THE BEST OF EVERYTHING
“Working with Olivia [Rose Keegan, Claire] again has been an absolute blessing,” says DAYS’s Victoria Konefal (Ciara) about her real-life BFF. “I’m very for- tunate to have such a wonderful relationship with her. I think that elevates our scenes and screen work in a way that wouldn’t happen if we weren’t so close.” The two actresses share the same “practice makes perfect” mentality when it comes to their work. “I’ll go over to Olivia’s house, we’ll order a pizza, and we’ll run our lines,” shares Konefal. “It gives us more rehearsal time and makes our scenes that much better. When we come in the next morning, we’re extra-prepared. We’ve got our sh*t together and really throw ourselves into it. With actors, in general, it’s great to find a co-star who you feel comfortable and safe around, especially in very emotional scenes. Having that trust and love and compassion that we have for one another makes it a safe place to explore.”
REMEMBER WHEN
John McCook (Eric) has enjoyed re- watching B&B’s encore episodes, which have brought back a lot of memories of his 33-year run on the soap. “That episode on Catalina [Island], where we [he and Kimberlin Brown’s Sheila] were riding bikes? Anytime you see Sheila on a bicy- cle, you immediately think of the music from The Wizard of Oz, so that made me laugh. I had completely forgotten the storyline of why or how we all ended up there, Eric and Sheila and Lauren and her husband [Scott Grainger].” As for the concept of reairing classic episodes during the pandemic shutdown, McCook offers, “I think it’s brilliant. I think all this flashback stuff has worked really well, and kudos to Y&R for doing it, as well. It’s nice to be able to say, ‘Let’s curate this great stuff that we have. Let’s do a fashion week. Let’s do a fight week. Let’s do a wedding week.’ It’s been great, and I think the fans have really enjoyed it, both the longtime fans, who can relive those shows, and the newer fans, who get to see some of the history behind the characters. I think it has worked out very, very well.”
THREE OF HEARTS
Steve Burton (Jason, GH) is grateful for the special, long- lasting friendship his character shares with Sonny and Carly. “It’s interesting because you try to put your finger on why it works,” he muses. “You’re on a soap opera and most characters either back- stab or do something [bad] to other characters, and Jason really hasn’t ever done that to Sonny or Carly. Carly has, because we know that she’s a wild card! But Sonny hasn’t done that to Jason, Jason hasn’t done that to him, Jason hasn’t done that to Carly. Carly knows Jason will always be there for her no matter what. I mean, there might have been [some betrayal] somewhere to get a little drama at some point, because we’re running out of stuff to do, but overall they’ve done a great job EMMY TIME WILL DO The recently aired Y&R classic episode from 1984, where a pregnant Traci attempt- ed suicide, helped portrayer Beth Maitland win a Daytime Emmy for Supporting Actress, which was also Y&R’s first win of kind of keeping true to those friendships, I think. It’s this interesting dynamic. And we’re friends, me and Laura [Wright, Carly] and Maurice [Benard, Sonny]. We found something, I don’t know what it is, but it works. I think it is unique in daytime.”
EMMY TIME WILL. DO
The recently aired Y&R classic episode from 1984, where a pregnant Traci attempt- ed suicide, helped portrayer Beth Maitland win a Daytime Emmy for Supporting Actress, which was also Y&R’s first win for acting. “It was a tremendous shock and honor to win in that category,” she marvels. “I didn’t want to fudge on the age restriction in the Ingenue category, which was what it was called in those days, and felt I was not a younger actress. Every other woman in my category that year was older than 40. I had no clue and was bowled over that I won.” But Traci’s near-death experience wasn’t Maitland’s only choice for her Emmy reel that year. “The other scenes included an epic performance of ‘Here’s That Rainy Day’ in the Torchlight Club, where Lauren paid the audience outside not to attend and Traci sang to an empty house,” Maitland recalls. “I loved that episode so much. Starring opposite me as Traci’s manager at the time was Linwood Boomer, straight off LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, who went on to create the hit series MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE.”