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!
Chris Haston/NBC
Outstanding Lead Actress
Tamara Braun (Ava, Days of our Lives)
“I don’t always submit myself for Emmy nominations unless I feel I’ve got something. But yeah, it was 2004. Since then a lot of my roles have been supporting, but now Ava is having more to do again. This last year she seemed to be a lead again. Sometimes you have more work to do, and sometimes you have less work to do. You want to put yourself where it’s the most fair for everyone involved.”
You do have two Outstanding Supporting Actress Daytime Emmys – one for Kim on General Hospital in 2020, and one for Ava on DAYS in 2009. Would winning for Outstanding Lead Actress mean something more to you?
“No. It’s all such a beautiful recognition. It’s a blessing. It’s a gift. It’s a real joy and an accolade wherever you are. Everybody does their work, everybody. Sometimes you have more stories than other times, and that dictates what the category is. I don’t think one is higher or lesser than the other.”
What did you submit?
“I submitted two scenes with Steve Burton [Harris] when we were at Bayview. Ava was talking about her hallucinations and her mental illness, how she was dealing with that, and the pain that her mental illness has caused her and others. I also submitted the scenes, when Gil tried to rape Ava. They were with David Lee, who’s a wonderful actor as well. Ava was able to kind of trick him for a minute, get his gun, and pull it on him right before she actually shoots him. Then I submitted Ava and Harris in Paris. It was kind of light, silly and goofy. So the first scenes with Harris/Steve Burton were more vulnerable. The scenes with Gil/David Lee were, I guess, stronger. And the last scene with Harris/Steve was again light with a little more humor.”
How did you find out you were nominated?
“I was on my couch. It was my birthday. I was supposed to be at a Korean spot with my girlfriends, but two days before, my stomach started attacking me and I was pretty unwell. So I was on the couch with a hot water bottle and dealing with some grief in my life, when I got a call from Andrea [McKinnon, DAYS publicist]. She was like, ‘Do you know why I’m calling? Have you been paying attention to what’s going on today?’ And I was like, ‘No. What’s going on today?’ She told me I was nominated, and I started crying because I was in a space where some really positive news was very welcome. It made a hard month and a little sad day a lot better, and it was a nice birthday present.”
You said you weren’t feeling well, but did you do anything to celebrate or did you just hang out on the couch and maybe make a cup of tea?
“It was very hard for me to even move that day. So I snuggled with my puppies, Little and Pearl. There was no real celebration. That will have to come later. I’ll do that with my [fellow nominated] castmates that I’m so excited for. I already reached out to them and said, ‘We’re all going out to lunch to celebrate.’”
Did you receive any congratulatory messages that stood out to you?
“My phone blew up with so much love. It was very special and very appreciated. All the people who wrote to me wrote beautiful, lovely things. I got a call from Alicia Minshew [ex-Kendall, All My Children]. I answered, and she said, ‘OK. So you know why I’m calling you.’ We’re really good friends. She was just so supportive and loving and lovely. She’s such a dear friend. And, you know her light. You know how bright and wonderful she is; her giggles and everything. It was beautiful to hear from her.”
What are your thoughts about your fellow nominees?
“Oh my God. Did you see list? Holy crap. That is an amazing group of actors – women who are powerhouses, women who show up, do their work, and just bring it. I feel so honored to be up there with all of them and friends; women I’ve worked with and admire as actors and people. So I am so, so grateful. I think it’s a really lovely group of women, and I feel very privileged to be part of that group.”
Will anyone in your family be attending with you? I remember your mother being your “date” back in 2009.
“Yes, my mom was with me. She absolutely was. I don’t know if anyone’s going to be coming out or not yet. I have no idea. Everything’s so new. We’ve got to see.”
What about as far as a speech goes? After two wins are you somebody who prepares or somebody who’s happy to wing it? “
“I am somebody who does not prepare and realized I should have when I won. Oh, my Lord. I mean, if there is not a lesson for me in that…I think I will. It’s such a weird thing to say, ‘Oh, let me prepare.’ But I think you can write a little something down, and it’s not being presumptuous. It’s not being self-serving or thinking you deserve something over somebody else. It’s just being prepared, like the Girl Scouts or the Boy Scouts.”
