Elizabeth Hubbard Goes Dutch!
Fans of AS THE WORLD TURNS and Dutch soap opera GOEDE TIJDEN, SLECHTE TIJDEN (GOOD TIMES, BAD TIMES) will each be getting a dose of the divine Elizabeth Hubbard (ATWT’s Lucinda) this summer. The actress talks to Weekly about doing global double duty.
Soap Opera Weekly: It is so fantastic that you’re doing a soap in the Netherlands.
Elizabeth Hubbard: Well, I’m amazed at people’s interest, and I’m delighted. I’m having a wonderful opportunity, and it gives me a chance to ply my trade, which I like to do, in a different setting. And I’m really looking forward to it; getting a new character together and spreading my wings a little bit.
Weekly: How did this role on GTST come about?
Hubbard: I had done some talk shows over there, and people talk to you and you talk to them — everybody talks! — while I was in the country. And then somebody came up with this idea and offered it to me, and I said, “Well, sure. Why not? I’d love to. It’ll be fun.” I’m lucky, because I love Holland; it’s a beautiful, wonderful place. It’s marvelous to have this opportunity; everyone is so nice there. My significant other lives there, so I have a sense of a home base. Since this has come on the air in Holland, I have had some of the most extraordinary hits on my Web site. [The fans are] really interested. They love Lucinda and they want to see her, even if she’s pretending to be somebody else. It’s Lucinda who’s acting this part! And this woman is going to speak a little bit of Dutch, too.
Weekly: I was about to ask if you spoke Dutch.
Hubbard: Well, I can’t speak Dutch to have an intellectual conversation with anybody, but I can substitute and say some words, and my accent is okay if I really try hard and look at my words first.
Weekly: I’m sure they won’t judge you too harshly or nitpick what you say!
Hubbard: I think it would be funny. [The character is] an American, and whatever mistakes I make, they should be funny! As people are. Dutch is a very difficult language. It’s “moeilijk” — that means difficult! “Gemakkelijk” is “easy.” I hope if I do speak it, they’ll see it’s all in good fun and affection.
Weekly: And you’re actually going back and forth between New York and Holland, aren’t you? That’s got to be intense.
Hubbard: You know how it is on ATWT — I have to work on [a] Friday and then catch the plane that Friday night. But hey, we’ve got to do that. That’s what we do, it’s our job; how we manage it. [GTST] is a guest-star thing that’s, I hope, going to be tasty and nice — and, as you know, the show is very popular in the Netherlands. It goes on three times a day!
Weekly: I know! That’s so wonderful. Tell us a little bit about the character you’re playing. Her name is Sair? How is that pronounced?
Hubbard: “Sair,” like in hair! (laughs) She is the American mother of a member of one of the main families. Her daughter [Irene] is a psychologist and married to a doctor. Sair is a doctor, and she’s bringing this different attitude from America into that family, and it’s going to shake things up. Of course, I have played a doctor in the past, and my mother was a doctor in real life. So it’s fun; it awakens all kinds of memories. When I first started playing Dr. Althea Davis, all those years ago [on THE DOCTORS], my mother was alive and she was my medical consultant, which was lovely. I could call her up and say, “What’s a this and a that?” and she’d help me out. So, with this lady, I’m doing my homework and talking to people, trying to have some reality in the base. So it’s fun and it’s good for me as an actress, and I hope I bring more verve to Lucinda, because she’ll have a little bit of a twinkle in her eye, maybe.
Weekly: I like to think Lucinda always has a twinkle in her eye.
Hubbard: (laughs) You don’t always see it, though. She’s looking the other way, or the camera is.
Weekly: I’m so glad you’re doing this gig at GTST, because soaps are a global community now. There are so many viewers from all over the world who watch ATWT, and the crossover appeal is so important in keeping the genre alive.
Hubbard: I think so. And, lately, we’ve had fans in Bulgaria and all kinds of places that you would not have thought that ATWT is going. I think it’s marvelous. We need to be a community, because that’s the whole point of soaps, anyway. People watch intergenerationally, and feel that they’re together and have something to hang onto.
Conversation
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