Clement’s Award Confusion
By WENNSaturday, October 31, 2009
FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS star JEMAINE CLEMENT wasn’t impressed with his Emmy nomination earlier this year (09) - because he had never heard of the prestigious TV awards.
The New Zealand-born star and his comedy partner Bret McKenzie have attracted critical acclaim and a cult following in the U.S. for their quirky series, with Clement landing a nomination in the Outstanding Lead Actor category at the 2009 Emmys.
But he admits he wasn’t bothered when he lost out to 30 Rock funnyman Alec Baldwin at the September (09) ceremony - because he hadn’t even heard of the Emmy awards.
He tells AVClub.com, “A couple of years ago, we didn’t even know what the Emmys was. They said ‘the Emmys,’ and we were like, ‘Oh, cool. What’s that?’ I honestly mix them up with the Grammys. There’s an interview I did in New Zealand when we were nominated for a Grammy, and I said, ‘Yeah, it’s so great to be nominated for an Emmy.’ And Bret goes, ‘No, a Grammy.’ I didn’t know. We don’t really have a reference for them.”
And the actor admits his pal McKenzie knows even less about popular culture.
He adds, “Neither of us really care about that thing (the awards) - but particularly him. He doesn’t even watch TV. I don’t have a TV, but when we’ll have meetings, and they’ll talk about other shows, he’ll know Friends or Seinfeld, or something really big and famous, but he doesn’t know anything about TV. He’s barely watched it. I grew up in front of a TV.”
The duo received a Grammy award in 2008 for their comedy album The Distant Future.
