushed to the front of the show after Kevin Spacey was fired following allegations of sexual abuse, has been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. The announcements were made this morning in Los Angeles.
In the contest for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, Wright will be up against Julia Garner (“Ozark”), Laura Linney (“Ozark”), Elizabeth Moss (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) and Sandra Oh (“Killing Eve”).
Although reaction to the eight-episode sixth and final season of “House of Cards” has been mixed, Wright has been roundly praised for her tough-as-nails performance as Claire Underwood, the former First Lady who had been unexpectedly elevated to the presidency after her husband, Spacey’s ever-conniving Frank Underwood, resigned at the end of season five. As season six opened, Frank Underwood was literally dead and buried and the new president was fighting to consolidate her power, while also trying to fend off political opponents who saw her as vulnerable. (Spoiler alert: she wasn’t.)
“House of Cards” has been filmed in the Baltimore area its entire run. When Spacey was fired from the series in November 2017, it at first appeared unlikely that work on the final episodes would be completed. But Wright and others urged producers to continue. Season six debuted on Netflix last Nov. 2.
Despite her strong performance under trying circumstances, Wright was not nominated for a Golden Globe when the Hollywood Foreign Press Associations announced its nominees earlier this month. But the nod from SAG shows that her fellow actors, at least, appreciate her work.
Wright has won a Golden Globe for playing Claire Underwood, and been nominated for Emmys. She ‘s never won a SAG Award for “House of Cards,” although this is her fifth straight nomination.
No other performance on “House of Cards” received a SAG nomination, but an alum from the show did get a nod. Mahershala Ali, who spent fours seasons as White House Chief of Staff Remy Danton, was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, for the movie “Green Book.”
The Screen Actors Guild Awards will air live on TNT and TBS Jan. 27.