The 51st ANNUAL DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS will be held on Friday, June 7, with the ceremony airing live on CBS starting at 8 p.m. ET. Soap Opera Digest chatted with the nominees to get the scoop on how they found out, what episodes they submitted, and more as we count down to daytime’s biggest night!
Jill Johnson/jpistudios.com
Guest Performance
Alley Mills (Heather, General Hospital)
How did you learn you were nominated?
“Two crazy people from the Bold and the Beautiful called me—Ashley Jones, who is nominated in the same category, and my old boss over there. We had all gone to New Orleans together and every single person who went was nominated. It was late in the afternoon, and I didn’t even know it was happening.”
You won last year in this same category. What does being nominated for another Daytime Emmy mean to you this time around?
“In this particular case, it’s right on the heels of my first time winning an Emmy in my life of 73 years, so that was plenty for me and I loved it. It’s meaningful to me when your peers give you a thumbs-up. I had a wonderful time last year. Do I need two? Not really, but it always feels good.”
Any thoughts on your fellow nominees?
“When I found out Dick Van Dyke [Timothy, Days of our Lives] was in the same category, I just thought it’s probably going to be his night. The only other one I know is Ashley and she’s just wonderful.”
What can you tell me about the scenes you submitted?
“I put a couple of funny scenes with Ryan [Jon Lindstrom] when I was in Spring Ridge with him, just fooling around. Then when we went to the castle, and I had a confrontation with Ava [Maura West], his ex-lover, and got caught. It was when Heather finally had to confess what she’d done.”
Heather is such a great character, what do you enjoy most about playing her?
“My favorite thing about Heather is just how incredibly smart she is. When I started reading the scripts, I think she’s just the smartest card in the deck, and she knows it. But she’s also clearly not balanced and adept at manipulating people in a very smart way. It’s tremendous fun to play someone that smart who has no fear. She’s kind of like a blank check. She has no boundaries and that’s a tremendous thing to play. I also think she has a big heart. She has killed six people but she has a heart of gold. She thinks all those people deserved it because they were going to hurt her daughter. It’s a wonderful feeling to have so much freedom and be on the side of what she thinks is justice.”
Let’s turn to the awards show itself; are you the type who prepares a speech or do you like to wing it? What did you do last year?
“When I looked it up online, it said you had 25 seconds, so I decided against writing anything because what are you going to say in such a short amount of time? But then sitting at my table was Robert Gossett [Marshall, GH], who won for Best Supporting Actor, and he spoke for like two minutes, so I realized I do have time. The next thing I knew, they called my name and I just spoke from my heart and no one gonged me. I did want to tag it with the other thing I do in my life, which is I work with the homeless, and I was able to say that, and I was able to thank the wonderful writer who communicated with me about Heather, and thanked Frank and all of my B&B family who were waving right in front of me. So, I’m not going to plan anything this time either.”
Of all the calls, texts and messages congratulating you, did any stand out as being memorable?
“John McCook [Eric, B&B] called me, and I’ve known him since my very first day on Bold and Beautiful, and he’s in the ballpark of my age, and it was so great that he was nominated, too. He told me to wear a funny hat. But it was nice hearing from everyone, and that’s always a great feeling.”
