BREAKING UP IS
HARD TO DO
DAYS’s Sal Stowers (Lani) says she missed working closely with Lamon Archey (Eli) after their alter egos split. “Lamon and I have worked so hard on these characters,” she explains. “I think people don’t realize how hard it is to create a make-believe relationship on set. You have to really portray these emotions and allow yourself to feel these things for someone that you’re not in a relationship with. That’s not easy. I mean, that’s not even easy in real life, to be vulnerable and open yourself up like that. Lamon and I have spent a lot of time growing our friendship and growing the connection of those characters together, and so for it to just be like, ‘Okay. They’re broken up.’ You’re like, ‘Dang! We put all that work into these characters.’ But it shows. People see that these two characters love each other. They belong together. They are each other’s safe place. They’re home with each other. They see each other. I think seeing that in their wedding episodes, I really felt that between the two. I was just really proud of the work that we did.”
STRANGELY FAMILIAR
When Johnny Wactor (Brando) began working at GH, “A lot of the faces there were familiar,” he reports. “Maura [West, Ava] was one of the first people I recognized. I haven’t worked with her yet, but when I saw her, I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ My grandma was an AS THE WORLD TURNS fan [where West played Carly]. I mean, growing up she had daytime television on all the time, so I immediately recognized Maura when I saw her. I came over and introduced myself and she was the sweetest. Laura Wright [Carly] and Maurice [Benard, Sonny] are veterans, as well, and people that I recognized, and then you meet them and they’re some of the most warm, welcoming people and very helpful. Mo is awesome; I’ve probably chatted with him the most in between scenes and he has been just kind of a well of advice and encouragement, much like Laura.”
Photo credit: Shutterstock
GATE HER AID
Getting recognized by a soap fan is always a treat for Mishael Morgan (Amanda, Y&R) and sometimes even beneficial. “We were at the Toronto airport and while we were going through customs, my husband realized he forgot his car keys,” the actress recalls. “I told him, ‘We’re not missing our flight for your keys. We’ll just call Triple A when we get to Los Angeles.’ After we were through customs, which took over a half hour, his friend called to say he had the keys and would bring them to the airport. I told my husband he didn’t have time to go through that line again, plus his friend ended up going to the wrong terminal.” That’s when fate stepped in. “This customs agent overheard what was happening and she said, ‘Oh, don’t worry. I’ll get the keys at Terminal 1, take the train back to Terminal 2, and meet you at your gate,’ ” Morgan marvels. “She did all of that and I was stunned. I never met a customs agent who was that helpful. When she dropped off the keys, she said, ‘I just want you to know that I love you on Y&R.’ That was pretty awesome. I gave her a hug and we took some pictures and I also got an email so I can send her a cast photo. We definitely have the best fans in the world.”
CHECK, PLEASE!
B&B’s Scott Clifton (Liam) is grateful that he never had to go through the ritual that many aspiring actors do of having to toil as a waiter in L.A. before getting their big break. “I could never be a waiter,” he chuckles. “My wife [Nikki] was a server for 10 years. She was doing that when we first started dating and she was an amazing server. She could take an order from a 10-top and remember all of it without ever even writing it down. She taught me a lot about the ethics of serving and how to treat servers, and obviously I tip very well because of this. But there are two qualities that are just integral to being a server. One is multitasking and the other is time management, and I have neither of those skills so I would be a terrible server — which I think is ironic because I’m an actor and if you’re an actor, you’re supposed to have been a server. It’s one of the great regrets of my life that I never got to pay my dues in the service industry and yet I just know I would have been awful at it so it’s probably a good thing [for restaurant patrons in L.A.] that I never got the chance.”