This interview originally appeared in the March 11, 1986 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Finola Hughes’s Transcontinental Odyssey To GENERAL HOSPITAL
LIFE IN ENGLAND
“I had a real middle class upbringing. We lived in Nottingham, a very cosmopolitan area like SoHo in New York City. My mother was a devout feminist. She worked to reform abortion laws. She worked on a War on Rape program. I was brought up on Spare Rib, a real heavy feminist magazine, when I was nine.
“My mother made me world-wise. She was a very strong woman. Her influence on me was to be independent.
“My father had an influence on me too… He worked as a taxi driver. He was a marvelous man… a philosopher. He would laugh at nearly everything. I don’t think much of anything really bothered him. He always told me to just do my best, which I think took the pressure off of me.”
Her parents were, above all, practical people. Their advice about men? — “Have your own car.”
Ballet was Finola’s first passion: “I started dancing when I was three. My mother took me to a ballet school, and I said, ‘Oh, I have to go back.’ After one lesson, I started going three times a week. I just loved it. When I was six I turned to a lady and told her that I could see SWAN LAKE every day for the rest of my life. She said, ‘You’d get bored,’ But I told her, ‘No, I wouldn’t1 When I grew u, I got into a professional ballet company. We did SWAN LAKE every day and I never got bored!”
It took years of rigorous training before Finola was able to prove that point. “When I was ten, I went to a brilliant school (Arts Educational School). My first public appearance was when I was eleven. I danced at Covent Garden, I played a gnome. I remember thinking that if I never do anything again, I danced in an opera at Covent Garden.”
But Finola’s dreams of a dancing career were almost literally cut short by glass. “When I was 16, I had an accident which sliced my leg open. I was walking on a snow-covered glass skylight over a cellar. I went right through it and lacerated my leg. And that put me out of action for two months. I was livid. I was right at my peak at school. I had the lead in the end of the term ballet. After my leg healed, I had to work very hard, and I did to the performances.”
Dancing school opened Finola’s eyes to the class system in Britain. “There were huge class differences in the schools I went to. My mother told me that I should go when invited out to tea, but that we couldn’t really invite them back. Fortunately, being a performer is a huge leveler because your talent is the thing which stands out… not where you came from.”
DESTINATION: BERLIN
With solid training as a dancer, 20-year-old Finola left her native England for Europe. It was a quick journey from adolescence to adulthood. “I was a real trained dancer. Then, I went to Berlin to dance in a film, and I saw all of this stuff going on there. Berlin is very colorful and decadent. For example, there are many transvestite clubs. I was suddenly in a very commercial atmosphere, and I met up with other sorts (of dancers). It influenced me. I started to veer away from the classical dancing.”
DESTINATION: LONDON
Finola’s return to England was for a very personal reason. “I thought it would be best to be at home. My mother was sick and dying at the time. Seeing somebody die is a huge blow. My mother had cancer … it takes a long time. And they change. They are not the people you knew in the beginning.”
In 1980, the independent Finola drove her car to an audition which truly launched her theatrical career. “I heard about the audition for CATS from a friend. I called and called to get in. I knew it would be a big hit. I never doubted that it was going to be a success. I met Andrew Lloyd Webber (composer of CATS) at the first audition. There were many callbacks. It was so exciting. Near the end, he called me in to do a scene to see if I could take direction. He gave me the bitch part (Victoria). I always like to do bitchy things, it’s so much more fun. After I read, he told me to do the bitch part again but with a ‘nice’ interpretation. But it came out even bitchier!”
DESTINATION: HOLLYWOOD
Her performance in CATS caught the attention of a casting director who asked her to read for the movie, Staying Alive. “They videotaped my reading and set it to Sylvester Stallone. “I hadn’t seen Rocky, but I knew who Stallone was. I was asked to come here to audition for him. It was my first trip to America. Stallone wasn’t intimidating. He was friendly and funny. I found out the same day of my audition that I had the part. I was doing another Andrew Lloyd Webber show, Song And Dance. When I knew I had the job, I tried to keep calm, but I was really excited. I called everyone I knew in England and screamed and shouted with my friends.”
The initial thrill of victory quickly turned into the agony of a disciplined body building program. In an interview in People, Stallone said, “Her buttocks had to be more curved, her shoulders broadened.” Finola explains, “I was real thin at the time. Stallone had me work out with John Travolta’s trainer in order to build me up.”
With that intense body development course behind her, the renovated Finola admits that, “I’ve only seen Staying Alive two or three times. I was so blown away by everything that I didn’t sit and analyze it. Some of the reviews tore my stomach a little, but everybody gets panned in their career. Someone came up to me once in New York and said, ‘God, you were a great bitch!’ I thought that was a great compliment.” But not nearly as complimentary as Stallone’s People prediction, “If stardom isn’t a strut away (for her)… then I give up.”
DESTINATION: NEW YORK
After Staying Alive, Finola journeyed to New York where she lived with her boyfriend, Michael Praed (Prince Michael, DYNASTY). “We didn’t live together when we were both working in London. Michael came to New York in the summer of 1984 to do a Broadway play. I joined him in the fall (of 1984). The situation just kind of threw us together. It really wasn’t a hard decision.
“We actually met several years before in a restaurant in London. Some friends introduced us. Later, he told the newspaper that he thought I was plain looking. It was a headline in the Daily Mirror. He never lived that down. I was attracted to Michael because he was carrying a plastic bag. I thought that was great instead of a Louis Vuitton handbag. After our first meeting, he sent me a letter at the theater where I was working. The next week, we went out to dinner. He was very funny, and we got along pretty well. Afterward, we met quite often.”
DESTINATION: HOLLYWOOD
A return trip to Hollywood is the latest stop on Finola’s itinerary.
“Unfortunately, the Broadway play Michael was in flopped and he was kind of down about it. I told him I was going out to Los Angeles to look for work. I wanted him to come with me. People were calling to ask him to screen test for DYNASTY. So, we both came to L.A. in November of 1984. Michael was cast in DYNASTY right after we arrived. About three months later, I was called in to read for the role of Anna Devane on GENERAL HOSPITAL. By the way, it was originally written for an American actress. After the screen test, it took two weeks for them to make their decision. I was going to a wonderful acting school (run by Milton Katselas), and all of these very sophisticated, blonde American girls in my class were talking about being up for the role of Anna. I just knew that I hadn’t gotten the part. When I found out I did have the job, I screamed and jumped up and down.”
Regarding her responsibility to fans, Finola expresses this philosophy, “I don’t believe that a fan would like to think that I was obligated to do anything. I think they would like to know as much (about me) as I’m comfortable in telling… that I’m not being put on the spot. So, I tell them as much as I’m comfortable with. They have to respect that just as I respect them. I take fans seriously. I read my mail. If someone writes and says I look nice in the green dress, I tell wardrobe and I wear it more often.”
Finola seems to enjoy her work more than fame and fortune: “I don’t think about making a lot of money. I think it’s nice that I can pay my bills. I just love working. If you are rich you are working. I’ve never been out of work for more than four to six months. My advice to a young actor is to work hard. Take the first job that comes along. Work begets work.”
