Crime Watch
"I've kind of learned that in GH history, getting kidnapped is a rite of passage," grins Sydney Mikayla, whose Trina was recently snatched by one of Cyrus's henchmen. To prepare for her performance, the actress says, "I definitely took it down the more dark path, for sure. I don't know how everyone else deals with playing a kidnapping, but I researched a lot of kidnappings, which I don't know was the best thing for my psyche because I definitely cannot be in dark parking lots anymore! I won't let my mom sit in the car [alone]. I'm like, 'Nope. We gotta go.' " Taping the scenes "was an emotionally draining day," Mikayla recalls. And on top of everything else, I had a dress on and that was very hard. I was, like, rolling on the floor wearing a dress and heels because Trina and Cam were going to the winter formal [when they were taken hostage]. It was a lot! But that's okay because it made it realistic. I just hope that my research that I did helped me play the scenes well."
By Chance
Donny Boaz (Chance, Y&R) recently had the chance to be part of a special surprise for a fan. “There was a girl that sold me an apartment in Dallas in 2008,” explains
the actor. “Her name is Bri and that was the only time I ever met this girl. She hit me up on Facebook and she said, ‘Hey, my mother-in-law is a massive YOUNG AND RESTLESS fan. She has fallen in love with you. I didn’t know you were on the show.’ She then said, ‘You would do me such a huge favor if you could autograph a photo and send it to her.’ She sent me the address and I go, ‘She lives in Hot Springs, Arkansas?’ She goes, ‘Yeah,’ and I was like, ‘I’m in Arkansas now. Would she be so shocked if I just showed up at her door?’ ” And the following day, Boaz did just that. “I knocked on a complete stranger’s door and this lady was in complete shock,” he chuckles. “She was in tears and she was like, ‘Chance?! Chance?!’ Then she yells back at her husband. ‘Chance Chancellor’s at my door!’ I sat with her for about 10, 15 minutes and we took some photos. I think it really made that lady’s day.”
COMMERCIAL BREAK
B&B’s Monica Ruiz (Dr. Escobar) says she took the backlash from the infamous Peloton commercial she appeared in in stride. “I’ve learned to be as positive as you can be because everyone is not going to like you,” she notes. “Not everyone is going to like the way that you look or the way that you talk or the choices that you make. It’s funny because you’ll get a million positive comments and one negative comment and for some reason, that one will get to you. So, you just have to remind yourself you’re not going to please everyone. When you’re in television or out in the public eye, you can’t ever have people feel sorry for you. You don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, poor me. Everyone’s making fun of this thing that I did.’ You have to say, ‘Hey, that’s how it is sometimes.’ People see things differently, or they see things too much. It’s like when your favorite song gets played too much, you can’t stand it any more. I felt like that was what happened with the commercial. They were playing it during every commercial break, every streaming service. It was playing so much and I was like, ‘People are getting sick of seeing my face [laughs].’ But, I’m just a regular person and with my family and friends, we all joke around about it now.”
Mom's The Word
Since her last daytime run, Victoria Platt (Dr. Raynor, DAYS) has done some movies and appeared in a few series, noting 2014's STAR-CROSSED as one of her favorites. "That was one of the most amazing experiences ever," gushes Platt. "First of all, we were shooting in New Orleans, which as many of the daytime folks know is where Terrell [Tilford, James, DAYS] and I got married. It's one of our favorite places on the planet. So I got to be there for six months. It was a sci-fi drama that had a little bit of a soap feel in a way. There were lots of love interests and teen angst, all the stuff that I actually watch on TV myself. Not to mention my character was having an affair with an alien and had a child with him. That’s always excit- ing [laughs].” Platt experienced first-time motherhood herself when she and Tilford welcomed their first child, a daughter named Marley, five years ago. “Oh, my gosh. It is the great experiment,” the actress says of parenthood. “Certainly realizing all of the ideas that I had about what it was going to mean to have a child and all of the dreams that I had for her... Because they come here and they go, ‘Yeah, that’s cute, mom. But that’s not what I have in my plan.’ It’s been a wonderful experience of discovery for both Terrell and me; just watching her and going, ‘I’ll take your lead.’