Kissing Cousins
Soap Opera Digest: What is JB’s objective when it comes to Tammy?
Tom Pelphrey: Originally, it’s to get to Reva, but he’s not a total machine. There’s part of Tammy that is nurturing and honest and innocent, which is something that he never had. She gives him the attention he never got.Digest: What does Tammy see in JB?
Stephanie Gatschet: Probably that he is the complete opposite of Joey Lupo. He’s new. He’s mysterious. He’s a bad guy. I think it’s all part of trying to get over the heartbreak, and for once in her life, not be the perfect girl that everyone expects her to be.Digest: How aware are you that you play cousins on the show?
Pelphrey: From JB’s point of view, he’s never met her before. He’s never gone to Christmas dinner with her or spent birthdays together at the bowling alley when they were 10. So she’s his “cousin,” but he doesn’t even know his mother.
Digest: And she’s hot.
Pelphrey: Of course! What’s not to love?
Gatschet: I, Stephanie, am very, very aware all the time. [They both laugh.] But as Tammy, I have to forget all that.
Pelphrey: Oh, real quick. Tom thinks it is disgusting and terrible [laughs].”Digest: How would you react if I said some fans find JB and Tammy kind of hot? [There’s a long pause.]
Gatschet: I’m speechless.
Pelphrey: Probably for the audience, it’s the same as it is for JB. It’s totally new. They didn’t watch JB grow up with Tammy. So, yeah, they’re cousins …
Gatschet: … But they are still strangers to each other.
Pelphrey: The writing is very sweet a lot of the times, so it’s not like JB is some monster.
Gatschet: It’s a hot story.
Pelphrey: Yeah, if they weren’t cousins, it would be like boom!
Gatschet: Minor details.
Pelphrey: You have to look at the bigger picture [laughs].Digest: How is it to work together? [There’s a pause.] Or should I ask you separately?
Gatschet (laughing): I’ll give you one answer now. Seriously, it’s awesome.
Pelphrey: I couldn’t be happier. I am very grateful that I am working with her and I hope I continue to do so in the future.
Digest: (to Pelphrey): What was your first week like?
Pelphrey: I feel like it’s a joke; I’m having such a good time. I love coming to work every day. Everyone here is like a family and they welcomed me really quickly. So I am just trying to reciprocate that level of trust. I love it.
Gatschet: Don’t you always get that same answer?Digest: Well, people do often say that GL is like a family. Stephanie, have you shown him the ropes here?
Gatschet: I don’t think Tom needed showing the ropes. He came in and fit in right away.
Pelphrey: She totally did help me and got me acclimated.Digest: Where do you want this story to go?
Gatschet: I don’t know. It can go in so many different directions.
Pelphrey: When you get those scripts, they never disappoint. But they should come back together somehow. He has some apologizing to do.
Gatschet: Turns out they were never related to begin with.
Pelphrey: There we go! Let’s fix it.
GL Publicist: There was something on 20/20 or something recently about cousins who were married.
Gatschet: I have heard so many statistics since we started this storyline. Get this: 200,000 marriages a year in the United States are between full-blooded first cousins, 20 percent of marriages in the world, and in 26 states, it’s legal to marry your cousin.
Pelphrey: Also, they’re royalty. They’re allowed. That’s what David [Andrew Macdonald, Edmund] said. [Imitating the voice of a patrician Macdonald] “You’re royalty. You’re allowed.”
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.