Double Duty
Digest chats up GL newbie John Harrison (Mark/”Josh”), who gives the scoop on what it’s like to re-create one of the biggest weddings in soap history.
Soap Opera Digest: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
John Harrison: I’m from Texas originally and studied with an acting coach in Austin…. He basically told me I had to leave Austin. As beautiful as a place as it is and though there is work that comes there, most roles are cast out of New York or L.A. I preferred New York and wanted get into a program and make [acting] my focus, so I did that!
Digest: Where else might GL fans recognize you from?
Harrison: I have a few seconds in a Gilette commercial with Derek Jeter and Tiger Woods. Otherwise, I’m with a couple theater companies. Years ago, I shot some stuff in Texas. I did one of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre [movies]. It was part four. I think I was one of the first people to get killed off!
Digest: You play the character of Mark, who is a young actor portraying Josh for GL’s fictional, on-screen movie, Always. Is that weird for you?
Harrison: I try to just treat the two different personalities like two different roles. It’s fun, actually. In any given scene, I know I get to do at least a couple of different things and it makes it more interesting to play.
Digest: Had you watched GUIDING LIGHT or knew about “Jeva” before?
Harrison: It’s funny. I’d kinda been having my eye on GUIDING LIGHT for a while because Tom Pelphrey [ex-Jonathan] studied with the same acting coach that I have, so I’d known about the show as being this great place to be for some time. I never actually met him until I ran into him one day at the studio…. I was familiar, having seen it through the years some, yes. I didn’t really follow the storyline so much. Friends of mine continue to watch to this day and when I told them I got booked [for the part], they were the ones who were filling me on on every little thing that’s happened. I was like, “Wow.”
Digest: What was your first day on set like?
Harrison: Everybody was supercool. When I met Robert [Newman, Josh] and Kim [Zimmer, Reva] for the first time, I was wondering, “Am I going to get to run my lines with Robert sometime today? Do they run lines? I assume they do!” And before I even asked, he came up to me and he said, “Hey, let me know when you want to run lines together.” In my first day doing any soap work whatsoever, it was cool to have the pros there. It’s completely different and so fast-paced, but I absolutely loved it.
Digest: Tell us about filming the big Cross Creek wedding re-creation. What was that like?
Harrison: They made some DVDs [of the old footage] for us to watch, so several of the actors were sitting around watching the Cross Creek wedding. I watched some stuff on YouTube. It was really exciting. Before we shot, I was like , “Wow! That’s what I’m wearing?!” And the dress that the character of Jolene wears is the exact same dress that Reva wore. Everyone’s wearing their hats and old, country-picnic attire, it was something to look forward to.
Digest: Did you grow a beard? Josh had a beard on his big day back in 1989.
Harrison: I did! I stayed clean-shaven for everything else and then after one of the scenes they had me start growing everything out. I’m impressed about how they pieced everything together to make it look like it did years ago. Especially as we started getting into the costumes. I got my hair poofed up a bit [laughs]! Even other folks started saying, “Wow, you guys really do resemble Josh and Reva from Cross Creek!” Robert and Kim were there. I’m sure it was nostalgic for them, as well. It was a blast; it was wonderful.
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