Darin Brooks has a long history in daytime, having started in the genre by playing Days of our Lives' Max Brady from 2005 to 2011. The talented actor managed to snag two Daytime Emmy nominations -- one of which turned to a win -- during his time in Salem, but believe it or not, he hasn't received an Emmy nomination since taking on The Bold and the Beautiful's Wyatt Spencer eight years ago. That might all change this year, though, because the fan-favorite actor has been nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actor category!
Soap Central caught up with Brooks to find out how it feels to be back in the Emmys race, which scenes helped him land this year's exciting nomination, and how he plans to celebrate.
Soap Central: Hi, Darin! Congratulations!
Darin Brooks: Thank you so much! I appreciate it.
Soap Central: How do you feel about your Emmy nomination?
Brooks: I'm ecstatic. I've been on Bold for eight years, and I've really wanted to get a nomination for the show. I've always wanted that, and I checked that box today, so I am over the moon and just super excited to be in the great company I'm with in this category.
Soap Central: How did you find out that you'd been nominated?
Brooks: I was planning a whole thing -- I was going to check it out at 9 o'clock our time, when the announcement was going to come out, but then I got in the middle of things, like, I had a bunch of Amazon boxes in the front door, and you couldn't get out of the door because all this stuff got delivered, so I was opening boxes and breaking them down, and doing all this stuff. I forgot to turn on my ringer this morning, so I was in the middle of breaking down boxes and making breakfast and doing all this stuff, and then I looked at my phone and saw all these texts, and I [said to my wife, Kelly Kruger (ex-Eva, B&B; ex-Mackenzie Browning, The Young and the Restless), "Uuuhhh, babe, either someone died, or I just got nominated for an Emmy!" And she was like, "Well, let's hope it's the latter." [Laughs]
Soap Central: That's hilarious! How did she react to the news of your nomination, and who did you tell after her?
Brooks: She freaked out! I didn't even get a chance to look it up -- I had just seen the texts -- and she stuck the phone in my face and put something on Instagram, doing a story, going, "Woo-hoo!! Congratulations!" And I was like, "I still haven't had time for this to register, babe." [Laughs] But, yeah, it was just me, her, and our daughter, and we were just here at the house, like I said, we were just getting up and getting ready for the day. I haven't called my family yet -- they're back in Hawaii, so they are three hours behind. I'm sure they're up by now, but I'm going to let them call me! [Laughs]
Soap Central: I feel quite honored that I'm speaking with you even before your parents, so thank you for that! What scenes did you submit for your reel this time around?
Brooks: I felt like the best story that I had, which was really fun and had a lot of twists and turns that came out of nowhere, was the Sally/Wyatt/Flo triangle that we were doing [with Courtney Hope and Katrina Bowden]. Sally and Wyatt had this love relationship that they'd had before, and then Flo comes back into town, and she was Wyatt's first love, and he's torn between these two women. For my reel, I started it with finding out that Sally was dying, because we all found out that the character was dying all at once, and we were all like, "Oh, no!" We always hate when that happens. But, with soap operas, you never know where it could go. So, Wyatt finds out about that and goes to Sally, and he knows the truth, but he's basically trying to get her to tell him the truth, and she's like, "No, I'm fine." And then I'm like, "Okay, because if there was something wrong, you'd tell me, right?" And she's like, "Yeah, sure." But Wyatt knows [she's lying] -- he knows her. So, it was fun stuff, kind of "in between the lines." And then it also included Wyatt finding out about Sally kidnapping Flo and holding her hostage, and then the rescue, and then Flo telling Wyatt that Sally wasn't dying in the first place and that she'd been lying about it the whole time, and just the betrayal of that. That's the storyline arc that made it into the Emmy reel this year.
Soap Central: Was it tough to narrow down which scenes to choose, or did you know instinctively which ones you'd submit?
Brooks: I'm the worst! I'm the most judgmental person about my own work. In general, I'm usually like, "I don't have anything." And Eva [our publicist] and Brad Bell [our executive producer and head writer] and Casey [Kasprzyk, one of our producers] and everybody is always like, "You should submit. You should just do it." I'm the worst critic of myself, though, apparently. And even Kelly, my wife, she's like, "You have to submit that! It was great! You have to!" So, when she found out about my nomination this morning, she said, "See!" And she smacked me and was like, "I told you!" [Laughs]
Soap Central: I think it's pretty common, so don't worry. It can feel weird to be like, "I rocked it. I was so amazing!"
Brooks: [Laughs] Yeah, and that's the thing, we always strive for this perfection, and we want those scenes to really feel something and mean something to the people watching... and that's where I'm a perfectionist, and I beat myself up sometimes because I'm like, "Ugh, I could have done this better," or, "I could have done that better." And someone is always like, "No, you were great! Come on!" But that's what we are, we are self-deprecating a lot of the time.
Soap Central: Do you remember how you got into the mood or prepared for any of the scenes on your reel?
Brooks: As I always do, I like to have a lot of fun with people. We joke a lot on set, and with Courtney and Katrina and Don [Diamont, Bill Spencer] and Heather [Tom, Katie Logan], everybody that was in these scenes, we always have a lot of fun. We make it really easy and laid back, just because we can open up with each other that way in scenes. I like to make sure that everybody is having fun, and I think I did that [on those days], and we just had a blast with it.
Soap Central: Speaking of Courtney Hope, she was also nominated this year! Have you been able to congratulate her or vice versa?
Brooks: Yes, she was one of the first people to text me, and I was like, "Oh, my God, that's great, thank you!" And then I looked at the list and was like, "Ummm, and congrats to you! This is crazy!" [Laughs] And she was like, "I know, it's crazy, right?!" And I told her, "It's a third yours -- you, me, and Katrina." She said the same -- "We've got two thirds of it right there." And I said, "Let's do it. Let's go win and go celebrate!"
Soap Central: Have you been in contact with any of the other nominees?
Brooks: Yeah, I messaged Jackie [MacInnes Wood, Steffy Forrester], and she just texted me back a couple of minutes ago, because I forgot to watch ET last night for the announcement of [her category]. And then I texted Thorsten [Kaye, Ridge Forrester]. And Eva, our lovely publicist, she called me and was probably like, "I hope he's not dead!" because my ringer wasn't on, and I had three missed calls from her! And then Brad, Brad is always the best. Brad always takes time out of his day to call us and congratulate us on things. He's the best boss to be working for.
Soap Central: I love the Emmy nomination day, because it's all so positive and such a celebration of the genre and the hard work that you do.
Brooks: Exactly, and you hit the nail on the head. This genre, I feel -- and I kind of harp about this sometimes -- daytime soaps have some of the hardest working people. We shoot so many pages in a day, we shoot so many episodes in a week, and sometimes we're kind of the stepchild of the entertainment industry. So, I'm just really proud of all four shows and anybody who was nominated, because I'm just happy to see this space continue to go, because like I said, we're some of the hardest working people. There are thousands of people that work on these shows, thousands of jobs, and for us to be recognized and to recognize each other and celebrate with each other is just the best. It's the best feeling. Win or lose, we're all just happy for each other.
Soap Central: How do you feel about the ceremony being televised again this year?
Brooks: I couldn't be happier. Like I said, I feel like the daytime genre deserves to be seen, and it deserves to be seen by everybody out there. I'm just so happy that CBS picked it up and we'll all get to see it -- especially because we can't go to the show and be there with our families. Our families are going to want to watch it, too, so all the better for having it televised. It's great.
Soap Central: Do you think you'll do anything to celebrate your nomination? Maybe a special dinner with your family tonight or anything like that?
Brooks: Yeah, maybe I'll get some steaks out and I'll barbecue. I actually didn't even think about that, though! You put the idea in my head, and now I think I'm going to do that!
How do you feel about Darin Brooks landing an Emmy nomination in this year's Outstanding Supporting Actor category? Do you think he'll take home the win? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
