Scene And Heard

POP STAR Ryan Carnes (Lucas, GH) had never crossed paths with Brad Maule before Maule recently returned as Tony’s ghost. “It was really, really great,” he says of their first time working together. “It was so much fun. I say ‘fun’ despite the fact that what we were shooting was actually quite emotional and a bit heart-wrenching. But it was a real pleasure to get to work with him. He was so sweet. He was kind of asking me for advice with certain things, just the logistics of the machine [of production] and he said, ‘I feel like the new kid on the block!’ ” Carnes found out about Maule’s comeback when he got the script with their scenes. “I didn’t know that it was coming down the pipeline, but when I read the script and saw that Lucas was in the cemetery and starts talking to Tony, I was so excited. I felt very honored, actually, to get to work with him. Brad is a complete sweetheart. He couldn’t have been nicer and he was just a great acting partner. He was super-kind and accommodating and I think we had a really good rapport. And it was easy; it was pretty instant. He is so present as an actor and he has such soulful eyes and I would just look at him and I’d get emotional. It was really cool.”

WELCOMING COMMITTEE Y&R newcomer Donny Boaz (Chance) was relieved when he already knew someone at his new workplace. “Tyler [Johnson, Theo] and I did a movie called Afterburn/Aftershock probably a year and a half ago,” Boaz reveals. “He was the lead, I was the co-star and we worked together for about three weeks on that. I was very happy to see that he was here. He was one of the first people I gravitated to. I was like, ‘Tyler, my man! Please run me through the ropes.’ So he really helped show me the lay of the land. Michael [Mealor, Kyle] also gave me some tips. And, of course, Peter [Bergman, Jack] walked right up to me, put his arm around me and said, ‘All right. Here are my Peter tips.’ Such a great guy.” Boaz also found a kindred spirit in Melissa Ordway [Abby]. “She’s wonderful,” he raves. “We’ve become buddies and she’s given me great advice. Shooting goes really fast on a soap and so many times after we’re done with scenes, I’ve pulled Melissa away and asked, ‘How did that feel? Was that cheesy? Was that corny?’ She said, ‘I think that every day I leave set. You just have to trust you did your best and come back into another good day.’ ”

PLAY NICE Camila Banus (Gabi, DAYS) recently took to Twitter to remind fans who were criticizing Gabi’s actions that she doesn’t write the show, and to warn them that they would be blocked if they posted negative comments. “When I knew that Gabi was going to go full villain, I knew there was gonna be negative feedback,” explains the actress. “At the end of the day, like I said online, I don’t have to expose myself. I love interacting with fans. And if I wasn’t even on the show, I would want to do that with other shows. I could not see myself writing something negatively about anybody, whether I’m a fan or not, just because that’s not the kind of person I am. So I did give a warning out there. For me, I don’t want Twitter to be a negative space. Life already has so many negative things that we have to encounter daily. There’s always obstacles and walls. For me, I work on my positivity. I work on a soap opera where I’m the villain and I have to be mean all the time, so it takes a little bit for me to get home and get into a positive perspective and attitude. Having to come home and see those comments doesn’t help. So that’s why I opted to defend myself and say, ‘I’m not the messenger. I love that you are imaginative about creating stories and what you think about my character, but it isn’t nice to tag me. You can hashtag Gabi Hernandez. I’m not Gabi.’ I have on my Instagram bio, ‘If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.’ I think we’ve forgotten that, especially with social media and hiding behind keyboards. Cyberbullying is a really real thing and can really affect people of all ages.”

THE LEARNING CURVE Matthew Atkinson (Thomas) has been front burner since his arrival on B&B in March, but he happily credits his time as Y&R’s Austin from 2014-15 for his quick relearning curve. “I was a little scared,” he admits about joining the show. “Not scared of the people, because everyone I’ve met are amazing, both as actors and as people. But since Thomas was a legacy character, I wanted to make sure I was doing him justice for the fans. It’s a rigorous work schedule but it’s so much fun, and I’m so excited and happy to be doing what I’m doing. I don’t think there is anything that can prepare you for the amount of material that you get in daytime. I remember just from working across the hall [at Y&R] the sheer magnitude of pages you have to memorize in a day. But the brain is a muscle that gets very heavily trained when you’re doing daytime, and I remember after I left Y&R and came back here, let’s just say it’s not quite like riding a bicycle [laughs]. But it’s just like going back to the gym after a while. You’ve got to build up to it, and now that muscle is back and in great shape!”