Flirting With Emmy
Soap Opera Weekly: This will be your first Daytime Emmy ceremony as a nominee. How does that feel?
Ilene Kristen: It’s really great that at this point I got a nomination. It’s kind of weird. I think if the system had been this way, you vote first in your company, then I think I probably would have got nominated before this. But I am so honored, because the process somehow worked for me. I am real pleased about that and I am really very indebted to my own company, which is the way it should be.
It never really made sense before, back in the old days. Whose going to vote for you on the other shows, unless you put a gun to their head. Or unless they go, ‘Oh, yeah, I read about her all the time.’ When I was with RYAN’S HOPE a lot of people didn’t even join the Academy. And then the day would come and they would go, ‘Oh, I forgot to join’. Helen Gallagher (ex-Maeve) won a lot, but I know the producers were always putting her up. And they eventually would have put me up. Toward the end we never even knew when the awards were. Different kind of show.Weekly: Not the most organized kind of show.
Kristen: Oh, no. But organized as far as getting a story out. They could write a better story than any of these shows that get a lot of nominations. So I am honored, and I have to say on March 4, when I found out, this really great warm feeling went through me. Because it was my company that did it. First it was my company that did and then people in the business who did it. Two stages. Now I have to the third one.Weekly: What did you submit?
Kristen: I submitted scenes with Linda Dano (ex-Rae) which is what I submitted to get the first nomination. At the Palace bar. And then I submitted scenes with Mitch (Roscoe Born) where he comes to Max’s house. My scene with Linda was so giddy, so crazy. We rehearsed a lot, so we could keep it loose. And I had a long history with Rosco (who played Joe Novak on RYAN’S HOPE), so it was quite interesting and also because I thought they were going to give us a whole storyline. I loaded it up with a lot of stuff: maybe Mitch and I had had an affair, but I was scared of him. She’s not drunk like she is in the scenes with Linda. But there was still comedic things.Weekly: Do you think the comedy will make you stand out from the other nominees?
Kristen: The comedy thing is hard. But I had to fight on the battle ground I could fight on. It certainly worked, way back, for Dorothy Lyman (ex-Opal, ALL MY CHILDREN). I heard that Rena Sofer (ex-Lois, GENERAL HOSPITAL) won on a comedy tape. But also I have just such a huge track record of doing this. I think the scenes are interesting. They are not crying. They are not big drama stuff. But to be able to have timing on a soap, to me, is like a gift. I am doing this without a laugh track.
The interesting thing would be to see everybody try to do the same scene. Give everybody the same amount of time to learn it. The same amount of time to shoot it. The same amount of retakes and then see what they do with it. But that’s not what the situation is. So you have to fight on the level that you can fight on. And I looked at the Linda tape again, the other day, and it just amused me so. And a lot of it is on Linda. The camera is on Linda. We are sharing that scene. It shows such incredible team work. That to me is incredible.
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