When DAYS’s Marci Miller picked up her script and saw that Abigail would slap Dario, it brought up a harrowing memory. “I had an acting class one time where I had to slap a man across the face and he said, ‘Just do it! It will be fine,’ ” she recounts. “He was a cop who had decided to become an actor, so he wasn’t just some softie. I slapped him for real and busted his lip, and also gave him a bloody nose. So I was a little nervous about Abigail slapping Dario.” Before going on set, Miller and Jordi Vilasuso (ex-Dario) went over the scene. “When you rehearse and run lines, you get a feel for what the other one is going to bring to the table,” says Miller. “It’s nice to know ahead of time what kind of energy to expect. Jordi and I are both very aware of one another, and what we want to do.” Once Miller stepped in front of the cameras, she was relieved to discover that DAYS knew how to make a fake slap look real. “The way they staged the slap, it was just impossible to hurt Jordi,” she notes. “It was all about the camera angles, so I literally didn’t even touch Jordi. I just wiped my hand in front of his face, and it went through the air. At the same time, Jordi turned his head. It was kind of a little dance move. Everything worked out great.”
Gilles Marini (ex-Doctor, B&B) says that when he signed on as womanizing realtor Sebastien on DEVIOUS MAIDS back in 2014, he had no idea that he was actually playing a serial killer. “They did not alert me about being the killer until toward the end of the season,” he recalls with a chuckle. “I think we had maybe three or four more episodes left to do and it was more than shocking. It actually threw me off at first, but then I realized, ‘Hey, this is really brilliant because if I had no idea, then the audience probably didn’t, either.’ So, I went from romancing Carmen [Roselyn Sanchez] to chopping people into pieces as a psychopath. After I got used to the idea, it was great because I’d never played that before. It reminded me how cool it is to be an actor because you’re able to go to work and do incredible things or stupid things, and then you go home at night and you don’t have to pay the price for it.”
For her annual charity tea in Vancouver, BC, Kate Linder (Esther, Y&R) included a secret guest. “No one knew that Elizabeth Hendrickson [ex-Chloe] was coming,” smiles Linder. “We kept her hidden while the other actors were being introduced and she snuck in from the back and sat at one of the tables. She was wearing a hat, so no one recognized her.” Finally, it was time for the big reveal. “During the Q&A part of the tea, she raised her hand and Christian [J. LeBlanc, Michael], who was in on it, went up to her with a microphone,” Linder recounts. “She said, ‘This is for Kate Linder. How long does it take to walk from Portland to Vancouver?’ I pretended to be confused and said, ‘What?’ And there were all these curious looks in the audience. Then she stood up and took off her hat and everyone went absolutely nuts! I screamed, ‘Oh, my God, you’re alive!’ She came up on the stage and joined us, but it was so great to pull off this big surprise for the fans. They were really appreciative and it was a very special moment.”
Between (and even during!) takes during the long taping hours at this year’s Nurses’ Ball, GH’s Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth) was amused by how her tablemates, Roger Howarth (Franco) and Hudson West (Jake), chose to pass the time. “The entire time we were at that table together, Roger and Hudson were passing jokes back and forth and doing these riddles and playing these games,” she sets up. “Roger came up with this game of ‘Would you rather,’ and he would say things like, ‘Would you rather pull your fingernails out or stick yourself in the eye with a fork?’ — like, crazy, disgusting things, and Hudson just thought it was so funny. At one point, someone on Twitter posted a close-up of Roger and Hudson in the background of a scene [from the ball]; I think it was Lulu and Laura having a conversation in the background, and in the background, you can see Hudson and Roger kind of giggling. The person said, ‘Oh, I would die to know what they were talking about!’ And I could read Roger’s lips in the clip! He was saying, ‘Would you rather...’ I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness, they are playing the “Would you rather” game!’ It was the most amusing couple of days. I was like, ‘These two are so funny together!’ ”