The 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will be held on Friday, Dec. 15, with the ceremony airing live on CBS starting at 9 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!
Outstanding Lead Actress
Finola Hughes (Anna, GENERAL HOSPITAL)
ABC
Take me back to how you found out about your nomination. “Well, I was at home, sort of running around doing whatever it is that one does as a mom of teenagers. My phone rings and my daughter looks at it and says, ‘You need to answer this.’ I looked at my phone and it said, ‘Frank Valentini [executive producer].’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s my boss, I should answer that!’ And it was him saying that I was nominated. I was surprised! I didn’t know that they put me in [the Lead Actress] category, so it was a huge surprise. I didn’t even know the nominations were coming out that day. And then I got a hug from my teenage son, which does not happen very often! So, that was lovely.”
One of your best friends, Michelle Stafford (Nina, Y&R), is also nominated in your category. How did you find that out? “Frank said, ‘Michelle is in there with you,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, my!’ So I either texted her or called her immediately, I’m not sure which, and asked her to come as my date.”
You have made no secret of how little you enjoy watching your own work. So, was it torture to put together your reel? “Well, as usual, it was put together by people with better taste than me. The only thing I knew for sure was that there was one scene I really wanted to use, and that was Peter’s death. I thought that was the one that was pretty strong from this year. That’s all I kind of said to [the people at the show who were helping me], and then they went ahead and put a bunch of other things on the reel. There was something I did with Michael E. [Knight, Martin] and something with James [Patrick Stuart, Valentin] on there, too — and there were some other scenes that, to be honest, I wasn’t even aware of!”
You’ve won Lead Actress before and been nominated a bunch of times. Do you get butterflies in your stomach waiting for your category to come up? “I do get butterflies, but I also try very hard just to enjoy the whole thing. I like seeing people and I like hearing the nice, inspiring things that everybody says when they get up there. Being at the Emmys always makes me very happy to be part of the whole daytime family, it really does, and I think just the mere fact of being nominated by your peers is just the most extraordinary thing. It just feels so heartening that your fellow actors out there took a look at your work and acknowledged it. It feels really good.”
Was there anyone whose nomination this year you were particularly happy about? “I was really happy Alley [Mills, ex-Heather] got nominated [as Outstanding Guest Performer]. I think she’s fantastic! She’s a very close friend of Susan’s [Flannery, ex-Stephanie, B&B] and I met her through Susan and I was really happy when she came to the show and really happy to see her nominated.”
Do you plan to prepare a speech in case your name is called, or would you wing it? “The jury’s out. I do feel like I would probably wing it. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever prepared anything when I go. If I’m nominated, I never really have a piece of paper in my pocket.”
Well, that just gives you more flexibility, because you won’t need to find a dress with a pocket. “You’re right! Though, I must say, I love a long skirt with a pocket.”
Does being nominated carry the same meaning to you now as it did back when you received your first nod, which was in 1991? “I actually think it means more. It exponentially grows. I feel kind of like Tony [Geary, ex-Luke] and Maurice [Benard, Sonny] and Maura [West, Ava] and Laura [Wright, Carly] and Genie [Francis, Laura] and a bunch of people here at the show, I feel like we still continue to dig into our work. We get so into it; we still enjoy the craft so much.”
