B&B’s John McCook Shares Emmy Reel Secrets (EXCLUSIVE)
The storyline of Eric’s brush with death on THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL led to numerous acting nominations for the soap at this year’s Daytime Emmy Awards, including another Lead Actor nod for his portrayer, John McCook. Of course, while fellow nominees like Jennifer Gareis (Donna) and Thorsten Kaye (Ridge) could submit scenes of them with a comatose Eric, that wouldn’t really work for him!
“The joke is always when you’re in a coma or whatever, everybody else gets to pull up a stool and work on their Emmy reel, but you don’t get to,” McCook chuckled to Soaps In Depth. “The fact is, it was a wonderful story and the fact that it involved the whole cast, or at least a lot of the people on the show, is the best thing about a good story on a soap… it involves everyone.”
Of course, before Eric wound up in a hospital bed, McCook had plenty of powerful material to play as his alter ego dealt with his diagnosis. “There was also the story about Eric feeling not valuable at the business anymore and his competition with Ridge and how much they love each other,” the actor explained. “And then RJ comes in and we had that story to do and character to introduce. And then most especially for me was the love story between Eric and Donna. This really enhanced our relationship as characters and as actors, too. And that’s why I’m really proud that Jennifer Gareis got nominated.”
With so much juicy material to choose from, putting together this year’s Emmy reel was tricky, but he obviously chose the right stuff! “I submitted part of a scene with Eric and Ridge in Eric’s office where he is enjoying being behind his own desk,” McCook revealed. “Then a scene in the middle, which was at Eric’s home with Donna where he confesses to her how frightened he is. And then at the end of Eric’s life, apparently, when he collapses at the party and he realizes that everybody is aware that he did not win the competition and that Ridge had been lying for him all those months.”
While the earlier Daytime Emmy rules required actors to submit scenes from one episode, now they can edit together clips that can help tell more of a story for the judges to watch. “When you do that to a soap actor, it’s really just one scene and it’s really just one emotion,” McCook mused of the old method. “For instance, if it’s a female character who’s lost a baby in childbirth or something, she’s playing the same thing in five different scenes, which is mourning and being very upset. You don’t get to see any different colors of the character and of the actor So it wasn’t really a good way to let an actor represent what they do or what they’ve done for the last year.
“People who are not fans of the show are not going to be as impressed with the small subtle things we do as actors and these characters as somebody who watches the show all the time,” he added. “So you have to really tell the story and let them know where it’s coming from.”
