Already have an account?
Get back to the

Jess Walton: A Jill a Minute

1. “My favorite that comes to mind was a big party Katherine had when I was playing Rex and John Abbott off each other. She busted me. Everybody in the room knew that I had been playing them both. I was lying and backsliding and trying to cover up. It was a comic moment. It was great.”

2. “Isn’t it funny how the humiliating aspects come in? Another one was a scene I had with Victor, when I thought he was going to ask me to marry him, but he was really breaking up with me. I had gone out and gotten an evening gown. It was ridiculous.”

3. “I remember when we all went on a [personal appearance] — maybe it was in Philadelphia, but I’m not sure. It was Eric (Braeden, Victor) and Melody (Thomas Scott, Nikki) and a whole bunch of other people and we all had to get up on stage a do a talent. I read poetry and introduced Eric to [the poetry of] Carl Sandburg and he fell in love with him. That was a fun road trip. It was very bonding and I was very new at the show, then. In fact, I ran into someone last night who watched in college and he said he was watching the day they said, ‘The part of Jill will be played by Jess Walton.’ That was so great.”

4. Katherine and Jill “were at a party around the time Cricket married my son and Katherine shoved a deviled egg in my face. Jeanne (Cooper, Katherine) and I have known each other so long, trust each other so much and we’re in love with our characters. We just see each other and walk onto that set and start laughing. It’s such a plus.”

5. “Peter Bergman (Jack) had a wonderful dinner party, outside of the studio, for the Abbotts. It was probably when John Abbott and Jill were fairly happy and she was living at the Abbotts, right in the beginning of their second marriage [in 1993], before Mamie and Jill had their big confrontation. It was a fun group: Beth Maitland (ex-Traci), Veronica Redd (Mamie), Jerry (Douglas, John) and Brenda (Epperson Doumani, Ashley). It was just beautiful and we all got these beautiful crystal paperweights that had an ‘A’ on them. I still have mine.”

6. “All my love scenes with the contractor. Oh, God, and the time I had to be in bed with John Abbott and I was so in love with a contractor. We did fantasy scenes, while I was making love to Jerry, about me making love with the contractor. I must have been very loud, because then we had a breakfast scene afterwards where everyone came in and commented that they’d ‘heard’ that I’d had a great morning. It was very embarrassing.”

Comments