Scene And Heard

Hayley Erin (Kiki) couldn’t believe her good fortune to be included in Jane Elliot’s final scenes as GH’s Tracy. “Oh, my gosh, it was so freakin’ awesome!” Erin reports. “They actually hadn’t written me into those episodes at first, but they added me in. I got a phone call maybe a week before, asking, ‘Are you free next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday?’ At the time, I didn’t know what it was for, but when I got the scripts and saw what I was going to be a part of, I just felt so special and so lucky. I had never really gotten to work with Jane before, other than some little scenes here and there, but whenever people asked me who I wanted to work with more, my answer was always Jane, so the fact that I actually got to work with her, and that it was for the most epic good-bye for her and her character, I just felt truly honored.” Shooting the group scenes in the Quartermaine living room, she says, “was just hilarious. Everyone there was so funny and we were just having a good old time — and that says a lot because we were all standing in our heels for four hours at a time! Jane kept it together for a long time, but toward the end of the day, she started getting emotional. I was emotional, too! I’ve only known her for two years but I was like, ‘Jane, don’t leave me!’ ”

When it was time for Reed and Mattie’s first kiss on Y&R, Tristan Lake Leabu (Reed) shares that there was behind-the-scenes drama with his scene partner, Lexie Stevenson. “She’s in a serious relationship, so the day she got the script and saw we were going to kiss, she was like, ‘[Gasp] What are were gonna do?!’ ” chuckles the actor. “I’ve already done kissing scenes in movies, so I already knew it’s just work and not the least bit romantic, so I told her, ‘Relax, it’s not a big thing.’ She was hilarious because she was so worried about it.” The actual smooch ended up needing more than one take. “There were a couple of technical problems and they said, ‘Just hold there for a minute while we set up this shot,’ ” recalls Leabu. “So, Lexie and I were centimeters from each other’s faces, just making small talk. After we were done, she realized she was worrying about nothing. When they yelled, ‘Cut!’ I just wiped the lip gloss off my face and said, ‘So, where do you want to go for lunch?’ ”

When Eric Winter (ex-Rex, DAYS) and wife Roselyn Sanchez (ex-Carmen, DEVIOUS MAIDS) teamed up to create a children’s book, Sebi and the Land of Cha Cha Cha, they had no idea how many kids their story would touch. “We originally wrote the book for our daughter, Sebella Rose, because, like her mother, she loves to dance — and when we were reading to her when she was younger, we found tons of books about ballet but nothing involving Latin music,” Winter explains. “So, we developed this story set during El Carnaval Latino and Sebi, named after Sebella Rose, and her friend, Keeke, are invited by a colorful Cotorra [bird] to an enchanted land of dance.” Digest caught up with the actor when he read Sebi to the children at White Memorial Medical Center in downtown L.A. “It was so moving,” Winter relays. “It was in conjunction with the Starlight Foundation, so the kids also received Starlight Brave Gowns, which are these comfy, colorful gowns to replace the generic hospital ones. This was a humbling and fulfilling experience. Just as Sebi inspired us to write this book, we hope to inspire her to give back and inspire others, too.” Sebi and the Land of Cha Cha Cha will drop September 5, and is available for pre-order on www.amazon.com.

Paul Telfer got a welcome surprise when he returned to DAYS for his latest stint as Xander. “I got to work with guys that I hadn’t previously, Drake Hogestyn [John] and Christopher Sean [Paul],” he smiles. “Obviously, we’ve known each other behind the scenes for the couple of years of me being on and off the show. You build a rapport as people and actors. I’ve had lunch a few times with Chris. He’s one of the nicest dudes possible. It was such a treat to work with Drake. He knows DAYS inside and out. We had a bunch of cool dialogue.” Telfer enjoys getting to work with different cast members during his visits. “There’s just one hair and makeup room at DAYS,” he notes. “So over time you end up meeting everybody. I also had fun working with Kristian [Alfonso, Hope] and Eric [Martsolf, Brady]. I’m typically near him in the dressing rooms. So, it’s just people I hit it off with, regardless of whether I’ve had scenes with them or not. Part of the fun of the show is that everyone’s aware of what everybody else is doing, even if we’re not necessarily interacting, because we’re watching each other on the monitors, waiting to go in and do our scenes. You end up building really nice relationships.”