Unusual Sam Altman critique appears in Betty Gilpin’s manic poem Emmy speech
During her Emmys acceptance speech, Betty Gilpin lobbed a pointed shot at a certain tech mogul — and the target’s name is one you definitely know.
Onstage at the Peacock Theater, Betty Gilpin accepted her Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy with something you don’t often hear at an awards show: a self-penned poem. The room really lit up at one pointed couplet that name-checked a tech CEO by name.
“Our business is stupid, but actors are the bomb. From Martindale to Milioti, my dad and my mom, to be cringe and elitist, which you’re free to find fault in. Let’s all lean toward Sam Shepard and less toward Sam Altman.”
The jab landed in a year when Hollywood has been loudly debating AI ’s place in filmmaking — and it drew a burst of applause before Gilpin moved on with her thanks.
The role that won it
Gilpin won for guest-starring on Widow’s Bay (Apple TV+ ) in the flashback episode “Our History,” playing Sarah Westcott Warren, the patient wife of town founder Richard Warren, portrayed by Hamish Linklater. The period hour pulls the series back to 1702, when Sarah arrives on the island to marry Richard and starts sensing that something is very wrong.
Across the episode, Sarah uncovers unexplained disappearances, strange illnesses and buried secrets she connects to her husband’s rumored pact with a demon. She makes a desperate bid to flee the island with Richard’s children — a plan that ends in tragedy, with Sarah and all but one of the kids losing their lives.
Backstage, Gilpin said the poem only existed because Linklater — who was also up for Guest Actor in a Comedy for the same episode — pushed her to prepare on the flight to Los Angeles. She didn’t think she’d win; he told her to write something anyway. The result, she joked, was a “manic poem.”
Her category featured a high-profile face-off between Apple TV+’s rising mystery and Max’s Hacks, with Kaitlin Olson widely forecast to take the trophy. Gilpin upset those predictions.
- Award — Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
- Show — Widow’s Bay (Apple TV+)
- Episode — “Our History” (flashback)
- Role — Sarah Westcott Warren
- Co-star also nominated — Hamish Linklater as Richard Warren
- Venue — Peacock Theater, Los Angeles
By the end of Night 2 of the 78th Emmys, Widow’s Bay had eight wins — more than any other program this year.