The Young and the Restless' Christian LeBlanc (Michael Baldwin) is notorious for using other people to earn Emmy nominations, and this year was no different. The actor admits to Soap Central that, as usual, he relied on the talent of his costars to get him into this year's Daytime Emmy race.

soapcentral.com: Congratulations on your Emmy nomination.

Christian LeBlanc: Yes, thank you very much. It's very exciting.

soapcentral.com: How did you find out you'd been nominated?

I blissfully blacked it out [that the announcements were happening], which rarely happens, because usually someone reminds me. But we're having a dark week, so I'm catching up on all sorts of things. You get that time off, and I'm racing around like a mad man. So I actually got a text, and it was Steve Burton [Dylan McAvoy, Y&R; ex-Jason Morgan, General Hospital] of all people first. Steve was quick on the draw, and then the studio. Usually it's Tracey Bregman [Lauren Fenmore] who is in the know all the time, she has her finger on the pulse of everything. But nope, Steve Burton beat everybody! He's a class act. Such a sweetheart.

soapcentral.com: Did you eventually hear from Tracey, once she found out as well?

Oh yeah, yeah. They all flooded in right afterward. I was in the car, so I didn't hear the beeps, and I happened to look down and saw that a bunch were coming in, so I thought, "Oh, it's today!" I didn't know when The Talk aired -- I really have no idea when anything airs anymore because of DVR -- so yeah, I saw that and thought, "Oh God, it's today," and I wasn't able to respond to anybody for a while because I was in the car. It's so exciting... this happens, and you're reminded again what it means to be voted on by your own peers, by people who know exactly what you go through every day in this job that we have. And it's exciting. It was Lisa LoCicero's [Olivia Falconeri, GH] first nomination, so we were texting back and forth. Laura Wright [Carly Corinthos, GH] and I are such fans of each other, so we were messaging, and so I've just been texting all morning, basically. It's such a happy time.

soapcentral.com: I love hearing that you're all congratulating each other, that it's not show specific.

Yeah, it's a small group of people that commit to this kind of life, acting. primetime, anytime, online, all of them. I started this 30 years ago, not meaning to, because this was just supposed to pay for med school, and it's the same people. You'll always keep meeting them in New York or L.A. because, given the size of the world and what we do, the people that are committed to it and love it and are passionate about it, you'll always keep running into them. They are your comrades in arms. Nobody can understand the stuff you go through. There are very few people who understand. How many people's mothers are going, "Didn't you write that novel yet? We're waiting!" Or, "Why aren't you doing that movie with Brad Pitt? You're as good as him!" You get that day in and day out, and who knows your misery but your fellow travelers... and gosh, to be there in that room when people's names are called out and you see the joy it brings them, and you see people's hard work rewarded... you're celebrating this business that you've all committed to, that you've given so much time to and blood, sweat, and tears. And you get to celebrate, you get to pat each other on the back.

soapcentral.com: Speaking of the blood, sweat, and tears that you've put in, which scenes did you work hard on this year that earned you the nomination?

Well, I talk about my blood, sweat, and tears, but I famously use my co-actors to win awards. That's what I do. I use them and manipulate to my will and win on their good work.

soapcentral.com: You puppet master, you!

I'm surrounded by the best, so I just stand there and bathe in their glow. I just know where to stand, and they give me these opportunities. So it was me and Tracey Bregman, who plays my wife on the show, and I told her I have cancer, so it was that series of scenes. And it's pretty much just the two of us, the whole show, so thanks, Tracey!

soapcentral.com: Did you know immediately, like, "BAM, that's what I'm going to submit this year"! Or did you have to deliberate a lot?

I think I've done enough of this that I'm well aware that sometimes what you're taping feels wonderful and then looks horrible, with any number of factors coming in.... The thing is, you are asked to put up your concept of what your best work is, and that's why you're only asked to judge, when you judge, on just that reel, because the actor, we're assuming, thinks that's his best work. And so you're judged only on that. And it's hard! It's harder than people think. You've got to go into the library and look at your stuff with an eye to what you believe you're passionate about. And sometimes I'll find this little snippet of something that I had no idea, something I didn't happen to catch during the first viewing, and it turns into something I submit. Sometimes I feel transported in a scene, and I just hope when Emmy time comes around, you'll think of it. But you've got to do your work, so I plowed through, they have these big bibles of all of our shows, and I really go though it and break it down, if I'm nominating myself. And this was already in consideration, because it was such an ultimate scene. So I definitely remembered it, and other people remembered it, which is always good. Go to the technicians. The cameramen have to stand around watching everything, not just the good stuff!

MORE DAYTIME EMMY REACTION
• Kristoff St. John discusses the old-fashioned story that earned him an Emmy nod
• Y&R star Amelia Heinle discusses the possibility of back-to-back wins
• Elizabeth Hendrickson on her final Y&R goodbye and Melissa Claire Egan's "bold" move
• Max Ehrich on the real-life tears his Emmy submission caused
• Christian LeBlanc on the blood, sweat, and tears (of others) that landed him an Emmy nomination
• Gina Tognoni celebrates her first Y&R Emmy nom
• They're no longer a B&B couple, but Linsey Godfrey and Jacob Young are co-nominees
• DAYS star Alison Sweeney on her first-ever Daytime Emmy nod
• GH overcome with emotion after first Emmy nom
• Nominee jokes, "Do I just show up" at the Emmys?
• Lisa Locicero on her first Emmy nom and being pregnant on the Red Carpet

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