When it comes to The Young and the Restless’ Phyllis, her character is always a bit of a wild card.

On one hand, she’s your typical Genoa City resident, navigating life’s ups and downs with a bit more ambition than most.

But then there’s the other side of Phyllis – the dangerous, unpredictable one, willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her goals.

Christine has certainly experienced this firsthand, given her clashes with Phyllis.

And who could forget the lengths Phyllis went to during her feud with Diane!

It turns out, though, that that particular Phyllis is just who Michelle Stafford needed when she submitted the scenes that won her a 2024 Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress.

“There was a scene that I had never seen with Susan [Walters, Diane] that was suggested to me,” Stafford tells Soaps.com, where “Phyllis is all in her face, saying ‘You should be afraid of me.’ I was watching it like [bleep], I’m afraid of you!”

It’s no surprise that that scene resonated so strongly with Stafford — and the Emmy judges!

The Phyllis/Diane conflict has been some of her favorite things to do in the last few years and it challenged her in ways that elevated the feud.

“The culmination of Phyllis sort of losing her mind over Diane,” Stafford explains, “was really hard to play, quite honestly.

I had to bring a lot to the day, because I don’t live in that space of being so jacked up.”

Plus, she says she had some personal, physical things going on at the time that she had to incorporate into the scenes, “which is an interesting challenge as an artist. But that’s what we do. We have to incorporate whatever is going on with us into our character. You can’t ignore it, no matter what you’re going through.”

With that said, Stafford makes it clear that that’s a one-way street.

While you don’t have a choice but to incorporate real life into your character, you do not ever want to bring your character home with you — especially when it’s someone as volatile as Phyllis can be!

“I’m better at that now,” she says of Phyllis following her home.

“I used to not be so good at it. But I’m very good at it now, because I’m a mom and Phyllis has no business at the Stafford household. When you’re a mom, method acting and all that stuff doesn’t work. It’s not conducive to your life.”

Phyllis may be threatening people, scaring Diane, faking her death and killing the occasional co-conspirator, but that’s for Genoa City and only Genoa City.

“I have to leave that behind,” Stafford makes clear, “because I have to go to volleyball games and make sure the kids are doing their homework and all the other things that being a mom entails.

Because that’s my life, and there’s no place for her there!”