Even out of contest, I think the idea comes through. Do not work from your own emotions, work from the characters emotions. I've taught emotions to actors for too many years, in classrooms all over the country, not to know that you don't know the names and meanings of all the emotions you feel. Some of them are so difficult to pronounce, we can't even say them without working on it. If actors are going to paint with an abundantly colorful pallet they have to study emotions objectively.
Actors have to understand emotions on a universal, abstract level.
Emotions are much too hyper-personal to be transferred from one person to another, and your character had better be a person. The characters emotional life must evolve in synthesis with their physical and intellectual life. The study of emotions is a vital, but completely neglected part of the actors artistic education. It is simply knowing all the creative options open to you, the parameters of potential. Building your emotional vocabulary increases your emotional mobility and brings many new colors into your performance.