‘Widow’s Bay’ Creator Katie Dippold & Star Matthew Rhys Are At A Loss For Words On Their Big Emmys Night: “This Is All Just A Pleasant Dream”

Widow’s Bay creator Katie Dippold and star Matthew Rhys, both of whom took home Emmy awards on Monday night for the Apple TV comedy series, were not sure what to make of their night while clutching their golden statuettes backstage and chatting with press.

“I’m slightly giddy, and I’m dizzy, and I genuinely can’t believe it,” Rhys said, having just made history with two acting wins in the same night. “I hope to reflect on it tomorrow. At the moment, I genuinely can’t quite believe what’s just happened. I’ll get back to you about the reflection.”

He laughed about “stumbling for words, because I really don’t have them at the moment.”

“I’m from a small country, and I’m glad we get moments to put our flag on the map and say we punch higher than our weight sometimes in Wales,” he said.

Most of all, Rhys says he’s just really glad the audience got it.

“I think it was a fragile tone to get, and one that worried all of us,” he said of the horror comedy, crediting director Hiro Murai (who also won) for his “steerage and helmsmanship that kind of got us there.”

At this point in the night, the team was still waiting on the results in the Outstanding Comedy Series category. Dippold took home the trophy for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series, describing the show’s rollout this year as “crazy.”

“I always just aim for a the absence of humiliation when something comes out,” she said. “So the hearing that people like it would have been a huge win, and so hearing people say it’s their favorite show — it’s beyond what I would have imagined.”

If the show does win the big prize at the end of the night, it’ll set a record for most wins from any comedy series in a single year with 14 trophies.

That was a reality Dippold wasn’t quite ready to contend with yet, telling reporters: “If I say anything, I’m just going to put a nail in the coffin. I know it. That would be incredible. I refuse to get ahead of myself, but that would absolutely be crazy, especially for this little haunted island show I wanted to do for so long…I’m just going to assume I’m in a coma, and this is all just a pleasant dream.”

Dippold and the Widow’s Bay writers will return to work on Season 2 on Tuesday. Whether they prevail in that final category or not, she thinks a night at the Emmys will certainly invigorate the room, if only because they can finally put Season 1 behind them and trek full steam ahead on the new episodes.

“It’s going to be great. If I’m being completely honest, I’m looking forward to just being nothing but creative, you know, putting on sweatpants, eating snacks…” Dippold said. “I know all the writers are really excited, and a lot of them are here, and so I think it will help. I think it’s hard not to be just inspired and motivated to work harder when something like this happens. It’s so rare, so we’re going to be very excited tomorrow.”

She didn’t say much about what to expect from the future of the series, coyly telling reporters that “it’s been even more fun.”