Acclaimed actress Arianne Zucker chatted about her 2022 Daytime Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Lead Actress” for “Days of Our Lives.”
Playing Nicole Walker on ‘Days of Our Lives’
Zucker has played many roles, but she is best known for playing Nicole Walker on NBC’s hit daytime drama “Days of our Lives.” Zucker played the role from 1998 to 2017 and then again from 2018 to the present. She has aired in over 2,500 episodes, multiple movies, and new media programming, giving her thousands of hours of screen time experience.
She is drawn to playing Nicole due to her “unpredictability.” “Nicole is a woman that has lived a very spur-of-the-moment type of lifestyle. She does her deeds and apologizes later,” she said with a sweet laugh. “I’ve always enjoyed that very much, but she has learned some life lessons, which is really cool.”
“I love to see this character actually grow, learn, and change,” she added.
On scoring an Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Lead Actress,” she remarked, “It’s good. It is always wonderful to get a nomination. Of course, you hope you put your best work forward and that it gets voted on. Your peers are your best advocates so it is really kind of cool.”
This marks Zucker’s fifth career Daytime Emmy nomination.
Emmy reel scenes
She shared that she submitted the scenes that occurred when the characters Eric and Nicole are in turmoil. “They are sadly never really happy together,” she said. “My scenes were after Eric found out that Nicole had slept with Xander. They are two people that love each other tremendously but are literally on two different paths that are not going in the same direction. They had to split and break up with each other in order to be the better versions of themselves.”
“I thought those scenes were very relatable and they could happen in real life,” she added. “I really like those scenes and we will see how they do.”
‘A Very Salem Christmas’
On being a part of the Peacock special “A Very Salem Christmas,” she said, “That was fun. It allowed me to play a version of Nicole that I hadn’t played in a very long time,” she said.
“It is always fun to play a villain since it allows you to do whatever you want,” she added.
Zucker began her career in modeling when she was 16 years old. She soon traveled to Paris after winning her first modeling contest. From there, she traveled to Australia and Japan, landing herself in New York City. During this time, Zucker also booked several national commercials such as Mazda Miata and McDonald’s.
During her career on “Days of our Lives,” Zucker also began to generate work in primetime television by landing the role of Brenda Collette in “CSI: Miami.” Her work was noticed by writer Karen Harris, and she was asked to play the role of Winnifred Marshall in “Life in General.”
On the greatest lesson that the acting profession has taught her, she responded, “When you are in the business, it’s a learn-as-you-go process because your day is different daily. My best lessons were in my hard work if that makes sense. My best lessons involved how my emotional roller coaster works.”
As digital series got more popular, “DeVanity,” an Emmy-nominated web series, chose Zucker to guest star as Julie Regis, the uptight sister of Andrew Regis, the ruthless jewelry scion.
In 2018, Zucker won an Independent Series Award for her role as Clara in “Ladies of the Lake.” She also has been fortunate to play different characters in multiple Lifetime movies such as “Killer Assistant,” “Web Cam Girls,” “Ex-Wife Killer” and “His Perfect Obsession.”
On the title of the current chapter of her life, she said, “Service.” “I live a double life in a good way. I have a life coaching company so I am in service to others,” she said. “I am helping people create a life that they’ve imagined, and I help them take the next step in doing so. This is my chapter of service.”
While in between acting jobs, Zucker keeps herself quite busy. She co-created the nonprofit organization ARROW-HEART Adventure Camps in September of 2007 with her brother Todd Zucker. The organization operates out of a small town in Weiser, Idaho. The camp enriches teens’ lives through outdoor adventure. ARROW-HEART’s biggest adventure so far was creating a short documentary on the camp in South Africa in 2012.
Zucker listed as Meryl Streep her dream acting partner. “Meryl Streep is so unbelievably subtle and accessible,” she said.
If she were to have any superpower, she revealed that it would be “reading people’s emotions. That would be a cool superpower.”
‘Monsters of California’
She enjoyed being a part of the sci-fi thriller “Monsters of California,” which was directed by Tom DeLonge. “That was fun,” she said. “Tom is a really cool director with quite a brilliant mind. Tom is very smart, and he has a lot going on up there, and when you sit down to talk to him he is really fascinating. The script was really fun. Tom is very much an actor’s director. I hope he continues to do more movies.”
On her definition of the word success, Zucker said, “Success is whatever you can recreate in your life that brings you joy, fulfillment, and happiness.”
For her fans, she concluded, “I am always very grateful. One of the most incredible gifts we all have is positive proactive energy when we can serve each other in a beautiful light. Even though I don’t see all of the fans, I know they are watching, and that is very special.”
To learn more about Emmy-nominated actress Arianne Zucker, follow her on Instagram.
