Susan Lucci on how to get over being fired

Jen Rogers
·Anchor

Susan Lucci played Erica Kane on “All My Children” for 41 years. She was the de facto face of daytime soap operas, until ABC cancelled the show in 2011. To Lucci, it was “very much like a death.”

As Lucci recalled to Yahoo Finance’s My Three Cents, “It's like a sudden death because we did not see it coming. So it was a shock. And then there's disbelief and there's anger and there's hurt and there's tears and there's emptiness.”

For Lucci, grieving is an important part of losing a job, especially one you like. “Allow yourself to mourn, too. Allow yourself. Don't stifle that down. Allow yourself to have that period of adjustment and sadness. But then get energized and go forward.”

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - JULY 26: Actress Susan Lucci attends the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries summer 2019 TCA press tour event at a Private Residence on July 26, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic)
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - JULY 26. (Photo by Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic)

SUCCESS IN HER 70S

Moving forward for Lucci meant that she kept working when she could have retired. She says her work ethic “came from really being very, very happy doing what I was doing and determined to want to do the best I could possibly do.”

Lucci is 72 and still making strides in her career. This summer she’s been performing in “Celebrity Autobiography” on stage. She also has a new series of mystery movies in the works for Hallmark which she is executive producing — her first EP credit of her storied career.

Her advice to those who feel they still have more to do in their seventies, “I say do them, do them. Don't put a label on yourself that keeps you down. If it was your best friend saying that to you or your daughter or your sister, wouldn't you encourage them? Encourage yourself to go ahead.”

My Three Cents with Jen Rogers is a weekly interview series that explores celebrities’ history with — and relationship to — money. Find it exclusively on Yahoo Finance.

Follow Jen on Twitter @jensaidit or Instagram @jenrogershere.

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