Chandler Massey’s not the first young soap actor to play a gay character but, on Saturday, he became the first to win a Daytime Emmy for it.
“I wasn’t nervous at all this morning or anything,” Massey, 21, told AfterElton after winning Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series. “But when they started announcing the names in the category I got really nervous. I didn’t hear the name that they called, but all I heard was my Dad go ‘Yeah!’ because my Dad was sitting right next to me, so that’s how I knew. Then I went up and flubbed the speech!”
Massey, who plays young Will Horton, was quick to thank co-star Diedra Hall, his grandmother on the series, and admitted “lot of the credit has to go to the producers and the writers who greenlit the storyline.” The show also won the Outstanding Writing Emmy.
Congrats to Massey and Days‘ cast, crew and creative team. With the number of daytime dramas dwindling fast, it’s nice to know the ones that are still on are still on their game.
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Mr. Enemabag Jones
Just another het actor getting an award for playing gay. Who cares?
Daez
Unfortunately, the Daytime Emmy Awards stopped being relevant when daytime programming stopped being relevant. AFAIK, there are only 4 shows left (Days, Y&R, B&B, GH).
OutMaturity
Pretty impressive if you ask me how “daytime” has taken the lead now for many years in featuring gay characters! Now they are some of the first to honor those talented actors and actresses for their work.
One more reason that daytime TV is not the same now that the “talk show” format is taking over versus the soap!
Congrats to Massey and his cast and crew and the talented writers who brought the character to life!
OutMaturity
Chance
For those of us who still watch these shows, it is relevant. There may not be as many soapo operas as there used to be, and there may not be as many soap opera watchers as they used to be, but as some one who grew up watching this show and still enjoys watching it at 30, I have very much enjoyed Chandler’s portrayal of Will and the storylines he has had, I say congratulations to him.
BT
I assume that the show won more than Chandler did with his acting. His style is to rub his eyes, sniff and look down. The kid has zero acting skills but the storyline is interesting. I wonder if he is gay in real life too. Anyone know?
Mr. Enemabag Jones
@BT:
Straight, according to his Facebook page
Daez
@Chance: I also grew up watching DAYS, but DAYS just got so incredibly boring and repetitive somewhere between 2006 and 2008. Then I watched GH for a few years. Finally, I just quit watching TV altogether except for Netflix and online.
What always got me about soaps was their lack of a visible time line and their ability to change everything about the back story of a character just to push a storyline. In short, the writing on every soap opera is so horrible that they are the Star Magazine of the television world.
Seaguy
I am a Day’s Of Our Lives fan and was happy to see he had won. People will bash the soaps calling them stupid but they are scripted daytime drama that gives a lot of actors jobs and a stepping stone to bigger things. Reality show, court shows and copy cat daytime talk shows do none of that. So it is important we support the remaining soaps unless we really want a daytime free of drama unless you count the staged reality show cat fights “drama” and Judge Judy smack downs are good, but not “drama”!
Danny
Glad he won. Days is doing a great job. It’s more entertaining than many nighttime dramas.
mike
DAYS is the only soap worth watching IMHO. Most television is pretty abominable anymore. I mean, one more “reality” show and I’m gonna throw the LCD up against the wall! Bu with DAYS, it’s fun. It’s fantasy. Sometimes it’s cheesy. Sometimes, it is spot-on. Will’s character surprised me by coming out. Now, the question is whether it’s a story the writers on DAYS are willing (no pun intended) to develop. There’s a lot of potential there. It’s not enough to have an out gay guy. There’s got to be, well, some drama and not just everybody being oh-so-accepting about it. Soap’s used to be way ahead of the curve in showing some of the more difficult truths of modern life. DAYS has the potential to up the TV ante once again.