Bryton James (Devon, Y&R) says he learned valuable life lessons from TV parents Victoria Rowell (ex-Drucilla) and the late Kristoff St. John (ex-Neil). “I first learned from Victoria that preparation was most important,” explains the actor. “She and I used to get together and run scenes on set that we would be shooting a week and a half later. She believed being prepared as much as possible helped build confidence. Not only was Kristoff extremely prepared, but he would also add a level of fun to the work. He thought it was important to bring some joy and not take anything too seriously but still be the best at it. So, I learned from Victoria to be prepared and from Kristoff to have fun. They felt if you looked at anything in life that way, you’ll have a good outcome. So the examples of how they approached the game was the best advice.” However, there was one piece of advice from St. John that James finds humor in today. “Kristoff said, ‘Don’t date any co-stars,’ and, of course, that went out the window,” James chuckles, referring to his real-life relationship with Brytni Sarpy (Elena). “But I have no doubt that if he met Brytni, he would say I could make an exception.”
Despite the challenges of 2020, B&B’s Tanner Novlan (Finn) managed to properly celebrate the ladies in his life. He and wife Kayla Ewell (ex-Caitlin, B&B) rang in baby Poppy’s first birthday in July with a quiet, masked and socially distanced fête. Then, when his wife’s birthday rolled around the following month, they really partied. “We had the house tented for termites,” Novlan laughs. “That really is the 2020 of birthday parties, all summed up. We had just moved into our house at the start of the pandemic [in March] and it’s a really common thing in California that you need to do, but we just didn’t get the chance to get around to it. Then, when summer came and the heat picked up, we were like, ‘Oh, we’d better do that.’ My poor wife! However, we were able to celebrate with a small, safe gathering in Long Beach. We were able to use the occasion as a staycation with her family, so it all worked out. But yes, this is a year of birthdays that we will never forget.”
Jacklyn Zeman (Bobbie, GH) will always remember her first GH wedding, to David Groh’s D.L. — because she had big plans after finishing work for the day. “That was my first date with Robin Leach,” she shares. “He came to my house and we did LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS because Bobbie was really popular in those days, so they featured me on LIFESTYLES. [The woman] doing my makeup was like, ‘Jackie, Robin is looking at you.’ I was like, ‘He wouldn’t be interested in me!’ But we kind of hit it off.” Unfortunately, Zeman got sick before their big date. “We were shooting the wedding and they had ordered sandwiches from a deli. When I ate them, I got the worst food poisoning of my life before we shot the wedding scene! But I wasn’t going to miss that date. So that night Robin picks me up, he has a limo and is all fancy and I ordered dinner and he said, ‘You’re not eating much. You’re one of those women that don’t eat.’ I said, ‘Actually, I’m one of those women that eats. You would think I was a wrestler because I eat a massive amount.’ I told him the story. I said, ‘We were shooting today and I got food poisoning but I didn’t want to miss my date with you!’ So he laughed and it was the beginning of our long-term [friendship]."
DAYS’s Paul Telfer (Xander) was thrilled to expand his Salem circle recently. “It’s always super-fun to get to work with new actors, especially when they have a huge, baked-in history on the show,” he says. “Then I get to, as Paul, have reactions that are kind of the same as Xander’s in a way. My curiosity as an actor or whatever immediate chemistry there is between performers is suddenly endowed on Xander and Jan or Xander and Philip. So that’s been fun because everyone has different processes. It’s really fun with Jan [Heather Lindell], because Xander is head over heels with Sarah, so there’s no seduction or any of that going on there. It’s way more of a motivated relationship around screwing over Philip. This isn’t the first time Xander has had to deal with a cousin he doesn’t get along with, but Jay [Kenneth Johnson, Philip] is such a different actor from, say, Eric Martsolf [Brady] or ... I know Greg Vaughan [ex-Eric] wasn’t a cousin, but Eric and Xander had a ‘This town isn’t big enough for both of us’ vibe. Jay has such a different energy. Eric Martsolf has his physical strength and a lovely, cheeky warmth that he brings to everything, whereas Jay has a little bit more hidden going on and I think that’s fun to play because that was always Xander’s thing and now he can’t lie and everything is out in the open, and everybody knows every terrible thing he ever did. So it’s always a treat when you get new people to work with. The more you can do to make it feel fresh, the better, and the best way to do that is work with new people.”