To celebrate the Emmys on Sunday, ET is looking back at some of our earliest interviews with this year's nominees before they were famous.
To celebrate the Emmys on Sunday, ET is looking back at some of our earliest interviews with this year's nominees before they were famous.
ET first fell in love with Modern Family star Julie Bowen in 1995 on the snowy set of the adventure series Extreme. At the time, the now two-time Emmy winner was just trying to get through our interview in one piece.
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"I'm actually kind of a one woman guy on this show," Julie said before quickly adding, "and in real life!"
"I'm going to get in so much trouble, aren't I?" Julie continued. "It's been 30 seconds and already I'm in trouble! I can feel it!"
Julie is going for her third Emmy win this year for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
Claire Danes was wise beyond her years when we met her in 1994. At the time she was just 15 and appearing on the cult drama My So-Called Life.
"I just want to be a sane person," she told ET. "I want to be a person who has a life and who acts. I don't want to be an actress."
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Claire, who already has three Emmy wins on her resume, is nominated once again for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for playing Carrie Mathison on Homeland.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus was having a blast shooting her first sitcom, Day by Day, when we first met her in 1988.
"It's fun for me to come in and play a sarcastic character, and that's what I do," she said.
Julia already has five Emmys at home, and this year she's up for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for playing President Selina Meyer on Veep -- a role that has earned her three previous nominations and just as many wins.
Robin Wright is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for playing the sophisticated and refined first lady Claire Underwood, but in 1985 she was portraying a hooker in the action flick Hollywood Vice Squad.
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Today, How to Get Away With Murder star Viola Davis is a household name, but on the City of Angels set in 1999, she was just happy to have a job.
"I'm an actor and 98 percent of us at any point are unemployed so whenever you get a job it's fabulous," said Viola, who is nominated this year for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
And while Empire's Cookie Lyon doesn't seem to be going anywhere soon, Taraji P. Henson was worrying about her next paycheck when she did Hustle and Flow in 2005.
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"Right now I don't have a job," she said. "I have a hot movie coming out and I'm unemployed, but that's the nature of the business."
Taraji hopes to take home her first Emmy on Sunday for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Check out more of our throwback interviews in ET: Before They Were Famous, available on newsstands and OnNewsstandsNow.com.