CBS.com: Congratulations on your nomination.
JOHN MCCOOK: Thank you. It's cool.
CBS.com: How did you hear the news?
JOHN MCCOOK: Brad Bell [Executive Producer and Head Writer] called us at six o'clock in the morning.
CBS.com: Were you awake?
JOHN MCCOOK: No. My wife answered the phone. My wife actually has a step-brother named Brad and so she said, "It's Brad," and I thought somebody in our family had died because it was six o'clock in the morning you know. But anyway, it was Brad and it was swell.
CBS.com: How does it feel to get your first nomination?
JOHN MCCOOK: I was very surprised and pleased because I haven't had a lot of story this year and as soon as I start thinking like that I go, "What am I? A stupid soap actor." Bottom line, it's great. It's great to get a nomination from your peers for this. It's great [to be] nominated with Peter Bergman [Jack, The Young and the Restless] who's my good, good buddy.
CBS.com: He told me that he called you first this morning.
JOHN MCCOOK: He called and everybody from the show called me. It was cool. All morning long I was on the phone. I would hang up and it would ring again, so that really made it fun. That's who we are here. We have so much fun doing it. It's an embarrassment of riches to go present at the Emmys or to get a free trip to New York. That's just so much fun anyway. So I'm really involved in it this year and really a part of it in a way that I never have been before.
CBS.com: Will you prepare a speech ahead of time?
JOHN MCCOOK: I guess I will. You really have to think about it because you might win. I fully expect not to. I fully expect that this is the best part of it for me and it is the best part for most people because only one person is going to win in each category. It's not about writing a speech, it's about, "Okay, I have to be sure to say this and sure to say that." There are certain things I really do want to say if I end up up there. I'm not just going to let it go and forget about it. You have a responsibility then to the people with whom you work if you are going to accept an award for what you've done. You need to be sure you give whatever credit you want to give to whichever people you want to give it to.
CBS.com: What do you think have been your best scenes this year?
JOHN MCCOOK: This is why I was kind of a little confused this morning when I was trying to think about it because I went back to all the stuff about Eric and Stephanie getting back together again and all the romantic scenes and [found] that it was all last year's competition. It's after all of that now. Over a year's time on the show, even if you don't have a storyline that's about you, you're very involved in others. I think this year goes back to when Brooke and Thorne were in Europe together and Eric was trying to manipulate Ridge and Taylor against Brooke. I did more than one hundred and four shows last year. Are all of them Emmy quality? Certainly not, but we're going to have to get serious and go through [my scenes] and submit stuff that best represents what I do on this show.