Emmys 2014: How to wake up to a nomination

Ah, the Emmy nominations -- happening at an ungodly early hour so the media can spend the day catching up with the actors and actresses making waves in television. A byproduct of the early morning announcement: star actors startled out of their sleep or spending the morning distracting themselves from the looming four minutes it takes to know if they made the list. Here’s how 10 of this year’s nominees found out about their Emmy nom.

“I was outside because I just decided to leave my apartment. I live close to the Hudson River and I just decided impulsively to walk over. I had my phone on airplane mode. Then I turned my phone off of airplane mode and I had a lot of damn texts. I saw my publicists called and I called her right back. And I screamed my ass off.”

-- Taylor Schilling, “Orange Is the New Black,” actress in a comedy

“I’m at my summer home so I made a point of putting on my bathing suit and swimming so I didn’t have to think about it, but then I happily walked in and saw there was a red light on my answering machine.”

-- Christine Baranski, “The Good Wife,” supporting actress in a drama

“I actually thought voting started today, not the nominations. Then my publicist called -- in my sleep, it was like: ‘Who’s calling me at 5:45 in the morning? Must be a telemarketer! -- so I didn’t answer. Several calls later … I honestly was blown away.”

-- Christina Hendricks, “Mad Men,” supporting actress in a drama series

“I started off the morning just doing a workout downstairs in the basement and watching CNN, and CNN announced that they were going to do their Emmy segment and start doing the overview and basically kind of saying the announcements have been made already, and I thought, ‘Oh, my phone hasn’t rung so I suppose I’m not going to get a nomination.’ And then shortly after that the phone rang.”

-- Joe Morton, “Scandal,” guest actor in a drama

“I was in bed. I was sleeping. And my phone started making a lot of noise. I had it very, very low volume because I feel like phones on vibrate make even more noise. So normally that kind of volume doesn’t wake me up unless it’s very repetitive. And oh, was it repetitive. I picked up my phone and saw there was a reason for all the activity.”

-- Kerry Washington, “Scandal,” actress in a drama

“I got a text. I’ve been asleep. I’m not real good before 7 a.m.”

-- Billy Bob Thornton, “Fargo,” actor in a movie or miniseries

“My very good friend and her husband called me on my land line because everyone else was calling me on my cellphone, which was on silent. Then one of my best friends just flew in from New York last night and I hadn’t even seen him and so I ran into his room and woke him up by jumping on his bed. But he’s back asleep already.”

-- Lizzy Caplan, “Masters of Sex,” actress in a drama

“I was shaken out of a dead sleep. I burned my left hand last night cooking a pasta sauce and I took an Advil PM and it knocked me right out. I wasn’t anticipating this.”

-- Kate Mulgrew, “Orange Is the New Black,” supporting actress in a comedy series

“In my bed in New Orleans. I got a text message from our costume designer with a bunch of emojis and sparkly things and exclamation points. I didn’t even know what it meant at first. Did she mean the show? Did she mean me specifically? Then all of a sudden my phone blew up.”

-- Sarah Paulson, “American Horror Story: Coven,” actress in a miniseries or movie

“I was in bed. It’s something crazy. I was talking to the press [yesterday] and they continually reminded me that it was coming up. I wanted to get some sleep because I have to go to work today -- I have a big load. You never know if you’re going to get a nomination, of course. I just really wanted to get some sleep. Then the call came -- happy call so that’s good. It’s a very prestigious award. I’m very grateful.”

-- Jon Voight, “Ray Donovan,” supporting actor in a drama series

Reporting by various Los Angeles Times staff writers

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