For Susan Lucci, the time was right to tell her own story

Know this if you ever have the opportunity to talk with Susan Lucci: You will need to fight the nearly irresistible urge to refer to her as Erica.

It’s Susan. Susan, Susan, Susan. It’s difficult to remember the actress’s real name, since Susan Lucci has so convincingly played the role of the fiery, romantically distracted Erica Kane since the inception of “All My Children in 1970. Today, she is that soon-to-be-canceled daytime drama’s last remaining original cast member.

Lucci is in town this weekend for the dual purposes of hosting a book signing Saturday and attending Sunday’s 38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards. Both events are set for the Las Vegas Hilton, with the awards to be broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. PT (tape delayed from the 6 p.m. live show from the Hilton Theater). Former Venetian headliner and current “Let’s Make a Deal” host Wayne Brady is the emcee.

Lucci’s book signing is 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Hilton’s Tempo Lounge. That event is the best chance for fans to see the woman who portrays the multi-married Erica Kane up close. The book’s title is, simply, “All My Life,” and if you want to purchase a copy onsite, they are available for $29.95 on a cash-only basis. Or, you can buy a copy at the Paradise Gift Shop, where plastic is happily and eagerly accepted.

Sunday’s appearance at the Daytime Emmys will be bittersweet for Lucci, who in 1999 famously won her first Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Dramatic Series after 19 fruitless nominations (she is not nominated this year). In a startling announcement in April, ABC informed the public that the show would be canceled in September. Another long-running ABC soap, “One Life to Live,” also is being canceled, in January.

The network is replacing those beloved daytime dramas with another show about food (“The Chew”) and another about lifestyle trends (working title, “The Revolution.”) The highly popular “General Hospital” will continue to air.

To promote her new book, released in March, Lucci took a break (well, two breaks, as the conversation was fractured after she was called back on set) from taping “All My Children” in L.A. The highlights of the give-and-take with the woman who has been married, on TV, a dozen times but just once in real life:

The Kats Report: Why did you wait until now to write this book?

Susan Lucci: I’ve been asked many times by publishers over the past 10 to 12 to write an autobiography, but I am a very private person and, frankly, I live life like I’ve been shot out of a cannon. I am always going forward. But it was my son (Andres Huber) who came to me about it. He said I should write it, and I said, “I don’t know. In this climate, people expect a lot out of these autobiographies, and I’ve never been to rehab or anything like that.” And he said, “Mom, all of the girls I date, once they hear you are my mom, they ask me about you. Everyone knows Erica, but nobody knows you.”

TKR: That’s a pretty efficient way to answer that question -- just hand her the book.

SL: Exactly (laughs). But, fortunately, my husband (Helmut Huber) saved all the letters from the publishers (HarperCollins winning out), and this is an opportunity to tell generations of men and women, all those people, some of the back stories of the show and my life.

TKR: What is not in the book is the impending cancellation of “All My Children.” That announcement happened after you finished writing, right?

SL: Right, the book had gone to print, and the rumor wasn’t even around until two days before the book tour. Then we started hearing this, and I thought, “What a shame that this is going to throw a cloud over the book tour.” If I recall correctly, we launched the book on March 29 at Barnes & Noble in New York, and by the time we started doing our media tour through Cincinnati, Chicago and Atlanta, every single person asked me about this rumor. Robin Roberts, on “Good Morning America,” asked me about this horrible rumor. But I knew nothing about it. I felt it was put out there by a blogger, and there was no substantiation to it. (President of Daytime of Disney ABC/Television Group)) Brian Frons had hired a new head writer, we’d never been more excited about the storyline, we’d even approved the budget.

TKR: So when did you find out the news? One would think you would be one of the first to be notified.

SL: I found out five minutes before the announcement was made (on April 14).

TKR: Five minutes?

SL: Yes, I got a call in my dressing room and was called up to Julie’s (Hanan Carruthers, the show’s executive producer) office and started up the staircase, and coming down were a lot of executives with serious looks on their faces. I started thinking, this looks serious, maybe there is more to this than just a rumor.

TKR: Who broke the news to you?

SL: Brian told me, and it really hit me. These were Agnes Nixon’s shows (Nixon created “All My Children” and “One Life to Live”), and it didn’t make any sense to me. I had just been on these book tours, and people were lined up around the block. I was in the middle of all this excitement, all over the country, about me and about the show. … It’s been written that I was blindsided, and I was.

TKR: I’ve spoken to Catherine Hickland (who for 13 years played Lindsay Rappaport on “One Life to Live”) about this, and it seems there are more viewers of these shows than the Nielsen Ratings can count. You agree with that?

SL: That is true. Nielsen does not pick them up. I am convinced of that.

TKR: Your portrayal of Erica Kane is so convincing that it’s hard to discern you from her, even in this conversation. Have fans, over the years, had a tough time realizing the difference between you and the character?

SL: Because of all the interviews and talk shows I’ve done over the years, audiences now are more savvy and sophisticated in knowing that we are actors playing parts. But in the beginning, oh yes, there were people yelling at me in the streets, punching me in the arm. …

TKR: You were punched in the arm?

SL: It was a long time ago, and I think it came about because of the way I treated my mother, or the breakup I had with one husband and going right into the arm of someone else.

TKR: So people have actually acted out toward you based on Erica’s behavior on the show?

SL: Yes. Erica was the first character to have a legal abortion on network TV, and I am Roman Catholic. When that storyline was going on, I was in church, for confession around Easter time. I was sitting in a pew, saying penance. These two women were in a pew in front of me, and they looked back and said, “Hey, it’s Erica! And she prays!” They couldn’t believe Erica Kane was in church.

TKR: Well, if you look at it positively, that’s the result of great acting. It’s better than an Emmy, maybe, to get that kind of response.

SL: That’s very kind of you to say (laughs).

TKR: We’re hearing you are about to make it official that you’re going to be a member of the cast of "Desperate Housewives.” Is that true?

SL: This is something that has been prevalent in the press, and all I can answer is, I don’t know. Honestly, this is mostly fan-driven, but I’m listening to things. … I think this all started a couple of years ago in Disney World in Orlando, when I was being interviewed by Sherri Shepherd (of “The View”), and there were 20,000 people at this large outdoor appearance. They surprised me with this video tribute, and Regis Philbin was on the screen, Kelly Ripa, Rosie O’Donnell, a number of people. And Marc Cherry was also a part of that tribute, which I didn’t realize until I was told about it a couple of weeks ago when one of the associate producers of “Entertainment Tonight” told me about it, telling me, “Susan, remember that day? Marc Cherry offered to write a part for you!” I do think fans would like to see me on that show, yes.

TKR: You’ve been a guest star on “Hot in Cleveland.” Are you going to be back on that show?

SL: They have asked me to come back. Wow, what a show. They are as warm and welcoming and down to Earth as you can imagine. They are brilliant and beautiful, and Betty White -- after being on “All My Children” for so long, you never think you’ll be able to work with someone like her. But she is wonderful, everything you would expect. I love her. Love the show.

TKR: If it were left to you to write the end for Erica Kane, how would you handle that? Would you kill her off, like, in a Jet-Ski accident?

SL: Oh, no! Not a Jet-Ski accident! Poor Jenny Gardner! Poor Kim Delaney (laughs)! No, we have done that already. But I can tell you what I wouldn’t do, and that’s tie up the end of Erica Kane in a nice little bow. I would not do that. I would leave them wanting more, there’s no doubt about it.

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