This interview originally appeared in the May 9, 2000 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Kassie DePaiva (Blair, ONE LIFE TO LIVE) is a gracious hostess to visitors to her humble digs, nestled in a corner of the ABC building. She offers a seat on her plush green sofa (“It didn’t fit in our house in New York, so I brought it here”), keeps things toasty with a heater donated by Robin Strasser (ex-Dorian), moves aside toy trucks and fluffy teddy bears provided for her son, J.Q., who visits in the mornings, and passes around a large jar of jellybeans. When she gets the jar, DePaiva sorts through the multicolored collection and discovers a white and yellow one. “Here,” she offers. “Buttered popcorn ones are my favorite. You just have to dig through all the black licorice ones to get to them.”
DePaiva knows about digging deep to get to the good stuff. Last year around this time, she was recovering from an extended postpartum career depression: Since giving birth to J.Q. in 1997, Blair hadn’t had much of a story, and DePaiva was starting to chomp at the bit. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get back into the groove that Blair was in before,” she sighed to Digest back then.
These days, DePaiva is singing a different tune. “The old Blair has been showing up lately,” she smiles. So has the old Kassie. Tired of living so close to the back-burner, DePaiva took matters in hand last year. “I wanted to have a creative outlet, something that I could call my own,” she explains. And later this summer, she will: an album of remakes and some original tunes tentatively called Naked. “It’s a real woman’s album,” says DePaiva, “very much from a woman’s perspective, whether she’s being cheated on or cheating.
“Music was something I always thought I’d grow out of,” continues DePaiva. “But I got the opportunity to perform at Opryland. I made $135 a week — I was shocked. ‘You mean I paid for this?’ The music just took off.”
At the same time, she pursued commercial work, was hired to play Bobbie Jo in Sam Raimi’s cult classic Evil Dead II and finally moved to GUIDING LIGHT in 1986, where she remained until 1991. The switch from nobody singer to soap queen startled DePaiva, who recalls that even close friends and relatives began to treat her differently. Although she sang on the show as Chelsea, her pals weren’t so interested in her singing skills. “They all wanted to know what it was like to work with Reva [Kim Zimmer],” remembers DePaiva. “They didn’t ask about you anymore. In hindsight, I can understand their excitement, but at the time, they looked past you as a person and saw you as an object. I wish I’d been healthy enough to go, ‘This is hard.’ It was really scary.”
At OLTL, starting in 1993, things weren’t necessarily easier: First, she was cast as a far-from-look-alike replacement in a role that required complex seductive behavior and scheming techniques; next, while married herself, she fell for married co-star James DePaiva (Max). They wed in 1996 and had J.Q. (James DePaiva has a 7-year-old daughter, Dreama, from a previous marriage) the following year. When the DePaivas learned their newborn son had a hearing impairment, they discussed it publicly, and continued the dialogue when they got him a cochlear implant in 1999. Meanwhile, the character of Blair more or less fell off the map.
But these days, things are looking up, says DePaiva, who’s clearly pleased to be working more often, now in the painful role of a scorned woman (or a woman who thinks she’s been scorned, which is pretty much the same thing). With Max married to Blair, but appeasing a blackmailing Skye by pretending to love her, DePaiva says it hasn’t been easy to observe the unfolding story. “The hardest part of the story has been watching my husband kiss another woman for six months,” she confesses. “ ‘Jimmy’s got another love scene?’ It’s tortuous to watch.”
But amidst the torment, DePaiva has seen the light in the tunnel, recognizing that she’s back to playing the bitchy, familiar Blair more and more these days. “On the Internet, I’ve become Pod Blair,” she laughs. “Jimmy’s ‘Max Hole.’ But I think we’re starting to see more of her old self, where she’s manipulating, not being manipulated. You can’t just fluff out lines and chew some scenery. I’ve had to have people explain things to me because the old Blair is showing up, and I’m not recognizing her.”
What DePaiva is recognizing, though, is that for the first time in a few years, she’s having a whale of a time. Blair has retaken the throne at OLTL as the “hoot factor queen,” as DePaiva puts it, the album is nearly finished and both kids and marriage are doing fine. Even working with her husband day after day hasn’t been too much of a strain. “Oh, we’ve had our moments,” she grins. “They call us ‘The Bickersons’ sometimes at work. But we share everything. I love it. It’s honest … and it’s not hard.” She pauses, considering another jellybean from the colorful selection in the jar. “I love being with Jimmy, so that’s what I’m doing. I really have everything I’ve ever wanted.”
JUST THE FACTS
Birthday: March 21
Sporting News: DePaiva competes in amateur golf tournaments.
Last Movie Seen: Galaxy Quest. “It’s almost a parody of what we do here, going on appearances and all.”
Sunday Morning Delight: “What’s really wonderful on a Sunday morning is when the kids jump into bed with Jimmy and me and we laugh and giggle and do puzzles. It’s not an event or a thing, it just happens.”
