The Young and the Restless fans were crushed when Steve Burton (ex-Dylan McAvoy; ex-Jason Morgan, General Hospital) decided to leave the world of daytime last year, but the actor's recent Daytime Emmy nomination means there'll be a chance some can party with the actor at least one more time -- and he tells Soap Central that he can't wait to get the celebration under way.
soapcentral.com: Congratulations on your Emmy nomination!
Steve Burton: Thank you so much. I appreciate that. It's always an honor for sure. I'm excited about it. I can't wait to go to California and go to the Emmys. I'm really excited.
soapcentral.com: Yeah, you get to see all your old friends and get a nice dose of the California sunshine. What's not to love?
Burton: Yeah, it's like a high school reunion I want to go to. [Laughs]
soapcentral.com: How did you find out you'd been nominated?
Burton: Actually, Matty K [from our publicity department] and Jimmy Freeman [show producer] texted me. I try to remember when it is, when the nominations are announced. For years it was in New York first, so I didn't even have to think about it because I'd be sleeping at 5AM or whatever it was. This year, I just kind of got caught up with working, and Jimmy and Matt texted me, so it was an awesome surprise.
soapcentral.com: What were you working on at the time?
Burton: I was working on my nutrition company.
soapcentral.com: Okay, cool. So what did you do immediately after finding out? Did you call your family, or did you just have to keep on working?
Burton: I took a break and talked to Jimmy and Matt, and then I got some more texts from other peers who got nominated, and I texted some people. And then my wife got home, and I told her and the kids, and that was pretty much it. Throughout the day, I talked to people via text.
soapcentral.com: Did you get to celebrate that night?
Burton: Uh, no. No celebrating. I'll celebrate when I get to California!
soapcentral.com: What scenes did you submit that landed you the nomination?
Burton: The bulk of it was when we returned Sully/Christian to Nick [Joshua Morrow]. That was the bulk of the scenes right there. It was pretty great. Everyone did a really great job in that story and really delivered, which obviously made my job a lot easier. We lived it for a year, the storyline, so it wasn't super, super difficult, but it was definitely some heavy emotional stuff for sure.
soapcentral.com: You had quite a bit of emotional stuff over the year, so did you know immediately that you wanted to choose those scenes, or was it difficult to figure out what to submit?
Burton: I'm really bad at remembering shows because there are so many of them. Usually you have to rely on Matt, Jimmy, and some of the other producers to tell you, "Hey, maybe you should take a look at this show or this show," and Jimmy did that for me, Jimmy Freeman, and they get a lot of shows together that you can look at, and then you really just go from there to narrow it down. I'm not really the best at picking, because I don't know if I can be super objective, so everyone kind of leaned toward those shows this years, so I just kind of went with the group vote.
soapcentral.com: Did you find that the new submission rules that added more time to your reel made it any easier for you, or did it actually maybe make it more difficult?
Burton: I don't know if it made it easier, but I totally get it. There are years where you don't have enough material, and to be able to pull from four shows, all of a sudden, you have a reel, you know? When it's just two shows, sometimes you're like, "Oh, man, I've got two good scenes over here and two over here, but it's only three and half minutes!" Then you're kind of in a hard situation that way. I'm glad they did that, because it kind of gives everybody a fair shot to get enough material.
soapcentral.com: You made the choice to walk away from daytime, so did you wrestle with the choice of entering the Emmy race this year, as well?
Burton: You know, first of all, I wouldn't say I made the choice to walk away. You never know what could happen. Obviously it was a difficult thing. Daytime has been my life, and I've been so blessed and grateful to even work in a medium with the people I've worked with; it's amazing. And my time at Y&R was phenomenal. The people are absolutely top notch, from the crew to the cast. Everybody was really great to work with, so it's never easy to walk away from that. But I felt that I had a lot of material this year, so I just felt that I should put myself up there and see what happens.
soapcentral.com: I'm sure your fans are super excited that you did, because it means they get another dose of you!
Burton: [Laughs] It'll be fun. We'll have a good time, for sure.
soapcentral.com: Is there anyone on the nomination list that you're really happy for or anyone you feel was left out?
Burton: Man, you know, it's so tough. The Emmys are such an interesting animal. Sometimes there's no rhyme or reason. I mean, obviously I've been doing it for a long time, and there are years where I thought, "Man, I've got great material!" And you don't make it in. And then there are years where you think, "Ah, I don't know. This isn't really that good." And then you make it. There's a group of people in every category that you could have ten people in every year, you know what I mean. Somebody always end up getting left out, and I think it just comes down to the story that year for you. Look, we're all so close. I've been on two shows now, and I'm close with everybody on both shows, so I was excited. Especially Chad Duell [Michael Quartermaine, GH], because I kind of mentored Chad when he first came on the show. So it's super exciting to see him achieve the success he has, for sure. I know we're up against each other, so that's awesome.
soapcentral.com: And you had so many from Y&R get nominated, which is really great for the show.
Burton: Yeah, it's super exciting. If I had to pick one person, I guess I would have to say Kristoff St. John [Neil Winters]. I'm a huge fan of his, and I've known Kristoff for over 20 years, and it's awesome that he's nominated. I've always been a big fan of his work.
soapcentral.com: I know that guys usually don't worry about this, but do you think at all about what you'll wear?
Burton: Ha! I haven't even thought about it until now that you mention it! I don't know. I'm either going to have to use the suit that I used last year, or I'm going to have to talk to wardrobe at Y&R. I don't know! This is not my thing. If you saw me dressed in real life, you'd be like, "This dude needs fashion police like now! This is the worst-dressed person I've ever seen in my life." So I'm sure Scott in wardrobe will help me out.
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