There’s no doubt that “The Young and the Restless’” Michael Muhney (Adam Newman) is honored to have been nominated for Outstanding Leading Actor for this year’s Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards, but believe it or not, he’ll actually be rather upset if he takes home the coveted award come ceremony night!
“I’ve had the luxury of seeing the Lead Actress and the Lead Actors’ reels, and if I’m going to be as honest as I’ve purportedly been since I joined the show… then I would have to, from this point forward, shout from the rooftops that Jason Thompson [Patrick Drake, “General Hospital”] deserves the award,” Muhney admits. “If you watched his performance, and what he did, and the story, how it was so perfectly teed up for a great, brilliantly layered performance by him, there should be an eight out of a 10 chance that he takes this home… So I don’t think I should win. It wouldn’t be fair to Jason.”
That being said, the actor is ecstatic that the episode he chose — in which Adam breaks things off with Sharon Case’s Sharon Newman to be with Melissa Claire Egan’s Chelsea Lawson — landed him an Emmy nod. “You just see him kind of subtly being torn apart at the seams. There are a lot of people coming at him throughout the episode needing things, and he’s getting stretched really thin, which I thought was an interesting performance to submit, because [it was] an opportunity to submit a story that’s more nuanced and isn’t over the top and isn’t flashy dramatic,” he explains. “It was a nice test to see if, in fact, the voting panel is finally at that point where they can be nominating something really subtle, and there doesn’t need to be explosions and crying and breakdowns and awful, pivotal moments.”
As for the Emmy award itself, Muhney admits that though he should be supporting co-stars Peter Bergman (Jack Abbott) and Doug Davidson (Paul Williams), he just can’t! “They too turned in phenomenal performances,” he admits. “I should be the one cheering for my teammates. I should be cheering for Peter and Doug, and I love them, and I’ve never even met Jason! But if I have to be honest, he needs to take this home.”