John McCook as Eric Forrester on the CBS series THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, airing weekdays (1:30-2:00 PM, ET; 12:30-1:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Gilles Toucas  ©2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Credit: CBS

Ultimately, the reaction to the plot was “really, really good” — so good, in fact, that the actor might wind up in the winner’s circle.

Though Bold & Beautiful star John McCook had been up three times before for the Outstanding Lead Actor Daytime Emmy, “the special thing about this [nod] is that the storyline for Eric that I was nominated for doing was very controversial,” he reminds SoapCentral. “Eric could not fulfill his wife’s physical needs, and he made some bad choices, choices that I didn’t agree with.”

Not that that was an issue for McCook. Talking with boss Bradley Bell, “I said, ‘Look, I don’t mind making bad choices or wrong choices for Eric, as long as in the end, we can see why he makes these choices,’” the daytime vet explains. That we got in the scene that featured “Eric trying to explain to Ridge why he was allowing his wife, Quinn, to be off with Carter.

“But you know, it’s very exciting,” he added, “that Brad gave me the opportunity to say, ‘No, I’m not comfortable doing that.’”

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Certainly, the storyline, in which Eric’s erectile dysfunction prompted him to suggest that his fifth wife (not counting repeats) resume sleeping with the man with whom she’d cheated got a big reaction — and not always a positive one. It was “varied,” says McCook. “There were a lot of people who were offended by it, and there were a lot of people who didn’t think it was an appropriate storyline to be on a soap opera…

“However, many, many people — and not just people… who are older — thought it was really interesting and engaging subject matter, and they were into it,” he continues. “They were horrified by the way Eric tried to take care of it, [but then they got to see] Eric resolve it in the end. So, the reaction was good. It was really, really good.”

Read McCook’s thoughts on all the women in Eric’s life, past and present, in the below photo gallery.