Edgar Ramirez (‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’) could cash in his Emmy IOU after his loss for ‘Carlos’

According to our racetrack odds, Edgar Ramirez is the Emmy front-runner for Best Movie/Mini Supporting Actor for playing the title character in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” The FX true-crime drama is the favorite to win Best Limited Series, so it stands to reason that voters would also recognize Versace himself. But there’s another reason the TV academy might want to check off his name: to make up for his loss for “Carlos” seven years ago.

The Venezuelan actor made appearances in “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007) and “Che” (2008) before his international breakthrough role as the title character in “Carlos,” a real-life political terrorist in the 1970s who was finally arrested in 1994 and is currently serving a life sentence in prison. Directed by French auteur Olivier Assayas, the series received widespread acclaim, including kudos from the film world. Ramirez won the Cesar Award for Best Actor and was a finalist at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and National Society of Film Critics Awards.

“Carlos” won the Golden Globe for Best Movie/Miniseries in 2011, but when the Emmy nominations came around a few months later it was snubbed from that top category. The only nominations it received were for Ramirez’s lead performance and for Assayas’s direction.

Despite that shortfall Ramirez was considered a strong contender for Best Movie/Mini Actor, but that race took almost everyone by surprise when Barry Pepper came out of nowhere to win for playing Robert F. Kennedy in “The Kennedys.” He even beat his co-star Greg Kinnear, who had the more iconic role as John F. Kennedy.

Now Ramirez could cash in his Emmy IOU for playing another title character. “Assassination” tells the story of Andrew Cunanan (played by Movie/Mini Actor front-runner Darren Criss), who ended his cross-country killing spree by murdering famous fashion designer Versace in Miami in 1997. Based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users Ramirez is out front with 10/3 odds.

But it’s a much closer race when you ask our Experts. We’ve polled 18 Expert journalists from top media outlets for their picks, and only seven of them are predicting Ramirez will win: Debbie Day (Rotten Tomatoes), Pete Hammond(Deadline Hollywood), Chris Harnick (E!), Matthew Jacobs (Huffington Post), Tom O’Neil (Gold Derby), Lynette Rice (Entertainment Weekly) and Robert Rorke (New York Post).

Compare that to Jeff Daniels, who is backed by eight Experts for his villainous role in the Netflix western “Godless“: Eric Deggans (NPR), Lynn Elber(Associated Press), Joyce Eng (Gold Derby), Matt Roush (TV Guide Magazine), Anne Thompson (IndieWire), Ben Travers (IndieWire), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) and Ken Tucker (Yahoo).

That would be ironic. In 2011 Ramirez played a killer and lost to a man who played the victim of an assassination. This time around he plays the victim, and he could lose to a killer. Do you think Ramirez will pull it out, or will he have to wait to cash in his Emmy IOU another day?

Edgar Ramirez (‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’) could cash in his Emmy IOU after his loss for ‘Carlos’