Courtesy/ABC

If anyone is a sentimental favorite in the Outstanding Lead Actor category come Daytime Emmy night, it has to be All My Children’s, Ricky Paull Goldin. This year marks Goldin’s fourth Daytime Emmy nomination, and he has yet to bring home the gold for memorable performance after memorable performance. You loved him as Gus on Guiding Light, and he has taken the role of Pine Valley’s Dr. Jake Martin to new heights over the last three years.  With AMC about to end its run this September, an Emmy would certainly be a nice way to end this chapter of Goldin’s soap life.

On-Air On-Soaps chatted with Ricky about his Daytime Emmy nomination, and what he chose for the competition and why.  But, before we get to that, we of course had to address the elephant in the room… the sad cancellation of AMC. Ricky shares his thoughts, and as you will read, he tells us that as AMC bows out from the ABC Daytime lineup, so too is he from the daytime genre.  With his beautiful gal, Gretta Monahan by his side, and his new baby boy, Kai, Ricky looks to the future.  Here’s our chat with RPG!

First off, how are you doing, and how are the rest of your co-horts at All My Children dealing now with the news of the cancellation while trying to wrap up the show?

RICKY PAULL: I think at All My Children you have a wonderful group of professionals and this industry breeds pros.  No one is going to go around letting it affect them at their jobs, but I think their hearts are affected and their souls are affected.  I am concerned, for instance, for a wonderful guy named “Butch”. He is the boom operator for AMC and we also worked together in NYC on the show, and in addition, we also worked together on Guiding Light.  I worry about people’s families and livelihoods. I think that probably as the days are getting closer to when we tape our final show, I think everybody deals with it in a different way. There is definitely a sadness at the show. We are going through a mourning period, and yet we are still in a ‘keep a stiff upper lip while wiping a tear away’ kind of emotion. It’s that ‘pull yourself up by the boot-straps’ type of feeling going on over at the show. And, that gets sprinkled in sometimes with a little bit of anger from some folks. I guess it is a letdown we feel. I will never be able to explain to the general audience member at home, the amount of work that goes into one episode of a soap, unless they spend a 16 hour day with a cast member on a TV show like this.

Now looking back, it has to be difficult to sort of come to terms with the decision of ABC to transplant AMC from New York to Los Angeles, only to have it canceled after so many people relocated?

Photo Credit: JPI Studios

RICKY PAULL: It absolutely was difficult. People’s houses, mortgages, children, cars, their dogs and cats, and schools had to be altered. Had we known that the show had only 12 or 13 months left to it, you might have not seen as many cast members here in Los Angeles, because it was about taking a leap of faith, and many cast members took a leap of faith. You had to leap into the darkness without a net, and guess what? There was no net. So, at the very least you twist your ankle.

As a very popular and highly-regarded performer in daytime, where do you see the state of the soap genre? Do you feel there is hope that it can continue or have a revival?

RICKY PAULL: Daytime to me is not dying, it’s becoming something else, and soap operas are going to start spouting in different forms. There will always be the melodrama. It’s just a shame that with these particular financial models, it could not sustain itself.  I promise they will be back in one form or another. It is just something that we are living to see right now, the end of an era with these particular shows.

On an exciting and happier note, how did you find out you were nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor at this year’s Daytime Emmys?

RICKY PAULL: I was cuddling with Gretta in bed, and I got up to go to the “loo” at some ungodly time. Then, I noticed on my phone it had a bunch of text messages and emails. I saw the first seven letters of the words, “Congrats” a lot in the title line, and so I knew I had been nominated. Then, I ever so gently went back to bed. (Laughs)  I then had a little secret that I knew, that nobody else in my house knew for a little while. I told Gretta eventually. When she woke up she said, “When are we going to know?” And I said, “I already know. (Laughs) And, since I am a Daytime Emmy nominated actor in all of the United States of America, the best country in the world, I think I deserve a cup of coffee in bed.“ (Laughs)

Photo Credit: JPI Studios

What episode did you go with that landed you the nomination? Why the decision to submit that performance?

RICKY PAULL: First, I have to say I was pleased at the nomination, and I was kind of shocked also. I put in some humor this time in the reel I submitted, and you don’t usually get nominated for that.  I wanted to put something in that was unique with no fist pounding, no melodrama, and no sobbing.  I wanted it to be something where you could actually detect some very scary real moments, even if it’s just about every day relatable behavior. Sometimes that gets lost in our medium. So in my reel, I did not have a speech at anyone’s bed as they were dying or coming back to life. I think that people pretty much by now know I can do the drama, and some might say I can bring the humor. I just wanted to really bring something that just represented the humanity of the character of Jake Martin, before we turn off the lights on it and darkness falls on Pine Valley. What I turned in for the nomination was picked for me by the producers. I am notoriously known for not picking very well for myself. And I don’t like that job, to be honest.  I have decided I don’t really like watching myself. So they picked the episode, and I said, “Sure.” It was asking the gal, Amanda, to marry me. Jake kind of throws her a surprise engagement party. It’s an odd choice, but I wanted it to be something fresh and unusual, and out of the norm and out of the box.  Maybe that is why the paradigm shift of this newer breed of nominee.

So, what do you have to say about the nominees in your category?  Many are your long time pals!

RICKY PAULL: Speaking of the other nominees…Christian LeBlanc (Michael, Y&R) may hope I win, but I hope he doesn’t! (Laughs) I hope Michael Park (Ex-Jack, ATWT) takes another one, because he needs a pair of them. (Laughs). But it actually was my mother who had the best reaction on nomination day. She said to me, “Who else is in your category?” So I go, “Well this one and that one.” And then I said, “…and also Maurice Benard, Sonny from General Hospital.” And my mother goes, “Oh, he’ll win. I really like Sonny.” (Laughs)

Will you be in Vegas for the Emmys?

RICKY PAULL: Well my gal Gretta’s show is almost nominated, The Rachael Ray Show! So yes, we are going to go. And it’s also the anniversary of us meeting. We met at the Emmys three years ago, when Greta stalked me! (Laughs) There are so many lovely people I never get to see, so it’s great to see them at an event like this.  I will throw my arms around Laura Wright (Carly, GH) who I adore. I will get to see some of the folks from One Life, but it will be strange and bittersweet.

Photo Credit: JPI Studios

Are you ready to have to say goodbye to Dr. Jake Martin when AMC comes to its conclusion? Have you made peace with that?

RICKY PAULL: Yeah, because I honestly feel right now that this is my farewell tour. I feel like the door for me is going to close now on this chapter of my life. Having had a great reign in daytime, and drifting across the three networks on three different soaps, and kind of doing it my way, I think I did everything I wanted to do. I have never said that. I think when we talked at this time three and half years ago, and I was making a change going to play a family character and being a family member on a legacy show on ABC, I had not done that before. I hadn’t taken over a role that others played before me, and smashed all the walls down and re-created it. That was a challenge. Then, I previously had the opportunity to come in and make it work with the great Beth Ehlers as Harley on Guiding Light. Gus was a tough character in many ways and multi-leveled, and I got to play this flawed character on Guiding Light, which was great. And when I was younger, doing music and writing songs for TV and singing them and performing them as I did on Another World, I really feel I have done everything I wanted to do. I don’t know what is in store, but the cancellation of AMC has lifted a little avail for me. I am going to bow out now gracefully and this is my farewell to daytime.

So, if a fantastic role was offered to you, we would not see you perhaps on a show like Y&R?

RICKY PAULL: I don’t know, but I am not planning on it. I am a firm believer that you jump into the river and you go with the currant, and you don’t try to fight the currant, because most rivers lead to the ocean. I am saying I am satiated at this point in time. I feel I have done everything in this medium I have set out to do.  I am also excited about nighttime and other ventures, and producing and pulling more elements than just myself together. I would like to pull a cast together and I would like to create in that way.  I have that kind of support from my loving partner, Gretta, my family, and other friends of mine who are already doing that kind of stuff in this world, and so I am looking to branch out. You may see me gone for awhile, but it won’t be long till I am reborn into a new phase of my life.  I hope I will be able to take the extended family, the fans, along with me for the next adventure.

Courtesy/RachaelRayShow

Before we end, was there one extra special congratulatory sentiment that someone in your life expressed to you, once you got your Emmy nomination, that you will carry with you on Emmy night?

RICKY PAULL: I think Greta turned to me and said, “As darkness falls on All My Children, it is a nice way to go out no matter what happens.” She said she was proud of me, and that was really all I needed to hear.

**Make sure to read 20 reactions and interviews with the acting nominees for the 38th Annual Daytime Emmys in our very special Emmy Nominee Hub Reactions page here.

In addition, in case you missed last week’s segment on The Rachael Ray Show, Gretta Monahan gets a brand new “hair-do” and so does Ricky Paull! Watch the video clip below.  We think Gretta’s looks better than Ricky’s, but let us know your opinion!