Hawaiian Eye
Soap Opera Digest: How was your trip?
Kelly Monaco: When you do nothing but sit on the beach and drink mai tais, it all blurs together [laughs]. Actually, it’s been great. I’ve got a lot of friends here from other shows. We’ve been palling around, getting our feet wet in the sand, having some great dinners and great conversation, getting a little sun and just totally relaxing. I’ve never been here before so for me, it’s fantastic.
Digest: What have you been up to?
Monaco: I just had a vacation with my family. I was in Mexico with 14 of my closest family members and I had a wonderful time. It was beautiful. It was my mom’s 50th birthday, so we had all the kids and their kids and husbands. I needed a semivacation from the vacation [laughs], something with not so much chaos.Digest: Can you believe DANCING WITH THE STARS is already in its third season?
Monaco: DANCING WITH THE STARS was the last thing on earth I or anybody ever expected to take off. I was embarrassed to tell my friends that I was even doing this show because as an actor, if you do a reality show, it’s like you’re a sell-out. For me, I thought, “This will go under the radar. No one will ever know about it. I can learn how to dance and have fun.” I had come off some really personal experiences — my sister had been really sick. She couldn’t walk for a little while and was in a wheelchair. And my best friend had just [gone into] remission with cancer. There were a lot of experiences in my life [going on then] and I saw the bigger picture, like, “My sister couldn’t walk two months ago and I have the opportunity to learn how to dance. How am I going to say no to that?” I think I appreciated it. Maybe if it was six months prior to that, the outcome would have been totally different and I probably never would have done the show.Digest: And done what? SKATING WITH CELEBRITIES?
Monaco: My mom’s a figure skater, so please don’t tell me about that show [laughs]. I’m so glad [DWTS] came out first because I probably would have been like, “Okay, my mom skates. She had us when she was 16 and I feel bad and so I’ve got to skate.” It would have happened. Trust me. Thank God the other boat sailed quicker.Digest: You’ve made it no secret that should you re-sign with GH, you’d like to do more outside projects. How do you juggle all that and still have a life?
Monaco: When I go to work and I only have 15 pages of dialogue, I seem to [slack] off the whole day and I really don’t get anything done. When I have 55 pages, it’s like some of the best work of my life. I’ve always been like that. I’ve always maintained more than one job from the time I was 11 years old. And it’s not that I don’t have a life, but the people in my life are directly involved with me and in my work. So it’s not like I’m not seeing the people who are close to me and the people who matter, because they’re with me all the time. That makes it a little easier. I don’t have any kids. I’m not married, and I’m already 3,000 miles away from my family so either way, I’m not going to see them. I’m young, man. I’m going to have all the time in the world to take some breaks and kick back. Digest: So, can you tell us anything yet about the negotiations? Will you be sticking around?
Monaco: Let me put it this way … There’s no way I would want to leave daytime behind no matter what the opportunities are because I really like daytime.Digest: Promise to keep us posted?
Monaco: You know I will.Digest: Okay. On a lighter note, Halloween is coming up. What’s been your most memorable Halloween costume?
Monaco: I love this question! I was infatuated with Wonder Woman when I was younger, so I was Wonder Woman probably six years in a row, from like the age of 6 on. One Halloween, when we lived in Philadelphia, we had a staircase of about 40 stairs and I really thought I was Wonder Woman. I stood at the top of the staircase and jumped down and broke my ankle [laughs]. It was the best costume ever!Catch GH’s Kelly Monaco (Sam) and a slew of other daytime stars on SOAP TALK IN PARADISE beginning the week of October 16 on SoapNet.
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Soap Opera Digest does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.