Ricky Paull Goldin

Ricky Paull Goldin:The honour of being Emmy-nominated

Ricky Paull Goldin plays good-guy cop Gus Aitoro on daytime's longest-running show, Guiding Light. At 70 years old and still going strong, GL also is this year's most Daytime Emmy-nominated show (17 nominations), with Ricky being one of the honourees.

So how did one of this year's nominated Outstanding Lead Actors find out about his Emmy nod? "Actually, I was coming out of anesthesia when I found out. I was at the doctor for a routine checkup where they go down your throat with a camera just to check everything out. When I came to, the doctor said, 'Congratulations!' I said: 'What? I've got a clean bill of health?' He replied, 'You've been nominated for an Emmy!' I thought, 'You saw my nomination down my throat?'" Cue rimshot.

Finally Ricky asked the doctor, "And my health?" The doctor answered, "Yes, you're perfectly healthy."

beautiful moment

As Ricky tells me, the whole thing was so surreal. "I'm on a gurney in a hospital gown, I'm not on camera, and just happy to be alive. It was a beautiful moment. There's an old proverb, 'Life is not measured by how many breaths you take, but by how many moments take your breath away.' This one certainly took my breath away. And I am grateful for every moment of it."

Ricky's big story line, the one that helped garner his Emmy nod, was Gus' addiction to painkillers. "I've had a lot of people in my life who've had trouble with substance abuse, with friends, and with my brother. The way I opened the door to my brother is how I opened the door to one of my friends. But my friend wasn't ready (to deal with his addiction). I used exactly what I saw with this friend (in playing Gus)."

While on the set, Ricky took further steps to help remain in character. "I stayed in my dressing room and kept to myself a lot. I wanted to stay on the dark side."

decompression time

At the end of the day, how does Ricky relax and shake off the character of Gus? "It's hard. It's exhausting. I had been single for some time, and I'd come home and have no one to punish because no one's there. That's actually better at certain times. But now I am in a relationship - but yeah, you need a little decompression time. It can be exhausting. I broke a blood vessel in my eye, my leading lady broke a few ribs ... so yes, it can be rough."

Ricky is also grateful that the writers and producers at GL have put such faith in him to give him such wonderful and hard-hitting story lines to work with. "I thank God that they feel that way. I have, for example, 50-some pages of dialogue to memorise for tomorrow. I'm definitely not complaining - I love every minute of it! It's a lot of work, but I believe anybody can do it, if you put your mind to it."

How is life for Gus in Springfield shaping up? Will he ever accept the Spaulding name as his own? Does he feel threatened by the return of Dylan Lewis, his wife Harley's first love? Like with any good soap-opera suspense, you'll have to tune in next week to find out the answers to these questions.

- Cindy Elavsky