Unlike his other wives, Donna loves Eric with no strings attached
Jennifer Gareis has delivered solid performances since arriving on The Bold and the Beautiful in 2006, especially over the last year. Remember the years that Donna went up against powerhouse Stephanie Forrester, professing her love for Eric? Soap Hub sat down with Gareis to talk about her long-overdue Daytime Emmy nomination and why she thinks Eric’s current wife is his best ever.
The actress was acknowledged by her peers for her performances in B&B’s biggest story last year. Eric (John McCook) faced his mortality after being diagnosed with a mystery illness. Sure, Finn (fan favorite Tanner Novlan) and Bridget (Daytime Emmy nominee Ashley Jones) played a crucial role in saving Eric’s life, but we suggest that Donna’s love for her man was an equal factor in giving him the will to live.
“Honestly, it’s just so flattering to be nominated,” Gareis tells Soap Hub. “I’m honored to be in this company.”
Gareis played a key component in Eric’s story. Nobody wanted the B&B patriarch to go to that great soap in the sky. The pain and fear Donna was experiencing spoke for so many.
“It was a very emotional storyline,” Gareis says. Forget about mustering up all those emotions for the screen. The actress says what was tough was narrowing down her reel to a representation of her best work. “It could have been any number of scenes — like 15,” she says. “I sent [them] over to Casey [Kasprzyk, Supervising Producer] and Eva [Basler, VP Communications & Talent Relations] and was like, ‘Help me guys!’
“I have a real hard time choosing for myself,” Gareis adds. “Even if it’s just a head shot.”
Gareis says that Kasprzyk and Basler encouraged her to submit only scenes with Donna and Eric “because [we] had a tremendous connection during the storyline.”
Eric’s had many wives and love interests over the years — including Donna’s sister Brooke (Daytime Emmy nominee Katherine Kelly Lang) and her mother Beth (Nancy Burnett). Call her biased if you will, but Gareis argues that Donna is Eric’s best wife.
“Many of the other women in Eric’s life have had an agenda or were controlling or had aspects to them that didn’t really benefit Eric,” Gareis points out. “I can’t think of any other woman besides Donna that truly has no agenda.”
As happy and excited as Gareis is to be nominated, she’s quite possibly even more thrilled over McCook’s nod. (He’s nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actor category.) Gareis is hoping he takes home his bookend statuette, having won his first in 2022.
“John managed to every single day, day in and day out, work so hard,” Gareis praises. “You saw how much work he had with this storyline. He had a tremendous number of monologues and emotions.”
Don’t miss the 51st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards tonight on CBS at 8 p.m. ET to find out if Jennifer Gareis and your other favorites win. The program streams on Paramount+. And be sure to check back in with Soap Hub for all our awards show coverage this weekend!
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