Anthony Anderson Feels Like 'the Black Susan Lucci' After Earning His 7th Acting Emmy Nomination

Anthony Anderson is hopeful that 2021 will be the year he takes home his first Emmy Award.

The black-ish actor, 51, scored his seventh acting Emmy Award nomination for lead actor in a comedy series in July while he was "in New York City working on a project with my mother," he tells PEOPLE for this week's issue.

"Woke up that morning, heading to work and got the call that we received the nomination," he recalls about learning of the honor. "So, I went to work a little excited with my mom and my assistant, and just had a great day. And as you could imagine, heading to work or arriving at work with production and the crew happy for me and our show and just celebrating with me as well."

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Phylicia J. L. Munn Anthony Anderson

Still, while Anderson — who stars as Andre "Dre" Johnson on black-ish — was excited about the nomination, "it was just another morning for [my mom]," he says.

"She said, 'Oh, congratulations. I'll be glad when you win one. Who do you need me to talk to?' I was like, 'I don't know, Mama, you need to talk to somebody. This is year seven.' We'll see, I'm feeling like the Black Susan Lucci," he says, noting the All My Children actress.

Similar to Anderson, Lucci, 74, was nominated for a Daytime Emmy 18 times before finally taking home the best actress award in 1999.

But although he has yet to win an Emmy, Anderson says he's blessed just to be nominated.

"You are always excited to be recognized by your peers and your peer group, so it's just exciting," he says. "Not only for me individually, but for my castmates, in particular, Tracee [Ellis Ross], and also the show being nominated as well. So that is what's really exciting for me."

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Jessica Brooks via Getty Black-ish

Black-ish, which also stars Tracee Ellis Ross, Marsai Martin, Yara Shahidi, Marcus Scribner, Miles Brown, Jenifer Lewis and Laurence Fishburne, first premiered in September 2014 and has three spinoff series: Mixed-ish, Grown-ish and Old-ish.

Over the years, the popular series has tackled difficult topics surrounding race and racism in America, including police brutality and the country's history of slavery.

Earlier this year, ABC announced that the show had been renewed for an eighth and final season.

"It's bittersweet to be a part of something from its inception," he says. "Helping to develop it and usher it into the world and to work with my cast and crew and production team for almost 10 years now, and to know that that's coming to an end."

"But we've done some great television, we've done a lot of great things for the culture," he continues. "Everyone always said, 'Well, what's your legacy going to be?' I was like, 'I don't know.' I won't know until I step away from it, but I know that black-ish is definitely a big part of what that legacy may be, just in terms of what it means for storytelling, from our perspective and the culture itself."

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Christopher Willard via Getty Black-ish

As for how he's feeling going into filming the last season? Anderson is taking it "day by day."

"I'm pretty sure we will all be overwhelmed and consumed with emotion that last day," he says. "Right now, we know what we're leading up to and we know that it's coming to an end. But I'm pretty sure it will just be a flood of emotions knowing that this will be the last time that we are together as the Johnsons, on stage four and stage five at Disney studios or at ABC studios. So yeah, I'm pretty sure there won't be a dry eye in the house."