When Linden Ashby made his return to The Young and the Restless in 2023 after two decades away, he made his mark and had fans on the edge of their seats for the brief time he was there. Cameron Kirsten was released from jail, stalked Faith, killed Faith's beloved pet, strapped dynamite to her chest, and was finally killed by Sharon, the object of his obsession for 20 years.
That might seem like a lot of baggage for an actor to unpack, but Ashby was all for it.
"[Y&R executive producer and head writer] Josh [Griffith], and I talked about it. And I knew I had sort of a limited window on this. I had a bunch of other stuff going, and I said, 'Okay, I don't want any redemption. I wanna come in and burn a wide swath and go out in a blaze of glory.' I kidnapped a guy, killed a cat, kidnapped a girl, and tried to blow everybody up."
Those few weeks back on soaps earned Ashby a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series. The actor is up against some big Hollywood names, including Dick Van Dyke and Guy Pearce. When Ashby learned he had been nominated, he was amazed at his competition.
"Guy Pearce, who won the SAG award for The King's Speech," Ashby marveled to Soap Central's Dan J Kroll. "And Dick Van Dyke, who I'm old enough to have grown up loving. I watched The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Poppins, and, you know, he was great. He was great every time."
Ashby had been out surfing when the Emmy nominations were announced and got the news thanks to a bevy of text messages congratulating him.
"I came in from surfing, and my phone had kind of blown up, and I looked, and I'm like, oh, that's wow, cool," Ashby said. "And Susan [Walters, Diane Jenkins, Y&R] was like, congratulations. And everybody was really congratulatory."
Needless to say, Ashby was thrilled with the nomination. He didn't want to be cliché about his reaction, but it was a true honor.
"I'm gonna be the lamest person in the world," he admitted when asked how he felt about the nomination. "It really is an honor to just be, sort of, be nominated, to get a nod from your peers. You know, if I win, that'd be amazing. And if I don't, it's still really nice to get that nod."
Ashby admitted that it wasn't hard to choose the scene for his Emmy reel because his story had a clear beginning, middle, and end.
"I got lucky. I had a pretty easy time putting the reel together," he said. "They wrote me some great stuff, and I got to work with really good actors and directors. So, I kind of had an embarrassment of riches on this one. I didn't really have to sift around a lot. It was pretty easy, and I'm lucky for that. It was very condensed, so I didn't have to look at a bunch of stuff."
Ashby had not planned on attending this year's Emmys until he learned of his nomination. He will be in Fiji in the days leading up to the ceremony, and as of this writing, he expected to cut his trip a little short to walk the red carpet.
"I'm supposed to be in Fiji, but I might come back a day early to come to the Emmys," Ashby revealed. "I've got a surf trip that I do every year down there...I think I'll hop on the plane a day early, get in that afternoon, come to the Emmys, and take it from there. I'm hoping it's just black tie; that way I don't really have to worry about what to put on. Tuxedos are the best."
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