Young and Restless’s Michelle Stafford On Daytime Emmy Award Nod: ‘I’ve Been Rejected So Often’ (EXCL)
With 13 Daytime Emmy Award nominations and three wins under her belt, Young and Restless star Michelle Stafford (Phyllis) is very familiar with the thrill of being both up for the trophy and bringing it home, but she says it’s a unique experience every single time. “I’m always very appreciative and very shocked,” she tells Soap Opera Digest. “It’s interesting, because as an actor, I’ve been rejected so often. You just are so used to being rejected and not being wanted as an actor. It just kind of goes with the territory. And so that’s why I’m shocked, because I kind of live in a world of rejection.”
Strong Female Character
Stafford — who won her first Emmy in 1997 for Outstanding Supporting Actress, then was victorious in the Lead Actress category in 2006, last took home the Daytime Emmy Award for Lead Actress in 2024. When it came time to go over her scenes to see if she should submit again this year, she found herself pleasantly surprised. “I actually like putting together a reel,” she shared. “I find it to be very fun — unless I really don’t have anything [strong enough to submit]. And then that’s kind of like the soothsayer. If it’s difficult to put together, that means I don’t have anything, and that means that I shouldn’t submit. So if I’m finding it a good time to put a reel together, then I have something. But I’m a firm believer that if you don’t have something, don’t submit. There’s no need. But I do have fun, and I did find some stuff that I had not really [remembered]. I found it and I was like, ‘Oh damn, that’s a pretty decent scene.’ ”
Phyllis had quite a year in late 2024 as she struggled to keep her family together in the wake of Heather’s murder. “I start with this scene where I’m kind of breaking down to Billy,” Stafford explains, “And then I had a bunch of stuff when Phyllis was in the hospital when she was presumed to be run off the road by Sharon. And I really liked it. What I liked about it is I really wanted to get to the core of the injustice of it all. That her family — in Phyllis’s view — was really being [screwed]; that everybody was supporting Sharon.
“What they thought at the time [was that] Sharon had killed Heather and [Phyllis’s] son was being framed for it,” she continues. “And Sharon was doing everything she could to get out of it, and nobody really cared about [Phyllis’s] family. I felt like that harmonic of the story was very important, as that is something that goes on daily in the world, right? I really loved that element of the story that Phyllis was fighting for her son, and no one cared. I loved it.”
Mother/Daughter Date
As the October 17 Daytime Emmys ceremony approaches, attendees are busy making preparations, and for Stafford, that includes finding something to wear — a process that hit a little snag this year. “I actually had a dress that I ordered, and it didn’t come in, and they were kind of being sketchy with me,” she reports. “And I was like, ‘Hey, I want a refund.’ And all of a sudden — oh, shocker! — It showed up yesterday.”
The Y&R star is anticipating a terrific night out this year as she will be accompanied by her 15-year-old daughter, Natalia. “My date is my daughter because she couldn’t be happier to go to this,” Stafford shares. “I am very sensitive to people. I think my boyfriend, God bless him, would be so uncomfortable and so would make me, in turn, uncomfortable. Like, I feel like I’d have to be entertaining.
“It’s just my daughter wants to go so bad, and she’s so excited to go,” she adds. “She wants to do the red carpet. She wants to get a spray tan. She wants a dress. So me and my daughter will have a fun time.”
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