GREAT PERFORMANCE
According to Matthew Ashford (Jack), one woman stole the show at the double wedding of Jack/Jennifer and Justin/Adrienne on DAYS: Kassie DePaiva (Eve). “It’s such a funny, strange moment that Kassie played,” explains Ashford, referring to Eve bursting in drunk and angry to stop the ceremony. “She really was something. After the end of it, Casey Moss [JJ] turned to me and said, ‘You know what? It’s days like this that I’m proud to be an actor.’ And I told Kassie that, because her performance that day was really something. She kind of came in and just knocked it out of the park ... she just did her thing. She was funny and mad and really just ready to ring the bells,” he continues. “Then, at a certain point, it becomes painful and sad, and then it becomes bitter. She ran through every [emotion]. Then, at the end of it, she throws her curse on all of us in a way. It made me think of To Kill a Mockingbird, when the girl in the courtroom says, ‘Aren’t all you fine young gentlemen going to stand up for a woman?’ It had that feeling about it.” Ashford sums up DePaiva’s performance as “wonderful” and a perfect blend of “everything. And Kassie was willing to let it all hang out. She was so amazing,” he praises. “She is such a great actress.”
CHECK, PLEASE
Like most up-and-coming actors, Courtney Hope (Sally, B&B) waited tables as she worked toward her big break. It was not pleasant. “On my first day, I wore a pair of army-type boots with the clasps that you tie up,” she recalls. “I was carrying an entire tray of burgers with ketchup and everything. I was two steps away from the table and the loop on one boot got caught on a clasp of the other. My feet got tangled and food went flying. Actually, the food made it to the table but the ketchup flew onto the customers. They were covered in ketchup! I grabbed napkins and was apologizing and cleaning up, and I was down on the floor and my manager so rudely grabbed me by the arm, yanked me up and said, ‘That’s what we have busboys for! Get back to work!’ My dad was so mad. Two weeks later, I didn’t appear on the schedule and my dad was like, ‘Don’t you have work?’ and I said, ‘I don’t think I work there anymore. They didn’t schedule me and my boss won’t answer my calls,’ and my dad said, ‘Yeah, that’s probably a logical conclusion.’ Ironically, my manager was fired about eight months later. So, that was my first job and my worst job.”
LIQUOR LICENSE
Tristan Rogers (Robert, GH) has fond memories of shooting on location with Anthony Geary (ex-Luke) back in the 1980s. “It was just a crazy time,” he grins. “We wouldn’t sleep. I remember one time, we were on location in San Antonio waiting for it to get dark because it was a night shoot. Somewhere along the lines there, Tony and I decided that it was time for happy hour. We gave someone a fistful of money and said, ‘Go out and get us a bottle of tequila and a case of beer.’ ” Later that evening, they were caught in the act of enjoying their purchase by then-Executive Producer Gloria Monty. “She came into the room, the room’s a bit of a mess at this point, and everyone is laughing their ass off. She says, ‘Have you two been drinking?’ The silence as she’s standing there and all these beer bottles [are strewn about]! Finally she turns around and says, ‘I don’t want to catch you two doing this again!’ And she turned around, walked out and that was the end. That was that. Gloria actually liked it; she liked the fact that we were the two bad boys. We never let it get out of control. I mean, it never messed up a shoot or anything. She knew that, so she just let it go.”
DRAGGIN’ LADY
As a child, Camryn Grimes (Mariah) appeared on Y&R as Sharon’s long-lost daughter, Cassie, and the actress recalls a scary incident with a fan who had difficulty separating fact from fiction. “It was when the Daytime Emmys were still in New York City and we were staying at the Rihga Royal Hotel, which was where the actors from every show were staying,” Grimes explains. “The fans would camp outside of the hotel to see the actors. I was 7 or 8 years old at that time and my storyline was when Cassie didn’t know yet that Sharon was her biological mother but she wanted Grace to adopt her. At one point, my grandpa and I were making our way out of the hotel and trying to navigate through the crowd. The next thing I knew, I was being pulled down the street and I realized it wasn’t my grandpa anymore,” she remembers. “I looked up to see who was holding my hand and it was this woman I didn’t know at all, a complete stranger. I was really confused because my grandpa was nowhere around. Finally, she took me by my shoulders and said, ‘Cassie I have to tell you something. Sharon is your mother, not Grace, but it’s okay. I’m going to take you away from this craziness and drama.’ Thankfully, security intervened and got me back to my grandpa who was about to have a heart attack because I was suddenly gone. I’ve been lucky that I’ve never had another weird experience like that again. All the fans I meet now are very lovely.”