HOME / Interviews / CenterStage / CENTER STAGE: Arianne Zucker On Her Emmy Nom, Motherhood, and Life Sans Hubby, Kyle Lowder

CenterStage

CENTER STAGE: Arianne Zucker On Her Emmy Nom, Motherhood, and Life Sans Hubby, Kyle Lowder

“Days of our Lives’” Arianne Zucker may have received a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in this year’s Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards race, but she’s not taking all of the credit. “I’m so proud of all of us,” she says of her nomination as well as the show’s 17 other Emmy nods. “We’re an ensemble cast and crew. There’s no “I” in this team. I had Shawn Christian and Missy , almost everybody in my scenes, so I didn’t do it alone. So that’s what’s pretty cool. Everybody helped lift me up.”

HOME / Interviews / CenterStage / CENTER STAGE: Arianne Zucker On Her Emmy Nom, Motherhood, and Life Sans Hubby, Kyle Lowder

CenterStage

CENTER STAGE: Arianne Zucker On Her Emmy Nom, Motherhood, and Life Sans Hubby, Kyle Lowder

“Days of our Lives’” Arianne Zucker may have received a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in this year’s Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards race, but she’s not taking all of the credit. “I’m so proud of all of us,” she says of her nomination as well as the show’s 17 other Emmy nods. “We’re an ensemble cast and crew. There’s no “I” in this team. I had Shawn Christian and Missy , almost everybody in my scenes, so I didn’t do it alone. So that’s what’s pretty cool. Everybody helped lift me up.”

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Days of our Lives’” Arianne Zucker may have received a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in this year’s Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards race, but she’s not taking all of the credit. “I’m so proud of all of us,” she says of her nomination as well as the show’s 17 other Emmy nods. “We’re an ensemble cast and crew. There’s no “I” in this team. I had Shawn Christian [Daniel Jonas] and Missy [Reeves, Jennifer Horton], almost everybody in my scenes, so I didn’t do it alone. So that’s what’s pretty cool. Everybody helped lift me up.”

Steven Bergman Photography
Steven Bergman Photography

And she thanks one unnamed co-star in particular for helping her land on the Emmy list: “I was kind of forced to change my reel by one of my castmates, and that was pretty cool, because I would have done something different,” she says of submitting the dramatic scenes involving the loss of Nicole’s baby rather than what she originally wanted, which was the first time Nicole sees Daniel after her attempted suicide. “I changed it last minute, and I’m glad I did.”

kylelowder.com
kylelowder.com

Unfortunately, Zucker didn’t get much time to celebrate her nomination, considering she’s acting as a mostly single mom to three-year-old Isabella while her husband, Kyle Lowder (ex-Brady Black, “DAYS;” ex-Rick Forrester, “The Bold and the Beautiful”), stars as Stacee Jaxx in the Las Vegas production of “Rock of Ages.” And that fact has made life a little strange for the clan these past few months. “I’m sure Child Services is going to call me, because my daughter always screams out, ‘Mommy, let’s go to Vegas!’” the actress reveals with a laugh. “She LOVES it! We were there for Easter, and… she was just twirling and twirling around. I was like, ‘Izzy, stop twirling! Stop liking Vegas!’”

All jokes aside, Zucker says the California/Nevada arrangement they’ve worked out — where Lowder heads to LA three weekends per month, and Zucker and Isabella head to Vegas one weekend per month — has worked out remarkably well. “I could complain, ‘Oh, it’s hard,’ but he’s not in the service, and he’s not in Afghanistan,” she says. “I see him once a week, so it’s not like I don’t see him for six months. He does eight shows a week, and he is so good. He totally transforms. It’s amazing.”

Jill Johnson/JPI Studios
Jill Johnson/JPI Studios

Izzy, however, has yet to see her dad in the rock star role played by Tom Cruise in the film version of the show. “We take her to set beforehand, and she gets to see the band rehearse, but it’s different when people take their kids versus watching daddy work with other women,” she explains. “We’re going to wait until she can understand that daddy is just acting, [instead of her asking] ‘Why is daddy throwing that woman on the floor?!’”

As for motherhood in general, Zucker says it’s been her best role to date. But as Isabella grows older, it gets more challenging! “She’s so mature, and her hair is really long, and she’s really tall, and she’s really articulate, so people think she’s five,” she says, adding with a big smile: “I’m really in trouble!”

 

But if Isabella is anything like her mother, then we’re guessing Zucker won’t really have a problem. After all, the woman worked several jobs at once before landing “DAYS” (including modeling, commercial work, a gig at Sports Chalet, a gig at Kids Gym and a gig at JC Penny, to name a few), as well as inspires youth to achieve their dreams whether they’ve had college or not via her non-profit organization, LifeCHANGE. “Not everybody does graduate college, but you can be successful and succeed, and that’s part of the reason why I built this program with my brother [Todd]: He did [graduate from college], I didn’t,” she explains. “And it doesn’t matter. It’s just where you put your mind and your focus to in life. And you can achieve anything as long as you have mentors along the way, and you always ask for help.”

Funny enough, acting is not at all what the actress herself wanted to achieve in life, but she fell into what has now become a dream. “I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do with myself then; I was just traveling around, a little bit of a lost soul, and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life,” she says. “Acting was just a means to make money until I figured out what that was. It was really fun. But I really didn’t like just doing that. To me, it didn’t feel like a career.”

But low and behold, she landed the role of Nicole and now, nearly 15 years later, has received her second Emmy nomination. “I’m so pleased,” she says. “Of course everyone wants to win, but really, at the end of the day, I’m just happy to be working. That’s the key.”


You May Also Like