Young and Restless’s Linden Ashby on His Daytime Emmy Nomination: ‘It’s Good To Be Bad’ (Exclusive)
This year’s Daytime Emmy Award nominations turned out to be a family affair for Linden Ashby. Not only was he nominated for Outstanding Guest Performance for his stint as Cameron on Young and Restless, but his wife, Susan Walters, was nominated in the Supporting Actress category for playing Y&R’s Diane. “It’s always nice to have someone say you did all right, you know?” the actor tells Soap Opera Digest with a chuckle. “And it feels good. It was really like the cherry on top — well, it was the whole sundae, actually, that Susan got nominated, too. So that was a fun day in our house.”
Ghost of a Chance
Ashby was previously nominated in the Guest Performance category in the 2024 Daytime Emmys for his spring 2023 return as the evil Cameron Kirsten. While the villain met his demise at the end of that run, Ashby reprised the role again in 2024 when Sharon hallucinated visions of Cameron that taunted her and drove her to do some pretty terrible things.
“I tried to keep it short enough that people wouldn’t lose interest,” the actor says of the reel of scenes he submitted. “But I thought it was all pretty good work [and] and it seemed to work.”
Ashby enjoys the idea that he was nominated for being so good at playing bad. “It’s good to be bad,” he declares. “I mean, I don’t think bad people ever think they’re bad. I think that they feel justified in what they do. And this was a really fun character because he was aware that he didn’t really exist. Sharon would be like, ‘I hate you. You’re so this and that, and you’re making me do this.’ I’m like, ‘Don’t you mean you’re making yourself do this? Because I don’t actually exist.’ ”
Portraying a character who was actually just a figment of Sharon’s fragile psyche also gave the actor the freedom to play around with his performance. “Because you can break the fourth wall, almost,” Ashby explains. “It’s like, you can go, ‘Hang on, I’m simply a manifestation of your subconscious mind, so what are you getting so mad at me for?’ And it was really an interesting kind of fun twist to have that awareness in the character.”
Ashby also credits the Y&R writing team with helping him earn this Daytime Emmy nomination. “Look, the older I get, the more I know for a fact that one thing is true: It all begins and ends with writing. If it’s written well, you stand a chance. I mean, you can [screw] up a good script, but you cannot make a bad script good. So I bow down at the altar of writers.”
All Together Now
Ashby will be joined on Emmy night by Walters, his wife and fellow nominee, as well as two very special plus-ones. “Our girls are going to come,” he beams, referring to the couple’s adult daughters, Grace and Savannah. “They’re both grown up, they’re women now.” As for what he’ll be wearing, he reports, “I haven’t tried on my tuxedo, but I’ll see, hopefully, God willing, it still fits. That’d be embarrassing. ‘Oh my God, I can’t find my pants!’ But I think it’ll be alright. The girls, I’ve seen their dresses, I’ve seen Susan’s dress, and they’re absolutely beautiful. I’m gonna hang out and celebrate some actors.”
And daytime actors are the ones he feels truly deserve to be celebrated. “I’ve done everything in this business, and it is the hardest job there is, doing a soap opera,” Ashby says. “It’s like the Dunkin’ Donuts commercial, where it’s time to make the donuts. Every day you make the donuts. People kind of take it for granted how much preparation goes into it, how much work goes into it, how much talent goes into it, how much, just at a certain point, fortitude and determination that you will get it done.
“It’s a handful,” he continues. “Sometimes it can be really overwhelming. And my hat is off to these guys, because I come and I dip my toe in the water and I’m terrified. And they live in that water, and they thrive in that water. I just look at them and I’m like, ‘You guys are tough. I am not that tough at all.’”
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