Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI (3)
As you read this one word probably best sums up the feeling with which Emily O’Brien is filled: thankfulness. The actress, who joined Days of Our Lives as Gwen Rizczech in 2020, pressed “pause” over the weekend to reflect on the journey she has so recently taken owing to her portrayal of Jack Deveraux’s surprise daughter.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my utmost gratitude and joy for being considered as one of this year’s Emmy nominees,” she Instagrammed in the wake of the June 7 ceremony. “This has been such a wild and exciting ride, and I am humbled to have experienced this alongside so many exceptional humans!
“Last night was pure gold,” she added, “and I feel full with bliss. Tam [Tamara Braun, Ava] and Lins [Linsey Godfrey, Sarah] — you know how I adore you girls. I feel so lucky… Congratulations to our exceptional winners for the eve!”
O’Brien didn’t take home the award for Oustanding Supporting Actress, it went to Young & Restless’ Courtney Hope (Sally). But O’Brien, who through a bizarre series of circumstances wound up replacing Jen Lilley as Theresa on Days of Our Lives, is still chalks of the nomination as a big win.
“I feel very proud knowing that [it] was for Gwen,” she told Soaps.com previously, “because she’s always sort of been an underdog. I haven’t had that many fans. In fact, I didn’t even know I had fans until I started playing Teresa and thought, ‘Where have all these Gwen lovers been?’ I thought so many people just disliked me and the character. So to have the nomination is really nice.”
Initially, O’Brien wasn’t even sure if she had Emmy-worthy material to submit. Ultimately, she selected the moments in which Gwen finally tells Xander that she’s tired of being jerked around and confronts Leo over his affair with Dimitri. “Both of these scenes have that same through line,” she explains. In the first, “you realize that Xander doesn’t love her. He kind of leaves her there on her own.”
In the second, “she’s realizing her friend has stabbed her in the back with her husband,” she continues. “She’s once again left alone to her own devices. It’s right before she leaves town. In fact, I think it’s the day that she decides to leave.”
