Interview: Billy Flynn Talks Daytime Emmys, Chabby & Days Return

The storyline for Chad and Abby storyline on Days of our Lives may be over — for now, but Billy Flynn [Chad DiMera] is grateful for his second Daytime Emmys nomination. As Marci Miller revealed to Soaps.com in a recent interview, it was Flynn, who told her about her nomination. It was only fitting that we asked him how he found out about his nomination. “It was Marnie Saitta, who casts the show. We kept in touch and we just happened to be talking at the time. Then Maya [Frangie], the publicist [at Days of our Lives], texted me,” he explained. “Then I started seeing tweets. I started freaking out saying, ‘I just got nominated and so did Marci!'”

Like Miller, Flynn was thrilled that all four actors were nominated from their specific Days of our Lives storyline. It’s going to be a significant moment for them to celebrate at the Daytime Emmys on May 5. “I think the fact that all of us in that storyline got nominated — me, Kate Mansi [Abigail DiMera], Marci and Tyler Christopher [Stefan DiMera] — is something cool and special,” Flynn said. “We were all so connected.”

Flynn shared that his second nomination feels a lot different from his first nomination in 2017. He has more perspective on what the nomination means to him personally and how the nomination is a big win, no matter what the outcome is at the Daytime Emmys.

“I think this one felt more special than the first one because I think I’ve grown up a lot. Instead of being grateful and appreciative [with the first nomination], I told myself that I didn’t want to win when I really did want to win,” he revealed. “I was attached to the outcome. I think I’m at a different place now. When I heard the news, I realized that I’m super grateful.” Flynn is also frank about how much he’s grown personally and professionally in the four years he’s been on the show. Even if he’s OK with not winning at this year’s ceremony, he is also honest about what a win would mean for his castmates and crew.

“Not that the thoughts don’t cross my mind. Tyler and I can’t both win since we are in the same category for Best Actor, and I’d love for him to win. But if me, Kate and Marci would win, I think that’d be such an insane thing,” he said. “I think that’d be really special for all three of us to be up there. I think it says something about what we all accomplished in such a short period of time. To have such a powerful couple with two different actresses, it just goes to show you the work that the writers and directors put into that couple and that story.”

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His Daytime Emmys reel also took on a different look this year. Flynn wanted to show his best work versus trying hard to make sure voters understand his storyline. He let the work speak for itself.

“I’ve always tried to tell a story and I think that was part of me trying to be so controlling before, which was the fear that people wouldn’t understand what’s going on,” Flynn shared. “It doesn’t matter. I picked two scenes that happened to come together, which is when Abigail tells Chad the child isn’t his, it is Stefan’s, and the episode where Chad delivers the baby in the cabin.”

Now that Flynn has exited the show, he’s had time to reflect upon the work he did with both Mansi and Miller. He talked about the chemistry he had with both actresses. He described his on-screen energy with Mansi as a “passionate relationship,” while Miller was “a great friend almost from the beginning.” It’s a friendship that extends beyond the Days of our Lives set.

“I was watching a documentary, the Jane Fonda documentary [Jane Fonda in Five Acts]. She talks about her relationship with Robert Redford and you see their friendship,” he said. “And I said, ‘Marci’s my Jane Fonda.’ I’ll be friends with her forever.”

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Flynn is now in pre-production on a film he wrote with his writing partner, Tyson Sullivan. They expect to begin shooting the movie in July.

“Willowbrook is about grief. It’s about these three kids, two boys and a girl, who grow up together,” he explained. “It’s a love triangle, but it’s about the decisions you make as kids, how that ripples through time and how you have to deal with those choices as adults.”

Flynn has another movie in the works that he’s excited about, but most of the details are under wraps for now. He and Sullivan just bought the rights to a woman’s coming-of-age story, so fans will have to wait to hear more. In the meantime, Flynn gave Soaps.com an inkling as to whether the door is open for a future Days of our Lives return as Chad DiMera.

“It’s not really goodbye because Chad’s always going to be there. He’s gone now, but he’s never really gone. There’s always that chance that he’ll be revived either by me or by somebody else,” he summed up. “The show changed my life. Through all these years with everything I’ve gone through, I have such respect, love, and gratitude for what the show was, even if I didn’t always feel it like I do now. My ups and downs in my life became Chad’s ups and downs. There’s a connection there.”