Scene And Heard

WISE GUY Now that’s he wrapped filming the sitcom FRESH OFF THE BOAT, Ray Wise (ex-Ian, Y&R et al) may be returning to his soap roots with his latest project. “I’m doing a David Wain project, the guy who brought the Hot Wet American Summer movies,” explains the actor. “We’re doing a new soap opera that will be on TBS, I believe. We just shot a four-episode pilot. If it goes, we’ll be doing four episodes a week.” Wise has fond memories of playing Ian. “He was evil but multifaceted,” Wise notes. “They wrote beautifully for that character. It was a complete and utter joy to play Ian. What I loved about him is that you never knew if he was telling the truth or lying through his teeth. He was always out for himself. He’s like so many people who you meet in real life [laughs].” Wise would welcome the opportunity to reprise his Y&R role. “I would love to come back,” he enthuses. “I enjoyed my time with Eric Braeden [Victor]. The first time I met him was when I first came to play Ian, but we’ve been aware of each other for 55 years. We both started in Hollywood around the same time. And I still get recognized as Ian. I go to these conventions for TWIN PEAKS or RoboCop or Swamp Thing but people will come up and say, ‘Ian Ward!’ There are a lot of dedicated soap fans out there.”

SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL While GH’s Olivia is far from thrilled to have stepdaughter Brook Lynn taking up residence in the Quartermaine mansion, her portrayer, Lisa LoCicero, couldn’t be more thrilled to be working closely with Amanda Setton (Brook Lynn). “I love her,” LoCicero proclaims. “I want to adopt her and take her home and have her live with me. She is that wonderful. She is such a pro, she’s funny, she’s sweet, she’s kind, she’s honest and she’s on it. She is just great to have around. Her attitude is just exactly what you want on a set. She’s perfect!” There is one thing about Setton that LoCicero finds distracting, however. “When we’re on set, I constantly stare at her face,” the actress reports. “I’m like, ‘My God, how do you get bone structure like that?’ It’s a gift from God! But she is a delight — truly, a delight. And another example of how the nicest people are always the best at playing naughty!” Another new GH addition that gets the thumbs-up from LoCicero is the redecorated mansion itself. “I think the new sets are absolutely beautiful,” she says. “Frank [Valentini, executive producer] really went all out!”

JOKING AROUND Wayne Brady (ex-Reese, B&B) is excited about his new series WAYNE BRADY’S COMEDY IQ, which debuts on BYUtv on April 6. The reality competition show features Brady mentoring young comics in sketch, improv, stand-up and more, along with executive-producing duties. “I come from that old-school showbiz model of, if you can do it, do it,” Brady says. As for his other gigs, “LET’S MAKE A DEAL is coming back,” he confirms. “My episodes of BLACK LIGHTNING started airing in February. I play a scary, powerful dude named Gravedigger, doing all this action stunt stuff and being the badass. I love that! I’ve got music continuously coming out throughout the spring. We have a couple of shows in development. I can’t even count the jobs because I want more. I always want more. As long as you can do them well, then do it. And, I’m so glad that B&B has been a part of that journey.”

PRESSURE COOKER Brock Kelly (Evan, DAYS) had a blast shooting the high-intensity scenes in which Evan was revealed to be David’s father/Jordan’s killer, held Sonny at gunpoint and was forced by Ciara to confess to his crimes to stop Ben’s execution. “I’d been filming for months before anything dramatic really began to happen, so I was really itching to do something that wasn’t, you know, listening to Sonny be grief-stricken about his mother and sad about his family breaking up,” says the actor. “Not that that wasn’t fun, too! But this was really exciting. Before the main scenes with the reveal at the prison, Victoria [Konefal, Ciara] and I were jumping around, doing push-ups, just getting really amped and getting the heart rate up and bringing our energy level up to what would be representative of what that type of situation would be. It was a big difference from what I’d been doing the previous months, which was basically just, you know, making out — which is a different heart rate [laughs].” He felt the pressure of delivering a good performance, noting, “There was a pretty big monologue, my confession, and I just wanted to hit the right tone and make sure it was delivered properly. That adds to the pressure, which adds to the performance, so I kind of used that to really drive it.”