Kathy Brier Talks Story
Soap Opera Weekly: The funniest OLTL scene of the year, in my opinion, was Marcie’s reaction when she saw Antonio stripping.
Kathy Brier: When I got that script I was so excited. I was nervous too, because I had never had to do a scene where I was drunk before, so technically it was hard for me to do. I think that’s the hardest thing to act. It was fun because it was a fun script.
Marcie’s changed so much because of the way they chose to take her character. There are things that happen that catapult her back to that scared kid. And I think that’s who she really, really was when we first met her. But that’s when her funniness comes out. Or when she is doing something mischievous when she knows she shouldn’t be doing it (laughs). I wish we could integrate it on a more consistent basis.
Weekly: You’re a great drunk.
Brier: Thank you. The funny thing is that’s what Frank Valenti said, “If you get nominated, that has to be one of things you submit.”
Weekly: We also got to meet more of Marcie’s family recently with her trying to reconcile her father and her brother Eric, who plans to marry a man.
Brier: I love tackling this issue because it’s very socially relevant right now. No matter who you talk to about the subject of gay marriage in America or gays in America, right now it’s a very volatile subject and people have strong opinions about it.
Weekly: How do you feel about Marcie always being the one who tackles all the issues?
Brier: The fun thing about it is it’s woven into the character of who she is. Obviously the peace thing was because her brother was in Iraq at the time. The interesting thing about Marcie was that when she first came on the show she was this young girl in college trying to figure out who she was. I hope that is something they explore: her family life growing up. What was in the script, or what we implied into it, was that her mom died when she was very young so her father was this unhappy man. He was very stern and took out a lot of her mother’s death on Marcie because she looked like her. She was put under a lot of pressure as a child. I think those are interesting issues to deal with with the father. The great thing about the issues is that Marcie has learned who she is by tackling them. It’s like she’s on her on now. She’s away from her father.
Weekly: Well, we saw that it wasn’t easy for her to stand up to her dad.
Brier: No. That was not easy for her at all. That’s the one thing that I love about these storylines is that they are giving her a chance to grow. That’s the hardest thing about my character right now: because they give her these great storylines where they are so life-changing it’s hard for me as an actor and for the writers as well, to try to keep that balance of keeping her fun. Because she is fun. I think people use their sense of humor as a coping mechanism.
Weekly: It seems that some of Marcie’s insecurities returned when Nick started teasing her about her weight.
Brier: Somebody said, “Well Marcie wouldn’t get crazy about Nick’s comments.” For somebody who’s never been heavy in their life, I think they don’t understand. If somebody said that to you, there’s always gonna be the tiniest teeniest little twinge. And we’re talking about Marcie, who is just recently finding out who she is. We’re not talking about someone like me who has been comfortable in my skin for a long time. But every now and then my weight still gets to me. I still have day when I’m like, I am a fat pig. It’s human nature. The funny thing is I’ve been going to the gym more and more, because after doing Hairspray my body is craving the gym from doing so much exercise. But I need to start doing the cardio, because my body is bulking up because of the weight training. I tried on all my dresses in the closet the other day, none fit! So I started crying! I was like, “I’m busting my ass at the gym and I’m gaining.” But I’m gaining muscle, and eventually when I start doing the cardio, it’ll all even out.
Weekly: Some people thought Nick’s comments were going to spin into a weight storyline for Marcie.
Brier: I think there are so many different ways that you could look at that kind of a storyline, in terms of how people judge you because you look a certain way. People look at me and they think I’m fat, that I don’t work out, that I don’t eat right, and they’re all wrong. I know as a human being how people look at me. And I think especially with the weight concerns with the country right now, it would be am interesting storyline to tackle. I hope that’s something they do in the future.
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