GH's Lisa LoCicero (Olivia): Then And Now

then: “I have a tremendous amount of faith that if I lose my job [as THE CITY’s Jocelyn] tomorrow, there are a million things I can do.” — 12/3/96

now: “That was a lot more true 20 years ago, when I was younger and before I had kids, there’s no doubt about that. But I love to hear that I had that youthful exuberance and an awareness of the fact that as an actor, jobs don’t last forever. In the soap world, they can last for 30 years and there’s always a big deal made and a lot of fanfare [when someone is fired] — ‘So-And-So Gets The Ax!’ — like you’re a big fat failure if you’re not on the show for five decades! But that is just not the case. I think it’s nice that I had that awareness then that jobs end and when they do, you have to do something else.”

then: “We’re not legally married. I call him my ‘common-law husband’, because it feels like we’re married. We’ll do it one of these days, when we have time.” — 8/10/04

now: “[Michael Patrick Jann and I] have now been married for … honestly, I can’t remember. It was April 22 of some year. I stand by the statement that I don’t feel particularly more married to him having actually gotten the piece of paper than I did before. It’s the wanting to be with someone that keeps you together, not the piece of paper. I know that’s not everyone’s opinion, but that’s how I see it. We already had a kid and we knew that we were going to get married; I mean, I’d had the wedding ring on my finger for God knows how many years! We finally did it because we noticed that it sort of bothered our parents a little bit [that we weren’t married].”

then: “Sports are my enemy.” — 3/9/10

now: “The big thing that happened in my life since then, that I want everyone to know, is that I threw a perfect strike. I was at an event with Scott Reeves [ex-Steve] and they wanted us to throw out first pitches. Just the thought of throwing a ball in front of a crowd full of people made me want to vomit. My husband was like, ‘You have to do it, they don’t expect you to be good!’ So he gets me all geared up and they’re playing the GH theme song and the fans are cheering — and for me, it was like I was going to the gallows. Every piece of self-loathing that I felt as a non-athletic child was coming up to bite me. I walked out there and closed my eyes and I just threw that ball with decades of self-loathing and failure fueling me, and it went right over the plate, into the catcher’s mitt with a resounding smack, and the crowd went wild! My husband was in complete shock. I think I fuel myself a lot on terror and latent self-loathing and fear of humiliating myself, and that’s what happened that day. But I still don’t like to watch sports and I still have no aptitude for them [laughs].”

then: “Hair is always in a bun, usually wearing glasses and frequently in high heels because I’m the size of an elf. So, I guess you’d call [my] look ‘Elvish Porn Secretary’. — 10/4/11 

now: “Well, let’s see. I do usually still wear my hair in a bun when I’m not working, but I have stopped wearing heels, so I guess you’d have to take the porn part out of there. These days, my look is more ‘Playground Chic’ because everything I wear has gigantic pockets, where I can put in a diaper, a coloring book, some crayons, some Fisher-Price people….”

then: “At the end of the day, it is a weird thing [to shoot love scenes]. Afterward, when you’re watching, you’re like, ‘We’re taking our clothes off and pretending to have sex, and then my parents and their friends are going to watch it.’ That’s a weird thing to do for a job.” — 1/13/12

now: “That doesn’t get less weird. That is a really weird thing about what we do, there are no two ways about it. You’re simulating the sex act, to some extent, and your friends and neighbors are going to wach it! Your sons’ friends could watch it, if they wanted to! It is an oddity of the business, for sure.”

then: “All I want is to be invited to one of the Quartermaines’ terrible Thanksgivings.” — 10/6/14 

now “Oh, dude! Slam dunk! That is amazingly prescient and it just goes to show how many different childhood wishes of mine have come true since I’ve been on the show. Olivia will definitely be there for Thanksgiving this year and I love that I was psychic both in real life and on TV.”

then: “I’m the biggest loser on that canvas! No one will touch her with a 10-foot pole.” — 2/2/15

now: “Yep, yep, yep. Olivia was having a hard time with the gents, and on the canvas of a soap, that is sort of where a character sort of rises and falls in popularity. But now, she’s married to a Quartermaine! She can’t cook in her own home, but she has a beautiful baby, a healthy son, a husband who loves her, and they just took a great honeymoon in Tuscany. Things could be worse!”