Days of Our Lives Exclusive: Emily O’Brien Is Left ‘Speechless’ Over the Real-Life Twist She Never Saw Coming

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Soaps.com may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

If there was one word to describe Emily O’Brien’s reaction to her Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress, it would have to be, “speechless.” That’s how she felt even days after learning she’d been nominated for her Days of Our Lives work as Gwen — not Theresa.

“The first time I’d ever been nominated for an Emmy,” she shares with Soaps.com, “I was so young. It was 15 years ago.” That was when she’d received a series of nods for Outstanding Younger Actress for her role as The Young and the Restless’ Jana. “I’ve been on Days of Our Lives four years now,” O’Brien explains, “and I didn’t think an Emmy nomination was gonna be my future again.”

In fact, she wasn’t even sure she wanted to submit material. “I submitted myself thinking, ‘Oh, why not?’ I didn’t think I had any real solid material. I don’t know. And I just thought, ‘Oh, let’s see what happens.’”

What happened was an Emmy first for her. Emily O’Brien was doing voiceover work for a video game, she said, when the news broke — except she’d had her phone turned off. When the actress finally switched it back on, “I had 57 text messages, and I thought something had happened, like there was some family emergency or something.”

Thankfully, there wasn’t! Then she saw messages from Days of Our Lives folks, balloons, celebrations and, “I thought no way this happened, no, but it did. It’s an incredible feeling. It’s still kind of all sinking in but I just feel so incredibly grateful. And then to do this next to Lindsay [Godfrey, Sarah] as well because she’s such a dear friend and I respect her and I think that she is an incredible actress.”

Standing next to her friend in the same category is itself a huge honor, but so is the reason Emily O’Brien was nominated.

“I feel very proud knowing that the nomination was for Gwen,” she shares softly, “because I think 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 I thought, ‘Where have all these Gwen lovers been?’ I thought so many people just disliked me and the character. And so to have the nomination is really nice.”

That underdog status informed what the actress chose to submit as well, picking the scene when Gwen finally tells Xander she’s tired of being yanked around, and goes off on Leo after confronting him over his betrayal with Dimitri.

“Both of these scenes have that same through line,” O’Brien explains. The first scene is after Xander and Gwen kiss in The Spectator only for him to tell her he just wants to be friends. Gwen, in turn, tells him exactly how much that hurts. “It’s this really sort of heartbreaking scene where you realize that he doesn’t love her. He kind of leaves her there on her own.”

And the second is “where she’s realizing her friend has stabbed her in the back with her husband, and she’s once again left alone to her own defenses. It’s right before she leaves town. In fact, I think it’s the day that she decides to leave.”

Gwen may not have ever been able to get the win she wanted — she never quite found the love and acceptance that sometimes drove her to desperate extremes. But now, finally, she’s gotten a win that no one, not a cheating husband or lying friend can take away from her.

“It feels great,” O’Brien says of the nomination. “This is enough of a win for me.” Ultimately, “I’m just so incredibly shocked and grateful and, yeah, speechless. I don’t know what else to say.”

Honestly, that says it all, and we wish O’Brien the best of luck along with all her fellow nominees!

Get ready for the Emmys with our photo gallery of the awards show’s most memorable fashion moments below!