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Interview!

ICYMI Patrika Darbo Interview

Patrika Darbo 734x366
Patrika Darbo "The Bold and the Beautiful" Set Spectra CBS Television City Los Angeles, Ca. 01/20/17 © John Paschal/jpistudios.com 310-657-9661 Credit: JPI

It took nearly 20 years for Patrika Darbo to land a role on B&B, so to be playing Shirley Spectra is, indeed, a dream come true. The actress reveals that she had been lobbying Executive Producer/Head Writer Bradley Bell for a while to be cast as the sister of the show’s iconic Sally, played by the late Darlene Conley. “Darlene and I had a good relationship,” Darbo shares. “Through the years, we would always run into each other at award shows and things, and even she would say, ‘Sally needs a sister, Brad. Sally needs a sister.’ It got to the point where we just browbeat the poor man. If Brad would see me coming, I think he’d quickly turn around and go the other way [laughs].”

Now that she’s part of the Spectra clan, however, Darbo knows she has big shoes to fill. “Darlene was an amazing woman,” the actress declares. “There’s no way I could replace her. I just have to put my pumps alongside hers as a sister would and try to maintain that character and do what the writers provide, which has been fun. Shirley has inherited some of Sally’s ambition. She’s definitely got that streak. The Spectras are survivors, and Shirley is there for her family, come hell or high water.”

JPI

When Darbo got the word that her wish to be BOLD was granted, she was back in Salem as Nancy Wesley, her on-again, off-again home since she joined DAYS back in 1998. “My agent called me and said, ‘This is a secret so you can’t say anything, but are you interested?’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me? Yes! It would be a bad thing for me to say no after I badgered Brad relentlessly for nearly 20 years [laughs].’ ”

Darbo is the first to admit it was hard keeping mum. “I was getting offers for things and I’d be like, ‘Oh, [husband] Rolf and I are going somewhere during that time,’ ” she recalls. “We were sworn to secrecy under penalty of death. I remember walking into DAYS in January and someone said, ‘I hear you’re going over to another show.’ I was panic-stricken. This was at 6:15 in the morning and I was like, ‘I don’t know how you found out but you can’t say anything to anyone!’ There I was, waking my agent up at 6:30 going, ‘I didn’t say anything but the cat is out of the bag.’ It just created chaos. Luckily, it didn’t get out but we were walking on eggshells. It was terrifying. It’s like when you’re invited to a surprise party and you accidently ask the guest of honor what they want for their birthday. But, it was all worth it.”

The actress first made a big daytime splash when she joined DAYS as the sexually voracious, plus-sized Nancy, a born schemer with a hunky doctor husband. But it wasn’t meant to be a long-term gig. “When I started on DAYS with Kevin [Spirtas, ex-Craig], neither one of us were under contract, and at that time we were about three weeks ahead of what was airing,” she muses. “Well, when we aired, we had contracts that afternoon because the phone lines lit up. People were crazy about them, which was a surprise to us because we thought we were only going to be on for a handful of episodes. It was a big surprise to the powers-that-be, as well, because of the fact that people didn’t have to vicariously live through performers who were a size 2. Suddenly, I was ‘everywoman’ and it just took off. I certainly don’t think I’m the leader of the way, but look at Melissa McCarthy and Chrissy Metz from THIS IS US. There is an acceptance now. We are the everyday people. We are the American scene. We are the world scene because we come in all different shapes and sizes and colors. We’re being represented now, and that is a good thing.”

Because of DAYS’s production schedule, which is five-to-six months in advance of air, Nancy will pop up again in June — Darbo filmed there in January — though she is now focused on her new soap home. “Brad graciously let me finish doing what DAYS had coming up for me,” Darbo praises. “People keep thinking Nancy’s coming back because that’s on the Internet, but I am here. Of course, I would always go back and help out whenever possible, but that’s a little tough to do when you’re under contract. DAYS has been very generous to me, and God bless [Executive Producer] Ken Corday, and God bless the fans because they’re following me here now.”

Darbo says she is loving the connections she’s making with her new co-stars, especially Courtney Hope (Sally) and Courtney Grosbeck (Coco), who play her granddaughters. “It’s wonderful working with both my Courtneys and watching them grow,” she raves. Ditto the Spectra clan in general. “I can’t ask for a better family,” Darbo marvels. “We had fun this past weekend over a line, which I can’t tell you, but if somebody got ahold of our phones and saw what we were texting back and forth to one another and the craziness that was going on, it is very much like a real family.”

JPI

Did You Know?

Darbo met husband Rolf when he was the stage manager and she was in the chorus for a production of Anything Goes.

She was named one of TV Guide’s Sexiest Stars in 1999 for her role on DAYS.

In 2002, she co-authored the book 365 Glorious Nights of Love and Romance. “Oh, yes, my sex book,” Darbo recalls with a laugh.

HOSPITAL Corners

Darbo made her soap debut in Port Charles, though many fans don’t know about it. “It was way back in the ’80s, when Duke’s Club first started on GENERAL HOSPITAL [circa 1986],” she relays. “It was when they first brought on Ian [Buchanan, ex-Duke, GH et al] and paired him with Finola [Hughes]. Anna was away from Robert and she started going with Duke, and they just took off. Lucy Coe was just coming on to the show. I was a waitress, an under-five, and I was the one who would catch people up as to what was going on at Duke’s place, which was a lot! Just to show you the power of daytime, I was in Rio de Janeiro on a boat with a hat on my head, in my bathing suit, pale as I could possibly be, and this lady got up to get herself a caipirinha [cocktail], picked her sunglasses up, looked at me and let out this scream, ‘You’re Sally’ — that was my waitress name — ‘on GENERAL HOSPITAL!’ I was an under-five waitress on her favorite soap and she recognized me halfway around the world. That’s the power of soap operas.”

Just The Facts

Birthday: April 6

Hails From: Born in Jacksonville, FL, and raised in Atlanta, GA.

Marital Status: Married to husband Rolf since December 29, 1973.

JPI

Emmy Time: In 2016, Darbo won a Prime-Time Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama series for the role of Margot in ACTING DEAD. “Go watch it at www.actingdead.com. It’s a little gory in places, but it’s a comedy about an actor who couldn’t get a job until he turns himself into a zombie. I play his ex-travel agent, now-talent agent.”

Easy To Digest: Darbo also won a Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Female Newcomer in 1999. “That’s on top of my piano, along with a picture from when I won. I can’t even begin to tell you what that means to me, to be [coughs] years old and to be the best newcomer? God bless you guys at Soap Opera Digest!”

Where To Catch Her Next: As Dorothy in the all-star sudser LADIES OF THE LAKE, which debuts on Amazon Video on May 15, based on a novel by DAYS Executive Producer Ken Corday.

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