Nelson Branco's Soap Opera Uncensored: Issue 45

by Nelson Branco

unusual for that to happen every so often. We had Kay Alden, Lynn Marie Latham, and Jack Smith, who were all great, too. We’ve had changes every five or six years. I’ve been through regime changes when I was on other shows, too, so it’s just part of the business.

  How do you feel about JFP and Josh coming in?

  I’ve never met Jill before. Josh, of course, I knew from his last stint on the show. I really liked him. Knowing Josh as our producer, one thing that stood out about him was that he didn’t have a big ego. One thing I learned about big egos is that it never ends up working out well because soaps are a group effort. It’s pretty hard to work with people who have a big ego. Josh is a super down-to-earth guy. He’s approachable — and you can tell he really loves and respect the show. It’s reassuring and easier for us, especially the actors, to have someone come in whom we’ve already worked with before. I’m excited!

  You’ve been out of the Emmy race for a while. You better put yourself up next year. God, I think I was like 12 when you won your Supporting Actress Emmy!

  [Laughs] I think I was 12 when I won the Emmy, too! I haven’t competed in three years or so. I don’t know. I can’t decide.

  Even though you had a topsy-turvy year story-wise you had some beautiful moments opposite Michael Muhney at the farmhouse and visiting Cassie’s grave; and you can juxtapose that with some of the fun, campy stuff you’re doing now. You need to put yourself in Lead, too.

  This may be controversial but I’m going to say it in any case: I don’t believe Emmy voting has been based on performance. It doesn’t matter what reel I put together because I’ve seen people win on all kind of reels — from great performances to a lack of performance. I think, for a long time, the Emmys have been based on personality and popularity. I know NATAS has made changes to work against that voting-bias, and they’ve had some successes with it, but I don’t think it’s been changed enough. I don’t want to compete in that kind of contest. If it was a contest based on performance, I would be interested in competing in that race. The reason why voting is skewed is because daytime is such a small community. It’s kind of hard not to vote for your friends.

  I have long thought that the Prime Time and Daytime Emmys should merge. We could compete in the acting categories with everyone else. I think Ellen DeGeneres could compete with the late-night talk shows like David Letterman or Jay Leno. She’d probably win, too! With fewer and fewer daytime dramas, there’s not a lot of competition. I don’t know why we don’t integrate daytime with nighttime. An Emmy should be an Emmy, regardless what time of the day your show airs.

  Well, good luck with that because even the network prime-time shows were shut out in most of the categories so you guys would have a Herculean task in securing a nom when Grey’s Anatomy can’t. When you won, I remember you wore the pink dress long before Gwyneth Paltrow won in the same kind of dress and look. Did you know you were going to win? You beat out the likes of Kathleen Noone, Jennifer Bassey, Beth Ehlers, and Kelly Ripa in 1999.

  I loved that dress, too! I was surprised. It was my first nomination in the supporting category. But back to your point about it being hard for daytime to secure a nom against prime-time shows, I agree it would be hard for the first few years. But remember it was impossible for an indie film to get an Oscar nom but now they are dominating the categories. I think underdogs always have their day.

  You’re so smart and passionate about the business —despite your misleading, stereotypical Californian blonde look!

  Thank you. You know, I think that about everyone in the press. From you, DIGEST, IN DEPTH to DAYTIME CONFIDENTIAL. Everyone I talk to is smart and passionate about the business. You guys really know the shows, and really care about the future of the genre. It’s your personal business to help this business survive — and it’s clear that it’s not just a job for all of you. I learned a lot from you guys over the years.

  Were you a soap fan before you joined daytime? Or were more like a Michael Muhney, who unexpectedly fell in the love with the business practically overnight?

  When I was a little kid, I watched soap operas with my Mom. She watched DAYS, GH and ANOTHER WORLD. We liked to change the channel a lot in our home. I started acting when I was really young. For a long time, it was just a job. I had no idea how long I’d be in the industry because, back then, soaps were more of revolving door of characters if you were not a core character. And I had never booked a role of a core character before. My career could have really gone anywhere… but it wasn’t until I worked on Y&R for many years when I finally thought, “maybe I’ll be here for a long time and maybe I can embrace the business,” just like Michael did so quickly.”

  Looking back, did you ever think you’d be gracing solo magazine covers, score an Emmy, and become a popular lead on daytime’s number-one soap opera? You had a few failures in the beginning of your soap career (Cough, GH’s Dawn Winthrop), but do you ever say, “Wow, this worked out for me!”

  Well, I often look back and say, “Wow, this really worked out for me!” I do that every day! [Laughs] I mean, it’s been 18 years. Anything you can accomplish for that long is amazing. I never expected this, for sure. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do: TV or film. It was unplanned. I knew Sharon could have easily been a short-term role. Most characters have a life span of 6-8 years and then they are written out. When I got to that point, I realized I could make Y&R my life.

  What was your relationship with Bill Bell like?

  I loved working with him. He was such a nice, warm and welcoming man to everyone — from the cast to the crew. He was very well respected. He obviously knew what he was doing. It was comfortable, too, because if he liked you, you knew you’d be around for a while because it was his show — and he wasn’t going anywhere. When he left, a lot of people were thrown. Luckily, we have been able to rebuild and rebuild with new regimes. We’ve gone through changes, for sure, but changes can be fun.

  Do you want to address Eric Braeden’s recent comments about a Twitter drama involving a colleague about the Shictor romance during a recent interview with ON AIR, ON SOAPS’ Michael Fairman?

  Yes. I think what Eric misunderstood and misinterpreted a tweet that someone told him about because he’s not on Twitter. My guess is that it was a misunderstanding because I would never say anything bad about Eric on Twitter. I mean, why would I? Or about anybody. I rarely voice any opinions about storyline on Twitter. What I tend to do is re-tweet one or two opinions about anything from a storyline, current events, or politics which everyone agrees on massively — whether they are negative or positive. That doesn’t mean I agree with them. I like hearing the discourse between the fans. That’s why I like Twitter. So I can’t imagine what tweet he’s referring to.

  I think it’s when you re-tweeted someone’s opinion that the Shictor pairing was gross.

  I don’t know. You know, it’s so easy to misinterpret people’s tweets when you can only use 140 characters. Look at Michael Muhney — people are always misunderstanding his tweets! Even just last night that happened and he had to clarify his tweets. Things can be easily taken out of context, especially when you’re not reading someone’s entire timeline, etc. Twitter needs to be a bit more positive but I’m fine with people airing out their feelings. Listen, what are you going to do? It’s Twitter. It’s all just sound bytes in the end.

  What’s your relationship with Eric off screen?

  We haven’t worked together in a while because his character is lost someplace. If I don’t see you at the studio, I rarely see you outside of work. Eric is very professional at work. And I am very professional at work, too, for the most part! [Laughs] Despite our problems, Eric, and everyone who works there, under whatever regime is in charge, always puts the show first because we all love it equally. Even when we have minor disagreements from time to time, we all still care about the show. If we have a disagreement about a storyline or how to play something, so what? Big deal! It happens on any team, but it’s not the end of the world.

/>   Can we reassure fans that there is indeed a plot to save Sharon Newman in the works under the new regime?

  That’s what I’ve been told. However, I don’t know the details or how they plan on accomplishing that. I imagine I’ll find out soon because I believe next week we’ll be receiving Josh’s first scripts. All I know is that there are plans to fix, redeem or reshape the character of Sharon. We’ll see. Whatever it is, it’s going to be great no matter what.

  It can’t get any worse!

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