Now this is high praise! Recently on the top Canadian chat show The Hour, Oscar-nominated Precious director Lee Daniels was asked which star he’d most like to work with next. His response? “I'd work with Susan Lucci from All My Children,” Daniels told the program’s host. “You know who Susan Lucci is? I've met everybody from Meryl Streep to Daniel Day-Lewis. I'd be really, like, blown away to meet Susan Lucci. She's sort of hot! She's sort of hot!” (You can see the segment on YouTube.) Daniels’ pick has been all the buzz—especially in Soapland—but no one’s heard from Lucci herself. We tracked her down in Tampa, Florida, where she’d been so busy doing three back-to-back days on HSN, selling her hot butt off (beauty products, jewelry, her Malibu Pilates workout machine), that she was the last to know about Daniels’ compliment.

This is so wild! How’s it feel? What are your thoughts?
I had no idea about this until just today! I’m so thrilled and flattered, and I’m glad it’s on YouTube so I can check it out. Lee Daniels! Wow. This man has done such magnificent work and I’ll certainly be watching him on the Oscars. It’s funny. People always ask me who I’d like to work with—meaning actors, of course—but my mind always goes to great directors. To work with Mr. Daniels, to have the luxury of that man’s talent, is a very exciting thought. And to mention me in the same breath as Meryl Streep and Daniel Day-Lewis—two of the actors I most admire—is, well… I just don’t know what to say. I’m very honored.

This is not only a big validation for you but for daytime drama as well. We’re all getting a kick out of this. It’s just the coolest thing.
I know what you’re saying. I see it the same way. And, really, you know how it is in the [mainstream] press. People don’t really talk much about daytime. So it’s very brave of Mr. Daniels to acknowledge All My Children in this way. How wonderful that he says what he really thinks.

Because a lot of people don’t. There are a lot of closet soap fans out there.
Exactly! They say they don’t watch but then you meet them in person and they’re surprisingly well-versed in the storylines. It’s a guilty pleasure. To have a man of Lee Daniels’ caliber say right out, “I’m watching,” is just fantastic.

So then we’ll expect to see you in a couple of years at the Oscars—nominated!
From your lips…

Just don’t take another 19 tries to win the damn thing!
[Laughs] Oh, God, I don’t think I have 19 tries left in me!

Daniels is known for stripping down his actresses to get to the real deal. Are you ready to pull a Mariah Carey and act with no makeup, bad hair and a unibrow?
Hey, listen, if the part calls for it, I will go the distance. I’m there!

http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/soaps/susan-lucci-reacts-to-precious-praise-4108.html