Mishael Morgan has played Hilary Curtis on “The Young and the Restless” since 2013, but she wasn’t nominated for a Daytime Emmy until this year. She contends for Best Supporting Actress, but can she actually win on her first try? The winners will be announced on April 29, but they’ve already been decided in the drama acting categories by blue ribbon panels that viewed sample performance reels. Watch Morgan’s submission above.
In the first of three scenes on Morgan’s reel, Hilary argues with her father-in-law Neil Winters (Kristoff St. John), who also happens to be her ex-husband. Hilary’s current husband, Neil’s son Devon (Bryton James), has run out on her after Mariah (fellow Best Supporting Actress nominee Camryn Grimes) revealed Hilary’s misdeeds. Neil takes her to task for her choices, but Hilary thinks Neil is a hypocrite given all the crimes he has committed.
In the next scene Hilary is with Devon, who comforts her after nude photos of her are leaked online. She feels violated, but she’s also ashamed. She wonders if the leak is karmic retribution for all the secrets she has exposed as the host of the tabloid talk show “GC Buzz.”
In the final scene, Hilary is at Devon’s bedside when he’s in the hospital, badly injured and unconscious. She knows he might leave her for all of her mistakes when he wakes up, and she admits that she would deserve it if he did, but “I don’t care how you feel about me,” she says, “because I am not leaving you here alone.”
Will Morgan win Best Supporting Actress with this performance against Marla Adams (“Y&R”), Camryn Grimes (“Y&R”), Susan Seaforth Hayes (“Days of Our Lives”), Elizabeth Hendrickson (“Y&R”) and Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (“The Bold and the Beautiful”)? Let’s consider the pros and cons.
PROS:
Morgan is front and center throughout the entire reel. In fact, she has almost all of the dialogue in her second scene and the third scene is an uninterrupted monologue. So she has plenty of time to showcase her acting ability.
The scenes are full of high-impact emotional fireworks, which reach their peak during Hilary’s argument with Neil when she yells at him about his hypocrisy, “Don’t you dare stand there and be self-righteous with me!” And her tearful monologue at Devon’s bedside is equally powerful.
Morgan’s submitted scenes that also showcase her dramatic range. Her argument with Neil is full of anger, but it’s followed up by a quieter, nuanced scene in which she expresses shame and regret. And she closes it out with a loving monologue. There’s almost no emotion left unexpressed in these scenes, which makes it a textbook Emmy submission.
CONS:
The scenes on this reel come from different storylines whose contexts are not always clear within the scenes themselves, so voters may find it challenging to follow the emotional beats and fully invest in Morgan’s performance.
Hilary’s own actions have driven her husband off in the first scene, but she is defensive about her own self-interested behavior, so she may not be as sympathetic to voters, who often want to reward one of the more huggable performances in this category.
All four “Young and the Restless” pre-nominees in this category earned official nominations, but might they have split the vote? That could open the door for “B&B” star MacInnes Wood, who was the only actress from her show on the ballot.
Be sure to make your Daytime Emmy predictions so that Hollywood insiders can see how their shows and performers are faring in our odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before winners are announced on April 29. And join in the fierce debate over the 2018 Daytime Emmys taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our daytime TV forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
