Although romance is a huge part of soaps, Y&R’s Michael Mealor (Kyle) still finds love scenes a little disconcerting. “It’s funny because Hunter [King, Summer] and I just look at each other and go, ‘It’s such a weird job that we have,’ ” chuckles the actor. “In one morning, we filmed two episodes of bed scenes, so in all of that time we were in bed. Love scenes are the most unnatural thing in the world, which can make it really awkward. It just feels a little sterile. There’s no emotion attached to it but you have to make it look like there’s emotion there. It’s an actor’s conundrum.” However, thanks to Mealor’s on-screen girlfriend, the process is less daunting. “Hunter is one of my best friends, which makes doing love scenes easy,” he says. “We know each other so well that we don’t have to check in with each other, like ‘Are you okay?’ or ‘Is that too far?’ And as soon as they call cut, we’re laughing and making jokes. We are relaxed with each other enough that we find it comical and funny because nothing feels right. I think, ‘How is this going to look on screen?’ and then when it airs, I’ll go, ‘Oh, that turned out pretty well.’ It’s all in the editing, but in the moment it is really an odd experience.”
B&B’s Jennifer Gareis (Donna) was happy to be a part of the Brooke and Bill kissing drama. “I had so much fun playing that,” chuckles the actress. “I mean first of all, act- ing with [Katherine] Kelly [Lang, Brooke] and Heather [Tom, Katie] is always such a pleasure, because I can look at them and just imagine my own siblings. I feel like we have that connection there, and once you have that connection, it’s just such a pleasure to be able to play the scene.” As for the comedy of Donna trying to delete the video, Gareis muses, “I really wasn’t trying to be funny. I was trying to play how lost Donna was with the technology of it, obviously, because she didn’t even delete it properly. Then, you have the pressure of time and people coming over because you’re hosting a party and you’re like, ‘Ahhh!’ Panicking. But, I’m glad it came out okay, because it really was a pleasure to play.”
Sydney Mikayla has put a lot of thought into how to portray the sorrow her GH character, Trina, experienced in the wake of the loss of her father, Marcus Taggert. Explains the actress, "Something that I worked on a lot with my mom," who is her acting coach, "is trying to remember that grief isn't just crying. I think that was something I kind of struggle with. I kind of envision in my mind, like, a lot of tears, like a Viola Davis moment where she is crying and bawling her eyes out. I was like, 'I want that! I want that moment.' And I feel like I definitely got that in the hospital when Trina found out her dad diet. But then my mom always has to remind me that there's definitely different stages of grief; there's the anger, there's the kind of forgetting for a second that your dad isn't there and you're just trying to piece together the moments, there's trying to go on, there's regret, there's even laughter sometimes. I think that playing with those levels was the biggest part of trying to do a good job playing the sadness. That was really important in my process, knowing that the grief is always there, but grief doesn't always mean tears. I had to make sure to do different things so that the audience wouldn't get bored!"
Remington Hoffman (Li, DAYS) had a Salem connection before joining the soap. "I've known Christopher [Sean, ex-Paul] for years and years," shared the actor. "I knew him before he booked DAYS, I remember when he booked DAYS and I remember when he was on DAYS. I knew him and I knew his experience. I actually auditioned for the same role Christopher ended up getting, which was good because I think he was more prepared at that time in his life than I was. I think that was really good for him.” Hoffman says he reached out to Sean before he went in to read for i. “When I was doing my prep for the audition, I gave him a call and I just said, ‘Hey, do you have any pointers? Are there any kinds of moods or beats that I should be aware of?' " recalls Hoffman. "He just told me everything he had learned and things like that. I wasn’t really familiar with soaps, to be honest. I watched the show before I auditioned. I watched as many episodes as I could through the app or online. I was hoping to not play a tone because I felt like it’s better to just do my own thing and if they like what I do, then that’s great. Christopher just said, ‘You got this. You’re ready to do this, so just go and do it,’ which was great advice.”