MY GIRLS
When he returned to GH as Taggert, Réal Andrews was blown away by the similarities between on-screen daughter Sydney Mikayla (Trina) and his real-life daughter, Danika. “She is just a ball of energy,” he says of Mikayla. “What’s so crazy is that I would
sit there sometimes doing scenes with her and she totally reminded me of my daughter. I’d look at her and just kind of trip out a little bit, man. She had the same kind of facial expressions, she had the same kind of quirks and stuff like my daughter. I was like, ‘This is like my daughter for real, my daughter at home!’ But what I loved, because it’s kind of a reputation I had of getting [scenes right] in one take, is that I was getting ready to do a scene with her and William [Lipton, Cameron], and he’d been away for a little bit, and they actually took maybe two takes to do this one scene and she made a com- ment to William like, ‘Man, we gotta get back on the one-take crew!’ And I was like, ‘Okay! I like it!’ Because to do one take, you’ve got to show up; you’ve got to be really prepared. And they are very prepared, you know? Her work ethic is amazing.”
Oh, Baby!
Stacy Haiduk (Kristen, DAYS) enjoys working with the baby who plays Mackenzie/Rachel on DAYS. "She loves to look around," reports the actress. "There's so much going on. But I got to be honest, she's so easy. We've had some lovely moment where she actually, you know, just kind of starts goo-goo-gaga-ing all over, which you want in your scene because it's like, 'This is awesome!' She looks around a lot. You can kind of engage her a little bit and she'll look at you and she'll kind of look away. She's very present. I remember when they gave me the first baby at the hospital, I mean, thought it was just gonna be a doll. I forgot what it was like to hold a baby that was so tiny in your arms. Your motherly instincts want to take care of it, just reassure the mother and the nurse that's on the set that, 'I"m okay, I've held a baby before. I can find ways to entertain her.' It was quite delightful. I really enjoyed it. IO'm al for working with kids. They bring spontaneity to you as an actor cause they're so present. It's a lot of fun."
Bar None
B&B's Jennifer Gareis (Donna) is thrilled that she found a career in television because if she ever had to be a bartender, she'd be unemployed. "One summer when I was in high school, I worked as a hostess in a restaurant," Gareis recalls with a chuckle. "A gentleman sat down at the bar and demanded that I make him a drink. I told him that I wasn't the bartender, and I don't think I was even of legal age to make a drink. But he demanded I make him one or I'd better say good-bye to my job. Well, I tried to make him a Tom Collins or something like that by looking in The Bartenders Guide, and it was probably the worst drink he ever had in his life. Even to this day, I will still occasionally try and make a good drink for someone, and I just suck. I'm terrible! It always turns out awful. If you ever ask me to make you a drink, you'd better ask for straight vodka."
PRIMED TIME
Cait Fairbanks (Tessa, Y&R) not only enjoys working with co-star Chase Coleman, who plays singing star Tanner Watts, but also appreciates his dedica- tion to their scenes. “He’s a sweetheart and super-ready with his lines,” lauds the actress. “Chase always shows up with so much energy, which is really needed when it’s early in the morning. He’s always prepared and ready to go, which makes me, ‘Okay, I’m ready, too!’ He jumped into this role headfirst without hesitating. He’s inquisitive and asks questions so that
it helps him be ready, and let me tell you, this guy is always profes- sional. He really wants to be present, which is really cool.” However, Fairbanks notes that Coleman isn’t too seri- ous. “Even though our story is so heavy and there’s so much drama going on, you almost have to make jokes about it to be able to carry on,” she explains. “Chase is such a great guy to have fun with on set and helps keeps things light. In fact, we get yelled at sometimes for having too much fun.”