Paul Walter Hauser Calls Late Costar Ray Liotta a 'Rolex' in Poignant, Poetic Emmy Acceptance for Black Bird

The 75th annual Primetime Emmy Awards have named a supporting star who made an unforgettable — and terrifying — impression: Black Bird's Paul Walter Hauser.

In the category of outstanding supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie, the 2023 race saw a face-off between Welcome to Chippendales' Murray Bartlett, Black Bird's Hauser and Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins of Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Beef 's Joseph Lee and Young Mazino, and Love & Death's Jesse Plemons.

Hauser, 36, paid tribute to late costar Liotta in his acceptance speech in part, saying, "To the Rolex, Ray Liotta, we're down here wearing Fossils."

"To my wife, Amy, you make my heart strong and knees weak," he also said in part, in his poignant, poetic speech.

Hauser already brought home a major award for his portrayal of serial killer Larry Hall in the Apple TV+ series Black Bird, winning the 2023 Golden Globe Award in the supporting category.

In that speech, Hauser also called out his late costar: “Ray Li-freaking-otta."

Black Bird was adapted from the memoir In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption by James Keene with Hillel Levin. 

Bartlett, 52, stepped into the shoes of Nick De Noia for Hulu’s true crime adaptation of the Chippendales origin story spanning the turbulent '70s and '80s. The role was based on the real-life choreographer for the adult entertainment company.

Bartlett, who won the 2022 Emmy in this category for his performance in season 1 of The White Lotus, previously told told Screen Rant that Welcome to Chippendales had “great highs and lows.” 

The Last of Us actor — who was a double nominee this year, also competing in the guest actor category for the HBO series — added, “And there's great joy in the show, but there's also real darkness in it. So that was definitely attractive."

"And then my character, Nick de Noia is this force of nature, creative genius, and complicated in a lot of ways. I got a real temper, and [he's] just an amazing character to have the chance to play," Bartlett said.

Jenkins, 76, took on the intense role of Jeffrey Dahmer’s father, Lionel Dahmer, in the Netflix true-crime adaptation of the serial killer’s story.

Speaking of the intensity of the project to The Guardian, he said, “Ryan [Murphy] used to be a journalist and it’s really thorough: an investigation not just of Dahmer, but the damage that he caused, to the victims and their families — and to his parents."

"It was emotionally hard," Jenkins continued. "The question for me was: 'If Jeffrey Dahmer is your son, do you stop loving him?' And the answer’s no, you just don’t.”

Jenkins has been nominated for three Emmys total. In 2015, he took home the award for outstanding lead actor in a limited series or movie for his role as Henry Kitteridge in Olive Kitteridge. 

Lee’s role as George Nakai, the husband of Amy Lau (Ali Wong), in the Netflix original series Beef has pushed him into the spotlight. The limited series, which focused on the fallout of road rage incident, challenged Lee to channel a struggling artist. 

“The thing that I connect with him the most on would be the sense of vulnerability and insecurity that he has as an artist over his work," the 36-year-old actor told PEOPLE of his role.

He added, "I myself am a fine artist, and so that type of specificity in the writing was something that I really connected to, that yearning of wanting your work to be validated not only by the people around you but by yourself."

After Liotta died unexpectedly at age 67 in May 2022, he earned a posthumous nomination for playing the father of Taron Egerton's Jimmy Keene on the Apple TV+ series Black Bird. 

During his expansive career, Liotta was nominated for two Emmy awards, winning in 2005 for his guest role as Charlie Metcalf on ER.

His formidable film career ran the gamut from Goodfellas to Cocaine Bear, Something Wild and Revolver. 

Mazino, 32, may not have been the star of Beef, but his role caught attention regardless. Considered a breakout star of the series, Mazino played Paul Cho, the younger brother of Steven Yeun’s Danny Cho. 

Even with his newly-found success, Mazino has remained focused on his creativity behind the camera.

"I'm currently editing a documentary I shot," he told PEOPLE last April. "Film, as an art form, is just a means to find truth and to pursue it."

Plemons, 35, took on the role of Allan Gore for Max’s Love & Death adaptation — which followed the murderous true story of Candy Montgomery. Plemons’ character's affair with Candy (Elizabeth Olsen) triggered a series of bloody real-world events within their small Texan community. 

Three-time Emmy nominee Plemons previously told Entertainment Weekly it wasn't — and shouldn't be — easy to identify one bad guy in the limited series.

"The further we got into it, the more we learned about these characters, the more I started to feel like it's really difficult to find a true villain in this story," he said.

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Plemons added, "The longer you sit with these characters, you begin to understand why they make these choices, [which are] obviously incredibly tragic. That was something that was really compelling to me. There's a lot of food for thought there."

See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 75th annual Primetime Emmy Awards as they're broadcasting live on Fox from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.