On Her Own
What does a first-time Emmy nominee from a canceled soap do to prep for the big day without the know-how and supportive staff and co-stars from her show to help lead the way? It’s a unique challenge this year for GL alum Beth Chamberlin (ex-Beth), who tells Digest about how she’s making it to Vegas … all on her own.
Soap Opera Digest: It’s a unique situation for you this year and one that ATWT actors will likely face next year. Has it been stressful planning everything on your own?
Beth Chamberlin: It’s been an interesting situation to be in! It does require a little more work. There is the additional fly in the ointment this year because it’s in Vegas.
Digest: How are you handling the hair/makeup situation?
Chamberlin: I know a hair and makeup person who is in L.A. but I’d have to fly her in and the cost just becomes prohibitive. I’m flying a little blind there so I’ve hired somebody who is out of Vegas, who I found online, and so we’ll see! It’s an experiment! This morning I was online going through different hairstyles. I’m definitely nervous about the hair and makeup situation.
Digest: What was your first thought regarding finding a gown?
Chamberlin: I didn’t even think about it until after the nomination and then it’s like, ‘Oh! Hum. What does this this mean now? I don’t have Shawn Dudley [former GL costume designer] around!’ I did get this fabulous e-mail from a Lebanese designer, Jean Fares who’s interested in dressing me. The dresses are gorgeous. So I’m going to L.A. [before the Emmys] to try and find a dress and jewels and a bag and all those things that designers will lend me! Normally you have the show that helps acquire some things for you and you have a fabulous stylist on every show that can pull things together for you so suddenly you’re doing it all on your own!
Digest: Most shows fly out the nominees and even their guests. Is airfare a concern?
Chamberlin: Obviously if there’s no show, there’s no budget. Last year, when I was flying back from the Emmys on Virgin America, the flight attendant was a longtime GUIDING LIGHT viewer and he gave me a card and said, ‘If you ever need anything, give me a call.’ So I thought, ‘I’m going to call and get some discount or something.’ And they gave me and my husband [Peter] a comped ticket to Vegas! So I’m getting by with a little help from my friends [laughs]! I wanted to fly out my mom and son [Luke] but when you have to pay for certain things out of your own pocket… So they’ll be staying at home. And I’ve hired a PR person, too, which is something the show would do for you. CBS said they’ll have someone on the red carpet for me so I won’t be announcing myself! They’ve been lovely about that.
Digest: What about the other logistics?
Chamberlin: Well, they needed like 30 seconds of footage, three different pieces of tape for the actual Emmy show [broadcast] which is hard to come up with. I e-mailed the people putting on the show who gave it to the people collecting the tape, and I guess it got lost in the sauce and whoever was sending out the information, was sending it to someone at GUIDING LIGHT. Well, there is no GUIDING LIGHT contact anymore! TeleNext [Media, which produced GL and ATWT] ended up doing it for me. Obviously I don’t have access to all kinds of tapes, I just have what I have here [at home], which is what I used to chose my Emmy reel. And it has to be done in a certain format and the labeling has to be done a certain way. When I got the instructions for that, I didn’t understand a thing! So fortunately, somebody that helped with GL submissions last year helped me out. So that was quite anxiety provoking. Really though, the people at NATAS [National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences] and the company putting on the show have been very patient. I’ve had a lot of questions! It’s all new to me because of course the production assistants [at GL] all handled that in the past.
Digest: Any advice for anyone else who might have to go the DIY route in the future?
Chamberlin: My advice would be collect any DVDs you would like that you think you might want for submissions and get them before the show production closes down and line up for yourself, ‘Who knows how to do this stuff?’ because you’re gonna be on your own! You know, people who can help you to put it all together. There’s a lot of footwork. It’s been a fascinating thing.
Digest: Are you worried about the seating situation?
Chamberlin: I may not know anyone in front or behind me but my husband will be right next to me!
Digest: Is it important to you to go all out, regardless of not having the show’s support?
Chamberlin: There is a certain significance to this for me. It represents one of the last nominations for GUIDING LIGHT and it’s also my first, so there’s something about beginnings and endings there that I kind of want to pay attention to. Even though I did think to myself, “Well, maybe I’ll just stay home and watch it on my television” but at the same time I think, “You can’t do that! You should be there!” It will be fun and I’ll see some people that I haven’t seen in quite a while.
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