Latest / The Daytime Emmys Specials / 2026 Lead Actor Nominee Christian J LeBlanc

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2026 Lead Actor Nominee Christian J LeBlanc · The Daytime Emmys Specials

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The Additionally, jail j Media is daytime Amy special and
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: though this person has a couple of daytime Amies, if
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: you're watching to see him behind him, but he's not me.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: They're right there. I know you didn't. You didn't. They're
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: right there. Oops oopsy. He has somebody who.
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  Speaker 3: Let me go get it.
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  Speaker 2: So, but he's not me.
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  Speaker 1: It again for lead actor for twenty twenty twenty six
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  Speaker 1: a daytime AMI's for lead actor. Of course he's he
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  Speaker 1: does other things besides just acting on Young and the Restless.
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  Speaker 1: He has other art forms he does and he's just
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  Speaker 1: one of my favorite people in the world and one
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  Speaker 1: of my favorite family members.
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  Speaker 2: It is Christian Jay LeBlanc.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, hello, mister lot hell. Such a pleasure, such a
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  Speaker 3: pleasure to visit, to sit and visit.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very southern ofs very southern. Vest I love it,
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  Speaker 1: Ray said visit. But here, here's my first question. Actually,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I've never asked you this, and I'm very curious.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: You know I'm good at state capitals too.
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  Speaker 2: Go ahead, state capital of Alaska.
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  Speaker 3: No oh, no, you know, sorry.
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  Speaker 2: I just one of the few ones I know. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: wait here here it is.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Over the years, you've been when you've been nominated, they've
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: called you by different names. Sometimes you're Christian Jules LeBlanc,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Christian j LeBlanc, Christian LeBlanc?
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  Speaker 2: Is that a is? That? Was that an emmy thing?
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  Speaker 2: Was that you all over.
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  Speaker 4: The Actually it is.
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  Speaker 3: It's a sag thing because that's my parent union when
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: I was starting out, and you know, you have to
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  Speaker 3: clear your name. Okay, someone else had Christian LeBlanc. Really yeah,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: he was getting congratulated for things that I was very
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: frustrating for him, apparently complaining to the union. So I
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: and I don't mind. I go by legally, I am
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Christianjewels LeBlanc. And that's a lot on a on a
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: but not bad on a pair of jeans. I thought
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  Speaker 3: that flipped into my leblause. I thought, yeah, that works
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  Speaker 3: works as an artist too, It does.
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  Speaker 2: It does.
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  Speaker 4: Then, you know, every now and.
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  Speaker 3: Then I'll see in the feed of like, oh, three names.
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  Speaker 3: Oh it must be a handful. Interesting of how you
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: and I talk. That middle name. I always liked it, Jewels,
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  Speaker 3: I always liked I did not know the man that
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  Speaker 3: would have been the husband of the grandmother. My mother
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  Speaker 3: was raised by her grandmother. This her grandmother, this would
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  Speaker 3: have been her grandfather who had long been passed away.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Jews who of keeping rules in there, even though legally
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  Speaker 3: it's supposed to be on all my credits and stuff
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  Speaker 3: like that. Okay, Yeah, Christian Jewels LeBlanc. And again, we
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  Speaker 3: talk about history all the time. We talk about family,
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  Speaker 3: we talk about legacy and about remembering especially that history
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  Speaker 3: and that jewels as I built, you know, and you
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  Speaker 3: among other people know, I'm a rabbit genealogist. It was
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: one of those things where my brothers were getting into
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  Speaker 3: video games. I have six brothers. I'm like, uhh, I refuse,
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  Speaker 3: I refuse.
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  Speaker 4: I watched one.
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  Speaker 3: I think, oh, some policemen was trying to kill everyone,
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  Speaker 3: and I said, I cannot.
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  Speaker 4: I'm done.
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  Speaker 2: I'm done.
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  Speaker 3: No, And the easiest thing about learning computers is data
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  Speaker 3: entry and geniality. Had that great aunt who walked me
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  Speaker 3: down the long hallway with all the pictures and told
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  Speaker 3: me stories. And that's where I learned to love someone
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  Speaker 3: who tells a good story. And I think that's a
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  Speaker 3: lot to do with acting. So yeah, that was the
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  Speaker 3: long answer. But that's why it's Christian Jewles LeBlanc. Although,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: like I said, you know, the post office will do christ.
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  Speaker 3: Sometimes it's all truncated. You know, you're blessed, or he
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  Speaker 3: didn't have enough room because it will go to christ LeBlanc.
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  Speaker 3: Oh my god, jewels could come out any other way.
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  Speaker 3: But my name, and proudly said, is Christian Jeules LeBlanc.
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  Speaker 1: That but as I just know it, over the years,
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  Speaker 1: it was different names. I guess, yeah, you're.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely right, absolutely, because they'll doyn't want to say it's
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  Speaker 3: it's along if you print it all out, it's a
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  Speaker 3: long thing, especially on credits.
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  Speaker 1: Christian Jewels, that's all. So you do other things? Mean
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  Speaker 1: you are I mean you do stage, you paint, charities,
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  Speaker 1: when you do all kinds of stuff. You know, we
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  Speaker 1: talked about this before you work on your house, all
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  Speaker 1: your kind of things. What keeps you interested in acting?
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  Speaker 3: Oh? I think it's one of those things that you
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  Speaker 3: can never feel you mastered. I think art is one
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  Speaker 3: of those things that's like the holy grail. Any art
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  Speaker 3: to a real artist, and that artist could be I
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  Speaker 3: think the first artist I ever met was my mother cooking,
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  Speaker 3: and I thought, that is someone who has session for
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  Speaker 3: something and is excellent at it, and it speaks to
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  Speaker 3: people that you were from New Orleans.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, people know that whole your whole culture speaks for you,
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  Speaker 3: and so I you know, I don't know, you kind
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  Speaker 3: of know that part where I was determined to be
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: a doctor. I worked in hospitals when I was in
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  Speaker 3: high school. Anything I do know about drama, A lot
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  Speaker 3: of it I learned in the emergency room or the
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  Speaker 3: rehab something that is. And honestly, nobody likes anyone standing
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: at their bedside while they're dying doing a monologue. I
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  Speaker 3: have seen people point to the plug, and in fact,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: every time Eric is in a hospital situation on the set,
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  Speaker 3: I do run in and pull the plug. Oh my god,
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  Speaker 3: you wouldn't want to live this way. But I mean
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  Speaker 3: I found so you know when I was on aswell.
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  Speaker 3: Turns that was my first big job at the Helmesy Palace,
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  Speaker 3: right buying Saint Patrick's, where we left to go to
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  Speaker 3: our party, which was at a club past uh the
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: you know, Leona Helmesey's hotel. I would always be aware
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  Speaker 3: that in our tuxes and our gowns walking past that
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  Speaker 3: that door to my left was the door to where
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  Speaker 3: the bus boys locker room was. And any other day
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  Speaker 3: for a couple of years I would have taken the
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  Speaker 3: left and gone into that room. But today I was
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  Speaker 3: going to the Emmys.
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  Speaker 2: I mean.
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  Speaker 3: And on as the world turns. I remember, I had
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  Speaker 3: to make a choice, and I'll tell the story. I
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: think I've told you this before. And I was, you know,
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  Speaker 3: it was such a student. I was such a you
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  Speaker 3: know that you worked this hard, you get that far.
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  Speaker 2: It was.
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  Speaker 3: The acting is totally opposite of all that stuff. I
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: walked around the set and during the weeks that I
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: had to make the decide to ask people, why are
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: you an actor? And I got all sorts of wonderful answers.
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  Speaker 3: And Kate McNeil, there's a blonde actor on the show wonderful.
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  Speaker 3: She said, this is one place I can be honest.
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  Speaker 3: And I thought, oh, that's good. That's good for now.
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  Speaker 3: That's good for now. Remember I was working with people
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  Speaker 3: like Marissa to may I or Meg Ryan. They were
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  Speaker 3: all argo was played. I mean by I mean just
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  Speaker 3: these amazing acts justin de'es.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it was all great.
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  Speaker 3: And I didn't know that, so I didn't and I
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  Speaker 3: did not know the history of the of the shows.
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  Speaker 4: This was like before that.
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  Speaker 3: I got my sad cart by being and Donny Osman
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  Speaker 3: imitator on HBO at that time, we're talking to about
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  Speaker 3: ancient history. Now. That was kind of a commuter commuter,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: a come Come, Consumer Report kind of station, and I
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: did the Consumer Reports Presents the Smart Shopper Show. I
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: still have the footage I played Donnie Osmond. This is
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: after four years of high school and college, and four
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  Speaker 3: years of college where people mersey. My head just fell
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  Speaker 3: into that brunette helmet. And I literally talked to Donnie
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  Speaker 3: Osmond himself, oh about it all the time, because he
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  Speaker 3: has a large fan and he has he has the
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  Speaker 3: same thing. I have six brothers, six brothers and the
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  Speaker 3: two sisters. I talked to Marie about it. I said,
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  Speaker 3: you're that sister crazy as a loon, torture your brother
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  Speaker 3: and she said, yes, I am.
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  Speaker 2: I love both.
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  Speaker 3: It was such a it was such a fascinating time.
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  Speaker 3: But again I remember that that was the answer. I
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  Speaker 3: knew enough about it at that point about what it
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  Speaker 3: felt like to tell a story and to paint a
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  Speaker 3: picture or to little I knew. I remember, I was
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: still very basic. I was I came out in a
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  Speaker 3: chicken suit. I was playing teens, remember well up like
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  Speaker 3: early twenties. Yes, and Marissa Tomay was laughing. She laughed,
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  Speaker 3: had a great laugh, always did. And I looked at
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  Speaker 3: her and I said, you're really laughing. That's how basic
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  Speaker 3: I was.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my god, she did?
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  Speaker 3: She really in those scenes? Was that person? So, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: part of it is it's a great career for an outsider.
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  Speaker 3: It speaks to the outsider and everyone, and I think
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  Speaker 3: that's where you get So it's things clicked about it.
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  Speaker 3: But I learned to love it. And at a point
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  Speaker 3: while I wasn't Aswald turns, I said, I don't. I
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  Speaker 3: can't leave this part of it because I want I
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  Speaker 3: want to fee what it feels like. And I tell
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  Speaker 3: you the seminole moment is when we had the Emmys
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  Speaker 3: in New York, Still and I were running all the
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: actors were you. That was like Disney World for adults.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, running across the street catching every show you can.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, of course. Of course.
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  Speaker 3: I heard about a play called Doubt did had gotten
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  Speaker 3: great reviews. Cherry was playing the mother Superior.
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  Speaker 2: Oh Cherry Jones, Oh my god.
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  Speaker 3: Arry Jones, my friend. When I fall fall down, I
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  Speaker 3: fall up. That was like last last seats available. Michelle
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  Speaker 3: and I are in the nose in the gods. We're
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: in almost the last row of the theater. And I'm
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: telling you, when she and I get, I get hair
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: stand on end. When I think about it, that last line,
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  Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember the play of the
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: play is the mother Superior, who's been so sure and
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: so dogged and so determined and so on a campaign
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: through the whole thing. Ends it with I have so
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: much doubt I have, you know. And it was like,
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  Speaker 3: and I remember Cherry Jones being.
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  Speaker 2: Here, Oh wow.
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  Speaker 3: I remember her here. I don't remember her as a
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  Speaker 3: small speck on the stage. And I said, I want
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: that power. And Michelle and I were both just own
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: a way, but I want that power, that power to
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  Speaker 3: share something, something complex, something you would take volumes to
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  Speaker 3: speak it. But acting gives you the ability just be it.
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  Speaker 3: And if you're honest enough and you be it, then
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  Speaker 3: people automatically you share something universal about the human condition.
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  Speaker 3: To make it all sound fancy, but what you have
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  Speaker 3: a level of communication with people that is so much
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  Speaker 3: more intimate than speaking. I mean, it is when you
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  Speaker 3: feel the person affecting you, just like any artist, like
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  Speaker 3: someone when you look up on the stage and seebody
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  Speaker 3: playing the music and they're lost, and you see them lost.
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  Speaker 3: It's like, that's the sexiest, most beautiful, most intimate moment
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  Speaker 3: that you're not even aware of your sharing with us.
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  Speaker 3: And that's what I fell in love with it. And
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: but I want, you know, and it's and it's like
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  Speaker 3: the Holy Grail. It's maybe maybe in my career twenty
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  Speaker 3: minutes fifteen of that transcendental kind of thing. And I
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  Speaker 3: think that's what keeps a lot of people going. It's
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: like I want more. It's like crack and you know,
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: and you're talking about live theater. And I had my
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: first opportunity to do off Broadway doing Tennessee Williams, though
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: I know Southern Shakespeare. Yeah, and to say, combine that
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  Speaker 3: with some of the most beautiful writing ever written, Oh,
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  Speaker 3: I sit here and I can like you can well up,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: and it's like the opportunity doesn't mean you'll succeed. But
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: it's like anything anything I think in the world, perfection
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  Speaker 3: is just that's something off and unavailable. It's a target.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: But Christian let's let's let's uh, let's transition that into
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  Speaker 1: how do you get that through soap opera? Because it's
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: such a fast paced. Sometimes you block it. You just
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: do it, not too many takes. Do you achieve that
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  Speaker 1: bliss every once in a while or so?
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: Oh? I mean I I I just had this talk Sally. Uh.
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  Speaker 3: Sally are executive producer. And I was sitting there, that's yeah,
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: watching something, Sally mcne.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Oh McDonald, donald McDonald you something, yeah, don's.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the writer wonderful. We were sitting there talking and
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: I just said, and I'm watching, We're just watching some
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  Speaker 3: of the brilliant actors that we have rehearse. And uh,
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  Speaker 3: I said, if they ever, you have to take this
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  Speaker 3: craft seriously, and if ever, the business people and the
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: offices and the budget people, if when everyone's on the
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: same page and realize is that this is the same
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: art form that did the Odyssey. This is storytelling that
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: we'll always have an audience. You can sit around a
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: fire and you can be starving and cold and people
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: around there getting heated up with you. And if you
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: tell a story, well people listen and everything else falls away.
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  Speaker 3: It is what human beings do. It is the that
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: is the common culture, that that bond that a story has,
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: and nobody doesn't like So because I remember going into
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: teach a teacher, a very well known teacher and beautiful, wonderful,
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: But what do you do? What you are? You still
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: doing that job. That's how people want to say something
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: at that point, and it was not quite dismissive, but
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: I said, you have to understand something. I get a chance.
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: To grow up, to grow old, to get married, to
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: have children, to suffer grief, to suffer losing a loved one.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Death, all those things. I do that in real time
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: with the people who watched the show. I'm in their
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: living room, and I transcend. If I'm doing it correctly,
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: if I'm passionate, if I'm not lazy, if I'm not
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: sleep walking through performance, all the things I've done sometimes,
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: but if I have them there there for me, I mean,
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: and I did. I didn't want emmy speech where I
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: tried to quote, oh yeah, remember you know, uh, it's
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: quest for intelligence, intelligent life in the universe. Yes, my god,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: Now I can't even remember her name.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: I remember you tried it, yeah you and.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: I remember her whole story started this one woman shows.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: She won everything for it. Lily Tomlin, there you go.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Thank you worked with her.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: At the enemy's And I just sat there and we
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: talk and just I could just stare at her and
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: touch her anytime. I sure she knew it I was talking.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: But the story starts with her looking at Andy warhol
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: painting of soup Campbell's soup Famous.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the question.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Right at the beginning of it, she goes, is it super?
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: Is it art? What is it super art? It's hysterical,
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: asked the comedian in the world. At the end of it,
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: And that's what I tried to do. And that's that's
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: how skillful Lily is. I sat, I was at the
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: podium and I was like, and I just wanted that idea.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: She goes, you know what I do?
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: You know what it is?
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: At the end she goes, aha, moment of the whole play,
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: she goes, this is the soup. She's like, she's here.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: That is the art, and it is the connection that
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: the audience is willing to give you if you're honest.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: It is the payment the audience gives you if you
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: were honest, if you bear it all and hold nothing
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: back back, they're yours. And I have felt that on
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: a stage. I have felt when it's not.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure, Yeah.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it is nothing more intoxicating because it is
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: for a moment you touch something that binds us all
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: no matter where you're coming from, that you can affect people.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: And that's when Charles Riley was one of my best teachers.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: Just yea art is meant to provoke. It's up to
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: the audience to provoke. What it's not you to judge
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: how it could be angry at you, they could be
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: happy with you. But it has to provoke, not bore
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: right for people to sleep right. Poke at them somehow, yes,
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: and they come to you and you poke at them
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: with the honesty performance. This is this is soup, This
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: is the right. Magic is the audience, and it is
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: the audience that opens up. If you don't have that,
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: if you don't do that with your performance. And soaps
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: have that, and they have this wonderful arc of time
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: they get killed on it. Yeah, and they I've had
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: you know, the people come up to you and hug you,
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: but they hug you like family.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Sometimes.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, it's not something that's a.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: Mistake or somebody's kind of crazy. We have you know,
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: we have people who different degrees of stuff, but it
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: is what we consciously have built with them. It is
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: what every commercial, every promo, every every this, this these
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: audiences where you and I talk, we give them they
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: we give them something to latch onto, and we come
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: into their house every day and we live with them
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: and they and it's I'm telling you and we just
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: said that. I just said, this is before. You cannot
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: write real life. No one would believe it.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: They wouldn't.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: They write daytime and that's as close as people can
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: if you're honest with it. So I was telling that
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: teacher basically, you you very no one has the chance
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: to develop that relationship with an audience, no one else
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: but daytime. And they're copying daytime.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: They are definitely oh yeah.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's that is the potential there. And it
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: is not easy, no, not imagine the writing. We just
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: just have you know Jamie Giddens and know my buddy.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: I'm like, actually know somebody who's gonna be writing so
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: exciting coming in.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: And we talk a lot about that. It's it's but
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: I mean it is a team effort because they rely
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: on the actor's history and knowing their history and there
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: it's it's just everyone has to be on their game
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: and it will fall short, if you're a real artist,
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: you'll want to do better and you won't. It won't
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: be what you But perfection is nothing that you you're
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: you're is not what you're chasing. It is the honesty
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: that you're chasing. And that's the thing that's so hard.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: And that's and just imagine if you were one hundred
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: percent honest with yourself and unfettered from anyone's concept of
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: what should a good of, would a you know, just
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: be for a moment there religions, whole religions, Buddhism, meditation,
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: whole thing's based on just getting there. And we get
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: paid paid right to chase that dream. So anyway, that
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: was a.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Long I love that answer. I love the fans gonna
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: love it to you. But here's here's here's the more
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: transition that to this many folks will bring up the infamous,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: famous storyline where you were coming through the coming through
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the wall to get through this old house. You'll ever see, right,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: And he's just funny. So I told Michelle it's when
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: I met her. I finally met laur Lee. I had
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: never met her, Oh God time, and I finally met
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: her at the Bold and Beautiful Studio opening, right, We
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: talked for about fifteen minutes.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: Believe it's been that long and you have not met
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: her missing the same thing.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: I go, I don't.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: We have all these friends in common, we all know
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: so I know, I know, Brad, I've never met her,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: And so when I met her, we had the best
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I fell in love with her. We had the best
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: fifteen minute conversation about life. It was just like, she's
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: so gracious and so nice. I mean, I'll tell you
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: ain't already. Yeah, yeah, that's wonderful thing. Yes, and so,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: but here's the thing. Talking about this chasing this thing
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: or trying to get this thing in daytime. That storyline
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: was original, it was ballsy, so you had to and
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: when you had to really go in then you had
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: to really believe. You had to really talk about that.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I didn't ask you this question for it. Can you
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: talk about that a little bit? You had to really
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: dig in there, right, and someone was scary, I mean,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: that whole storyline and knowing that Laurally is one of
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the nicest people on earth, like it was like, oh,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: my God, is a real person.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: You as an actor had to go there sometimes.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: And God bless I mean, if if Laura Lee laurally
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: made the only reason I'm still on the show is
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: because of Laura Lee, not for any other reason except
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: the quality of the work she does, Wow, and the
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: and the then that there is nothing of the entitled
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: thing that you might find of somebody who's been working
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: that hard, that deeply in this process and the production
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: of these shows. She is her father's daughter, though Bill
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: was a genius, and she has learned somehow because that
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: is a difficult place to be in a lot of times,
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: when you're the child of a genius, and only her
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: generosity of spirit and those kind of things can keep
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: you through that and to be the person she is.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: If she had flinched once during the violence, and I
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: would have fallen apart as an actor because I had
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: never done violence before.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: I have sisters.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Doesn't mean you don't know if you don't have sisters,
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: but she had sisters. In a group of boys, I
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: was always the quirky leading man or you know, the comic.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: You know I I have never had this kind of
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: stuff written for me, and it was amazing, and I
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: knew I was coming in uh to beat this character.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: I knew I was the sexual right you know, they
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: label it sexual harassment storyline, and it was I didn't
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: even have a screen test. It was Bill and Ed
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: Scott and that they auditioned me, and so.
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: I didn't think you'd make it.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, you never know, but it was It's
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: I I had to look to Laura Lee to know
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: if it was okay okay, because I didn't have uh
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: and and I don't even recall us talking about it
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: a lot after, I mean even beforehand. Well would always
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: check in, oh, okay, okay, instinctively kind of check in,
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: I did I hit you down? You you know, because
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: there's so much it was. It was and she never
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: gave me reason too, and and she had every right to.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: You know, it's it's tough stuff. And I was really
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: going into it. I mean I loved it. They wrote
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: me stuff and I was just I lean into it
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: that because how I became the most loved fired person
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: in daytime, right.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: I remember.
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: I remember that because Bill and.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: I didn't expect thought two years maybe, but you know,
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: we never know, uh uh and And I remember Bill saying,
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: you played it so well the audience, and this is
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: so Bill what he's famous for, won't believe, if you're believe,
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: if you're just redeemed out of nor I technically went
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: off for three years to to prison. Yes, and my
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: mother always remembered Laura Lee during that three years, would
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: always mention me. She'd mentioned me in different just in
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: the core of her many interviews, you know, she would
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: mention enjoying the storyliner or liking to work with me.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: And my mother always loved that. And I always I
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: always think lordly for making my mom happy.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: And and yeah, it was, it was, it was hard.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: But I and I just that thing about again. It
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: allows you to if you're, if you were the keyboard
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: of a piano. Acting allows you to stretch all over
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: a keyboard where maybe in life you would have only
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: played a few few octaves. But I will tear up
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: a scene, will I will go for it. Well.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: But but here's the thing.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Be on the opposite side. You and and my my
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: other friend, my buddy. I taught to you almost every day,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Miss Tracey Bragman, your wife.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: We talk.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: We talk horses, were equine people. We talk horses all
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: the time. You guys are the longest marriage. Oh you're
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: and the restless officially the.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: Officially, I wonder the longest marriage of the of the.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: I wonder because it's right exactly, That's what I mean.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: But here's the thing.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: So that's about that side of things where we believe
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: you guys are a couple. I know you both personally
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: outside of this, but I can still when the scene
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: like we had that standalone episode, I believe it. I
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: believe it, like we all like we see you together.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: It feels like home for us at home. So can
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: you talk about playing that a little bit? That's that's
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: that's another sign.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: And that's tracy.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: That is oh, you know.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: But it's very interesting. Even on that first day. I mean,
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: I remember Lauren would make fun of Michael for carrying
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: a torch for Christine because remember he went through this, yeah,
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: miserable about Christine. But then I think it might have
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: been Jack Smith at the time as the head writer. Yeah,
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: you know, because he started making a family for for Michael. Yes,
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: Kevin Greg with the brilliant Greg Greg Carter in a
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: total different storyline. Nothing to do, no that we had
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: even similar histories, you know as that famous scene where
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: he walks into my office and goes, hi, brother.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: That was crazy.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: I was like, what, like what and they made it
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: make sense. And and the magic, you know, of the
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: combination of the three of us, because we all learned
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: to love each other as our characters. Yes, use Lauren.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: I know that my brother is is. If he doesn't
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: get out of that jail cell, he will die for
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: many reasons. I'm going to look for money. I'm going
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: to go. I remember they were talking about selling my condo.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: I was trying to raise money for his bail and
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: she steps in and people ask me, and I said,
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: that's the obvious place where Michael would just because all
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: he had was his brother at that moment. And Joan
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: van arc was the most generous actress, I mean Wood.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: We did not know each other at all, and I
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: had that big It was actually in the Emmy Reeal,
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: I think, with this big argument in the hospital waiting
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: room and Greg's in the hospital and I tell her
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: you are not going to lay a hand of that boy.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: He is, you know, just this big fight. And I
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: remember we sat there next to each other.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: John Ark from not Landing Hello in Dallas, all of.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: My teachers, I mean, Julie Harris, everyone, the amazing Ted Shot.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: All those people were such mentors to me in some way,
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: certainly Julie Harris because she gave me the that was
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: the first play, you know, at the Coconut Grove. Woman
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: who has been nominated for More Tony's in the World,
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: whispers in my ear, you know, good, good to evening,
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: and we're at dinner, good evening, mister feather and.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Clements. I'm not slanding. Some people know that that's Julie Harris.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and they were all there, but but it was
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: one of those.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: It was that was the fact that Lauren paid and
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: saved my brother and I thought, what a what a
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: great And I don't even know if that was all
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: in their head at the time. Uh, that was going
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: to be a couple because you know, remember Kevin was
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: in love with her too.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, that's the whole thing.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, it kind of amazingly twisted.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and uh and that's where it starts. But I
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: will tell you the magic of it all is you
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: and you don't always even with the best best even
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: if you're best friends, sometimes it's that gets in the way.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: You don't always have that physical comfort with each other.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: Right off the belt and in the beginning, Michael certainly
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: had his you know, you have the women he was
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: involved with, the Longoria and Jennifer Garris, and people forget
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: that he was he was.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: He was a and.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: I will tell you a great story was always and
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: I think Tracy's maybe have told you this. We were
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: sitting on a set of a cabaret, some kind of
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: set that we're at tables. The whole cast is at
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: different tables and we're watching and they call the five,
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: so everybody goes off. That means a break, and Tracy
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: and I were still sitting there and Christopher Saint John
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: of all people, comes up and goes, it's done. We're
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: on break, and we're still and we're talking. And that's
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: that is such a tribute to Tracy in that it
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: does not always come. I mean, even with people you
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: would love and are, that physical ease and the trust
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: was already there, and we had to play some heavy steaks,
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: you know, him she being held hostage by Kevin, me
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: doing Kevin, you know, the the other time I was nominated.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: I'm praying and she walks in. I think she's gone.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: I think she's dead. At our honeymoon, but immediately we
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: had that kind of and I cannot tell you what,
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: how much that adds to scenes, to the larity that
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: I think that people are getting drawn into the two
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: of us. But I mean it does not.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: It's a rare thing.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: I gotta tell you. Right from the beginning, Tracy is
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: that person.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, number one, she is very much is. Yeah, it
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: is that person. So that leads into the Emmy nomination reels.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: And you and Eric gave the same reels.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: And Eric told me on the show, and he told
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: me off camera and on camera because I asked him
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: this and go he said, I said, how do you
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: get through scenes with Christian because we don't realize how
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: funny is He said, it's hard, James, it's hard because
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: he's so damn funny. But then when he turns on,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: that's it. And I said, so we started to laughing
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: about that. So talk about you and Eric, because because
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: those scenes were so it really hit me watching those scenes.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: That's right. He had a horrible father played by the
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: wonderful actor roscill Borer. I mean, that's all the story. Oh,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: he was a great, great actor. I mean great actor.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: You remember Michael's father was River Phoenix, which is that's from.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Oh Michael Gross, Yes, Michael gross. Yes, so you got me.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: But the dynamic from Victor and Michael that was on
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: display as and your wife, you were totally in like
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: this weird triangle and you had to portray. So that's
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: about that. These are these are the scenes you submitted
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: for the Emmys and stuff. That's about that dynamic with
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: you and Eric. But he did say, you're you're fucking hilarious.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: What he said, he's fucking curious. And I but when
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: he turns it on, I turn it on. But he's
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: so But he's so damn funny.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: He has a lot of nerdy.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: I know he's funny too, I know, a.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: Very funny man. Yes, and when and yeah, he's like
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: a wind up doll. And all you have to do
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: is about like a line of Shakespeare, and you've lost
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: twenty minutes. But I might also add that when he
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: is laughing, he goes up and I don't go up.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: When I laugh, I get yelled at. It's never Eric.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: It is like blah blah.
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: I was like okay, and I just I eat it. Okay,
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: all right. You will never hear the other way around.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: And he is for my It was my thirtieth anniversary
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: and he got up, you know they were They were
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: all came in during pandemic, I remember, and I was
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: so I was amazed that people you have to go
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: get tested all that stuff.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: I remember. I remember all that.
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you know Amel and Eric and Eric came
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: up and spoke and I he he started singing because
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: I one of my repertoires is ha' been Ziga had
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: the Stutsche band from the producers, and he started singing
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: Springtime for Hitler. Oh my god, I love it next
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: to me and he started he brought it. He's like
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: and you could just say he was so proud. This
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: was going to be his gift is that he will
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: literally which we've done before, but never in front of camera, right,
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: I'm sure, And he started singing Springtime for Hitler, and
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: I thought, he is the man. He knows he knows
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: me well enough to know that this if I I
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: hope someone has a camera on him because I will
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: use it. But yeah, he is that.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: He is the relation.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: People don't remember how much Victor and Nikki also, but
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: Victors is in Michael's life all the way back to
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: when Fenmore was born. He comes in and Nicky when
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: we're about to lose Fenmore. Fenmore is in an incubator
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: and he's not doing well. They visit and then there's
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: a Christmas even before that, when you know Nick and
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: all the baby they're all babies. Oh my god, all
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: the children babies. It's Christmas. Michael, I think, has just
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: gotten back into town not too too long ago, doesn't
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: really have any friends. And the great thing about this
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: is they made Michael say over and over again since
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: the first day one on the show, I have no family.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: I have no one, which just makes absolute sense. When
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: they finally bring in, but I'm sitting there and they're
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: reading I believe it's Christmas Story. Okay, it's like Victor
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: and everyone there. There's candles, fireplace, just like Sama just
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: vomited on that set. It was just there's snow outside.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: Michael is literally wiping the window to look in. He's outside, wow,
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: because I think he's afraid to come in, and he
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: just looks. They bring him in and Mike and Victor
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: sits him down and they make him read the Christmas Story.
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: Oh you know, and I think it's always been one
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: of my best favorite things Christmas. But there's the thing
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: about what was my business man con was my business,
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: you know, my business was a drop in the ocean
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: of mankind, you know. And it's a wonderful scene because
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: Michael reads it and gets to have the revelation of
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: what those words mean, probably for the first time.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Given yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean, Victor goes
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: way way back, and it's.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: Funny they won't you won't mention it for a while.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Then you're thinking they've forgotten everything. You might have forgotten everything. Yeah,
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: and they put it back in there. And I will
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: tell you, if you think about it, we've had more
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: breakups than Michael and Lauren or anyone else on the cast.
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: The relation to it and Victor Eric is one time
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: he fired me with that beautiful office with the and
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: he goes and he makes it sad. He when I
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: walk out, walks to the window and he told, he told,
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: this is what I want to do this and has
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: this moment where he's very very sad when he just
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: did fired Michael again.
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: But it's so people remember that. So it's it's it's
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: it's actually right.
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: And you mentioned this thing about a father complex and
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: and Michael even says those words, and Lauren even in
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: trying to comfort him, but where does your loyalty lie?
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: And and I think there's probably very few things as
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: strong as that kind of pull to someone a father,
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: you know who, anyone in authority, and Victor Eric's character
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: is perfect to project that on just perfect, Yes, everything
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: that you know Michael Gross played this if you remember,
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: he's a scammy. Yes, he's another ashrom lybbing people. And
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: you're like, that's what all he had that in Roscoe,
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: that terrible Tom and that, and then you have this amazing.
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: Character of Gloria. Gloria he's taking care of like a child.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: No one's taking care of Michael.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: It's a very powerful thing. And and I don't even
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: know how what a gift when they started revisiting it again.
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: There was never a real break in their relationship. They
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: just weren't working together. Sometimes calls them in and it's
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: you know. And then you have the wonderful Ray Wise,
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: who's also nominated, Oh yes, is playing that character, holds
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: us all a gunboat point and brings it up to
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: a boil, that kind of what would happen if Victor's gone,
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: and and and very.
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: Subtle, and then then they did these What was great
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: is I didn't know This.
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: Was the first scene that they had written where Victor
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: kind of sneaks it in. I think it's all settled
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: about us being okay, that he trusts me and in
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: the middle of his whole thing with the whole h
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: what was it? The Duma?
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: Okay, Ron, but you.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: Know, Alexander, not Alexander Duma. It's somebody else.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: But I always think Aristle we made jokes about. We
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: made jokes when I talked because that was friends of
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: Billy Flynn, so we had had him come on. We
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: made jokes about that. I said, we took drinks. It's
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: like Aristotle, Alexander whoever?
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: But that Dumont and I actually Joshua's on someone.
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: They said, why Aristotle because you don't want Alexander. But
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: it's close enough that all you want.
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: To say is Alexander Dumar. He's saying that name over.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: And over and over and over.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, then it's just going to be a king, right
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: right for all that Right after that game, I mean, yeah,
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: so and and Eric was wonderful and playing it, and
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: he wonderful, and that he underplayed anything that he would
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: just you know, there was never big hugs and stuff
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: like that. And he's that it was so in character
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: that you would catch it, but only you know it was.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: It was when when Michael was not on the role,
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: where he's talking to Nikki and or you or Nicky
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: will talk about No, he's miserable. Don't let him kid you.
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: And I never saw those scenes.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: He's like a Christian. Here's the thing. You'll probably agree
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: with you on this. I told me. I told Eric this.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: It's in his eyes. He communicates well, especially at this age.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: He acmucates so well with his eyes. And I told him,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: I said, there was several scenes last year where I
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: was like, when Victor gets teary eyed, I get tearry eyed.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: I'm like, there was some with Amelia, there was some
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: with Josh, and there was some with you where the
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: way he conveyed with his eyes and of course his
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: voice obviously two, but his eyes he was so disappointed
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: in you.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: He could understand why you're doing this to him.
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: And that's the brilliance of it, is that both of
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: us feel betrayed, right, yes, absolute opposite reasons, you.
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: Know, And and it's brilliant.
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: And it's it's kind of Eric's restraint that make the
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: scenes because he says it's so simply he says, well,
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: maybe I don't trust you. It's a big part of
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: the submission. It just I said, I'm going to leave
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: it alone. I don't know what will happen. As an actor,
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: I said, Okay, that's gonna come in there, and it'll
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: all be about how he says it, because Michael Usuy
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: defers to you know, he doesn't go up against victory
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: of that.
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: No, he's got a.
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: Cowed by him sometimes. And then he says it at
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: the exact and and and I went, I blew up,
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: and I had never done that. And Eric came right
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: along with me, and the and they The genius of
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: those scenes is that they ended with the following day,
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: it's what is it? Michael says, I'm leaving and I
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: want you to wish me well, and they just leave
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: it now and let the camera stay. I know on
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: both of us, nobody says anything. And poor Nikki that's
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: what kid, right?
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Right? So yeah?
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: That that that That was. That was the submission. And
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: I love that we kind of edited each other out.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know that funny, I know, I mean, I
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: don't want.
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: To hear him talking for fifteen minutes at the end. Yeah,
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: I don't get that, but you know.
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: It's in the same category.
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: So people saw the whole scene.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: They judge, Yeah, basically yeah.
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's and it's it's and and and I
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: think Eric has that those lovely ones with Emelia. Yeah,
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: my god, yes, yeah, so that's I mean, that's that,
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: that really is. And he the stuff he's been doing
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: with Josh Oh, the fiction storyline is yeah. Also really
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: you know, and and I hope I get it. It's
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: it's like it seems I can only put yourself. I
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: never never kind of talk about it that way.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: But what he has been through.
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: And remember I was rehearsing with him when his house
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: burned down. Yes, I was on the phone with his
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: eyes here he was you know, Dale was on the
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: phone with.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: Him, yeah, or that.
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: And it's like, you pack up a few things, right
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: because the winds they it's not in the direction. Stuff
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: like that, all the stuff he's gone through in his
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: eighty five years, and he's at a place where Wow,
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: it's like you said, he just did that with his eyes.
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: I'm bawling. He's not right, right, he does it with
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: his eyes and just gruff word here and there. I mean,
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: it's just pared down to what Victor would be. And
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: you can only I mean, someone who has learned a lot,
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: That's all I can say, do moments like that and
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: trusts himself.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Well, he said, well, he says he loves his cast.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: I mean he totally. I mean, he's like, I love
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: my cast. And the fact that he has been through
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: a lot. We talked about that little bit too, and
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: he's been through a lot.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: He enjoys it.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Still that I enjoy it because I enjoy it, and
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: I think and that's I think, knowing Eric as we do,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: that is the impetus for everything that he enjoys doing
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: what he loves and what I.
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: Mean, I I don't even think of retirement, right. I
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: only say that if I do die on a stage,
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: if it's a bad play, just drag me out and
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: putting down some wonderful Richard two on that stage. So
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: the headline doesn't read, you know, Christian dies, Christian death
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: during bomb.
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: You know, I don't want, I want, I want.
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: I don't want to make it look like, oh, he
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: exited that scene because it was miserable.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: It was really bad. It was really bad.
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: I'd rather die than do the rest of this play.
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: I don't want any jokes like that. Brilliant.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, I can talk to you forever. So
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: last last question was gonna ask you kind of is
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: getting getting these Emmy nominations And yeah, you've won a
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: few times, but it's still it's still your work, and
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: you have your peers, and we know everybody in the industry,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: we all we know. I know all five of you guys.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's almost how does it feel at this
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: stage for you?
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: It's like you said, it's always uh And I used
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: to you know, the people who are the people who
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: don't like award shows, the people who don't feel that
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: you can really judge a best performance for the year,
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: that it's a fantasy.
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: It is until until you win and then they finally
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: have good taste. And if you feel any other way, right.
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: If it bothers you, if it hurts, if you don't
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: have them in you know, it's a lot. Yeah, a competition.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: You make a competition out of this, But I don't
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: look at it that way. We're from New Orleans. Life
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: is hard, yes, for everyone. Wherever you are in your place,
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: in your spot, it can be very hard. And if
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: you pass up a chance to celebrate what you love
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: and the people who you do that with, who help
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: you love that thing, then it's a sin. That's why
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: we all do it on Fat Tuesday, Church Wednesday.
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: That's right, and thank God, yes, letting you live through that. Yes, right,
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: all right, But.
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean.
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: It's it's it's life is hard if you pass up
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: a celebration of it in whatever form it comes. And
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: you know we will figure out a celebration. You just
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: give something, we'll do it. So it is a sin,
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: so I mean, but again, if you don't see it
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: that way, then absolutely protect yourself and go elsewhere. But
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: when I when I think of the people I'm nominated with,
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: the people I was nominated with before I am so
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: I will tell you this, when when I've ever gotten up,
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: whenever I've ever won anything, the thing that comes so
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: clear to you or to me, and I think it's
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: it's a general thing from what I witness. Is there
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: someone to think, not a question, There is someone to think.
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: And I might not know it there, but it's always
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: I might not even even voice it correctly. During my speeches,
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: which like our interviews, Temple one was Lily Tomlin and
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: that wonderful line. One was Robert you know, Charles Nelson
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: Riley when he passed away that month. There were people
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: and that's what comes is the other thing is that
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: the gift of throwing that spotlight, like jarring you out
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: of your everyday life is that, Oh my god, who
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: who is responsible for this? I don't feel I've done it.
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: It's not just me. Look at these people, look at
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: the nominees.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: I'm with. Yes, at this point, I have lived my.
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: Life with these men I all this time, and they
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: have been done some of the most wonderful things. They've
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: been such such precious people to me. I've gone through
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: stuff with them. So I mean it for me, at
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: least it feeds something positive, which is, like I said,
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: you have the fellowship of celebrating something you love with
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: other people who love it too.
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: And that's no.
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: I mean, throw me a bead for frext sake, and
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: they should. I should, if I were smart, have some
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: beads made. Just go up there at the microphone and
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: throws the balloons and deeds and everybody, and it would
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: say everything it would think that I want to express.
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, So I mean, yeah, that's that's that's
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: my thoughts on that. I mean, it is it's a
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: you know people and it's your peers. They voted for
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: you and like that. But it's it's a chance, it's
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: an opportunity to just think, just get it out.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: I agree with that.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: And folks, I mean when I go. I've been going
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: to the MS for ten to fifteen years. I was
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: telling you it's like it's like old home week. You
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: to see your friend, you get to get together people.
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: It's fine those parties afterwards, right, and I am a kisser,
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: so watch out how that works.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: O H Jr.
• 49:48
  Speaker 4: And the party.
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: It's fun, folks.
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: You guys doesn't know what HR is.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you, Christian, thank you something you.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: I so enjoy our time, folks, Christian Joy. He is
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: up for He's upfront. I mean the Emmy's not folks them.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: He's already ntil October thirty eight, before Halloween, my friend.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: That's funny. I know I kind of want to go
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: in costume, but that's one of the story.
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: Well, I asked and I was told most definitely not to.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: You know, I asked, I know you did. I thought
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: the same. I thought the same thing. My couple of
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: costumes they said no costumes.
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: James like, oh god, I hope not.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, I asked the same thing, he said no, So
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: I said no costume. But it's October thirtieth, folks, and
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: he's already a winner. He's already winning just being like
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: I said, in that category and just up there's already winner. Everybody.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Thanks for watching. This show makes you share with everybody.
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: It's everywhere on all social media platforms. I'm James Junior.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: See next time.