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Tuck Everlasting

Soap Opera Digest: So, you’re coming back to ONE LIFE TO LIVE … again.
Jessica Tuck: Yeah, I think it’s been three times now [she also returned in 1993 and 1999]. I’m good friends with [Executive Producer] Frank Valentini, so I told him, “Whenever you need me.” It happened to work out with my JUDGING AMY schedule. I have a lot of family who lives in New York, and I still have friends on the show, so I thought, “How much fun is that?” To go back and visit and have a good time with family and friends kind of seems like a no-brainer.Digest: Is it fun playing an angel?

Tuck: Well, Megan can’t really come back as anything else now since she’s dead, can she [laughs]? But it is nice, especially because angels seem to be taking over Llanview lately. I knew Luna [Susan Batten] has been moonlighting and having a good time. It’s fabulous.Digest: I understand that you now have your own little “angel”?

Tuck: Yes, I have a baby, Samara. She’s almost 10 months old. It’s been all-consuming and incredibly wonderful and more difficult than I ever thought. But I’m so, so happy to have this beautiful little girl.Digest: How did you come up with her name?

Tuck: My husband [Robert Koseff] and I were going back and forth between names — you have to negotiate. When I said it out loud, we said, “That’s so pretty.” I also love girls’ names that can be shortened to boys’ names like Alexandra/Alex. So, she can be Sami or Sam or Samara. I thought it was different without being so odd that people would say, “Your name is what?” It’s Hebrew and my husband is Jewish, so that was nice. That’s what we ended up with. It means “under God’s rule.” I liked that, too. When you call them by the name you’ve chosen, you can’t imagine them being called anything else. It seems like the perfect name.Digest: Any chance of her being an actress?

Tuck: Actually, I think she might be a veterinarian. I know she’s young, but she already loves animals. If a dog is in sight, she freaks. If birds come by…. She loves any little moving thing, she wants to get near it. We don’t have pets, but we have an electronic pig and I think she thinks it’s her dog. She screams and grabs it and kisses it on the nose.Digest: That’s so cute!

Tuck: It is; it’s very sweet. But I hope she doesn’t go into acting. It’s so hard. Even I graduated as a philosophy/psychology major. If she wants to go into it, she’ll have to graduate from college first.Digest: Do you keep in touch with anyone from OLTL?

Tuck: Grace Phillips, who played my sister, Sarah, is one of my best friends out here. She lives seven blocks away and she designed my back yard. She does landscape design. Karen Witter, who was the second Tina, she and I keep in touch. She also lives [here].Digest: When you return to OLTL, does it feel weird?

Tuck: I love it. Even new people who don’t know me are really friendly and nice. I always feel like I’m their guest and they’ve always treated me incredibly nice. It’s like I was a graduating class and you go back for a reunion. It’s their school and you’re visiting, but you were once part of that organization, so you do have something in common, even if you haven’t worked together. Being on ONE LIFE was such a great introduction to the business.

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