The Daytime Emmys are scheduled for Friday, October 17, and Soap Hub will be right there on the red carpet, reporting on all the action. New faces are destined to join the winners’ circle. But before that happens, we’ve got quotes from some past winners about the roles that landed them the gold (or just the honor of being nominated):
Key Takeaways
- Emmy-winning actors talk about the characters who got them there.
- Emmy-worthy scenes are often memorable moments.
- There is more to an Emmy-winning performance than meets the eye.
Eden Riegel (Bianca, All My Children)
In a dramatic moment that only the soaps could deliver, Bianca literally and figuratively stripped away the pretense, taking off her jewelry, taking her hair down, and then removing her dress so she stood before her mother in only a slip and, for the first time, begged her, “Look at me!” Read more from Eden Riegel, here.
Eileen Davidson (Kristin and Susan and Mary Moria and Penelope and Thomas, Days of our Lives)
As a lead actress who’d always been known as a dramatic actress, it was just such a hoot for me, and so freeing to just let go and have fun. I had a tape recorder and I would read the scene and turn it off when the character I was supposed to be talked. I ran lines that way. The major way that I knew it was working was because the crew was laughing, and I was laughing, we were cracking up all the time. Read more from Eileen Davidson, here.
James Reynolds (Abe, DAYS)
You have to play it as true as possible. If you don’t have verisimilitude, then you really aren’t doing your job. You have to play it as honestly as you can. As if the spirits of ex-wives show up all the time. But you have to play the surprise, too. When ghosts suddenly materialize in front of you, if you don’t play it surprised, it’s not honest. But once you accept the idea that this entity is here, then how do you continue that? It’s a little bit like being caught with the other woman. Read more from James Reynolds, here.
Hillary B. Smith (Nora, One Life to Live)
It was an honest relationship. You saw them at their worst, and you still saw them as a team. It was an enviable relationship. Everyone wanted a relationship like that. Bob Woods (Bo) tells the story of women going up to his wife, Loyita, and saying, “Oh, you’re so lucky, I wish I was married to Bo Buchanan.” And she says, “So do I.” Read more from Hillary B. Smith, here.
Peter Bergman (Jack, The Young and the Restless)
I get to work at my new job, and everyone—everyone!—knew Jack Abbott better than I did. Every prop guy, every lighting guy, everyone knew Jack Abbott and how he would react. I found it initially pretty threatening. I had to decide to make this (role) my own. Yes, Terry Lester found Don Diamont’s Brad Carlton an annoying pool boy. But I decided I could not stand to be in the same room with Brad Carlton! I disliked him and what he brought to my sisters’ and my family’s life. He was the pool boy! Similarly, by the time he left, Terry Lester’s Jack found Jill (Jess Walton) just a bother. But I decided that Jill was the one person whom Jack kind of met his match with. In a freezing cold cabin, in the winter, as they were thrown together, he… underperformed. I made this up. I made all of this up. But it made Jill somebody Jack did not want to be left alone with. Read more from Peter Bergman, here.
Jess Walton (Y&R)
Jill and I were really not the same then, but over the last 38 years, we’ve kind of melded into each other. As the years went by, when Jill was too nasty for a while, I would try to soften her. I would play her softer and a little more loving. And if she was getting too soft, which, for a while, she did — when she first became Katherine’s daughter, I think I played her too soft — then I hardened her up. I wanted to keep that edge. She used to really enjoy being cruel to people. People she hated, of course. They haven’t had me hate anybody in a long time. I’ve been a bit unreasonable at times lately, but not cruel. Maybe she’s matured a little bit. Read more from Jess Walton, here.
Check out all of Soap Hub‘s Daytime Emmy coverage!
