“The Bold and the Beautiful’s” Heather Tom has taken home the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress for her work as Katie Logan the past two years in a row, and with yet another year of both superb storylines and emotional work, the actress just may nab the award again! “It doesn’t get old; it’s very fun, and I’m very grateful,” she says of the nomination, adding that she chose the episodes in which Katie, in the throes of her post-partum depression, leaves Bill and Will. “I was really proud of it, and it’s funny, because I was so pregnant doing it, and it was my catharsis. I would come in and be like, ‘I’m crazy today, so I’m just going to bawl all day long and get it out of my system and then go home!’”
But admittedly, with so many great scenes to choose from, it was tough to narrow down which episodes to submit. “I like to try to tell a story in my tape and try to have a beginning and an end, an arc. It sometimes is hard to do that, but these shows, I felt, had a real nice beginning, middle and end, so that even if you didn’t watch the show, you knew what was going on,” she explains. “Brad [P. Bell, our executive producer and headwriter], he embraced my condition wholeheartedly, and I was really grateful for that. I’m glad I didn’t have to hide behind ferns and very large bags, and… I was really happy that he really went there with it and let her get really dark, and you know, I think it was a good impetus for a lot of other stuff. I think it set up the Bill/Brooke stuff really nicely. So yeah, I’m really happy with the way he handled that story.”
Of course, having her real-life six-month-old son, Zane Alexander, portraying Will definitely helped her enjoy the story even more. “I bring him with me even when he’s not working, because his dad works, and it’s nice that I have the space to do that. So it works out really well, and I figured, ‘Well, if he’s going to be here, might as well put him to work!’” she jokes. “But he seems to be having a good time with it.”
However, with SORASing being such a popular soap staple, she’s not sure how long her tot will air. “People are like, ‘Well how long do you think he’ll do this?’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, probably like another week until I have a teenager!’”
Speaking of future story, one thing Tom hopes for her alter ego is a major turnaround in her forgiving nature when it comes to Bill. “Enough is enough!” she exclaims. “Eventually, you know what’s going to hit the fan, and I have been advocating for a long time that Katie should take Bill to the cleaners and take him for everything he’s got! So we’ll see if they take my advice or not.”
As for Bill’s portrayer, Don Diamont, Tom is a bit surprised that he didn’t make the Emmy nom list this year. “I know what he submitted, and I thought his scenes were really honest,” she notes. “And there are only four nominees in that category, which I thought was interesting, and in my category as well. So I don’t know. You never know how things will work out, [but] he was on my list!”
And when it comes to Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke Logan), who is celebrating her first ever Outstanding Supporting Actress Emmy nod since joining the show in 1987, Tom couldn’t be more proud. “Honestly, I think I was probably more excited about that than about myself!” she admits with a laugh. “And then, Susan [Flannery, ex-Stephanie Forrester, who was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress], of course, it’s nice that she can go out on that note. But with Katherine, I just think it’s so overdue, and I’m thrilled for her.”
As for her own nomination and whether or not the third time will prove to be yet another charm, Tom says she’s just happy to have made it this far. “I love being a part of the daytime community, and it’s wonderful for people to get together and be recognized,” she says. “I’m happy to be nominated, and we’ll see what happens.”