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Deidre Hall's Five Greatest DAYS

1977: CRY ME A RIVER
“My twin sister (Andrea Hall Gengler, ex-Samantha and ex-Hattie) joined the show and had a scene where she had to cry on the phone. It was the first time she had to cry. I said, ‘You know, it takes people a long time to cry. You don’t want to go, Boo-hoo. It’s awful. So don’t try to cry, just be intense and emotional and quivery. Andrea said, ‘No, no. I can cry.’ I said, ‘Yeah, okay. Well, anyway, when you don’t cry don’t panic. Under pressure it’s hard to cry. Just don’t go boo-hoo.’ ‘No, no. I can cry,’ she told me. I thought, Fine! You go ahead and cry. I’ll be right here waiting for it. Because I couldn’t cry for years. Well, she got on the phone and son of a gun, she cried like a baby. I had not cried until that point on camera. I finally thought, If she can do it, it can’t be THAT hard. I’ve got the same gene pool, the same DNA, the same makeup. My gosh, I bet I CAN cry.”


1980: ALL WET
“You can’t get Wayne Northrop (ex-Roman, now Alex). I gave up trying, years ago. But before I did we were doing a scene where Roman was protecting Marlena at her apartment. He was sleeping in the other bedroom, her 7-year-old [foster] son’s bedroom. You know 7-year-old boys and beds … Things happen in the middle of the night. I said to the prop department, ‘You know how kids wet their beds. Let’s get Wayne.’ They said, ‘Okay. Let’s get him.’ Well, after the camera was done shooting me and I was done on stage, I got a bucket of hot water and poured it into Wayne’s bed. Then, I stood off camera as everybody waited for him to jump into a kid’s urinated bed. Everybody stood around and watched him do it. It was a short quick scene. Wayne jumped in bed. You saw him see it. You saw him play it. Then, he closed his eyes like he was asleep. That’s when I ran. Then, he ran. He got me before I could get in my dressing room and lock it. He threw me head to toe in the shower. We had to redo my makeup, redo my hair, dry out my clothes. Wayne has no compunctions. It’s, You don’t get me. I’ll get you back.”


CIRCA 1982: THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT
Jed Allan (ex-Don) and Robert Clary (ex-Robert) were best friends. Jed Allan is this tall,” notes Hall, motioning about 6 feet high. Robert Clary is this tall,” she motions down low. “They were Mutt and Jeff. Best friends. One day, they were sharing the same dressing room. Wayne came in and ran to the prop room. He ran here, and he ran there. I thought, Oh! He’s up to something. Finally, he said, ‘Come here. I want to show you what I did.’ The prop department had given him a door handle and made him a name plate. He had Jed Allan’s name at the top of the door with a door handle beneath it. He put Robert Clary’s name in the middle of the door with another door handle beneath it. It was so funny. We couldn’t stop laughing.”


CIRCA 1985: MOONS OVER SALEM
“One time, John de Lancie (ex-Eugene) and a group of us were at the hospital for the Christmas reading. That’s hard on actors, because you just have to sit there. We were behind the planter, and John and I were pretty close pals. The contest was who could ‘pants’ each other first without being seen on camera. Get your pants off. So we had to memorize the camera shots and memorize where everybody was. Then, on tape it began. People around us saw it. But no one on camera saw it. It was just for fun.”


2004: SPITTING IT OUT
“I always remember spitting gum in Peter Reckell’s (Bo) face. We were doing a scene where I was playing Hattie Adams, and she didn’t like Bo. We were all at the hospital. For the first part of the scene, I had to walk by choking on a donut. Someone gave me The Heimlich, and I had to spit on Ali Sweeney (Sami), which was funny. Then, Kristian Alfonso (Hope) said, ‘Save a little for Peter, when you walk past him.’ I said, ‘Okay. Done.’ Well, it was tape. So I spit up on Ali. Then, as I was walking past Peter, I spit donuts on him. He didn’t expect it. It was tape. Kristian and I both put our heads down, because we were laughing so hard. We thought we’d lose the scene, if we didn’t. Peter was like, ‘What the …?’ It was an hilarious reaction. Afterwards, I said to Peter, ‘I don’t know. I might have to spit up my gum.’ He said, ‘Oh no. Oh no. You are not spitting your gum on me.’ I said, ‘I don’t know. It’s hard to predict what Hattie might do.’ He said, ‘You could blind me, if you do that.’ Well, we got in the moment and I spit my gum at him. It stuck to his forehead. I could never do that again, if I tried.”

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