Scene and Heard

“Eric [Braeden, Victor] is walking history, which is great because everything about the show is all there,” declares Y&R’s Jason Thompson (Billy) of his iconic co-star. “As a colleague and another actor, it’s always fun being in the ring with people who you admire and want to work with and [who will] be open to however a scene is going to go. That’s what I look forward to mostly because Eric is one who you can do that with. He is professional and comes fully prepared.” While that describes Braeden as a serious actor, Thompson reveals there’s also an unexpectedly lighthearted side to him, as well. “Eric is definitely capable of getting the giggles,” Thompson chuckles. “I don’t think people realize how tickled he can get, but to be honest, everyone on the show is pretty funny and we do have a lot of fun on set. Yes, it’s very serious and there are times when having fun is not part of the curriculum for the day so we don’t go there, but sometimes it’s unavoidable, especially when Eric finds something funny and can’t stop laughing.”

Wally Kurth couldn’t be happier with the on-screen drama GH has crafted in his character, Ned’s, marriage to Olivia. “Even when they got married, I don’t think there was much that they had to get over, not too many obstacles that they had to fight through to decide that marriage was for [them],” he notes. “So it’s great! I think the writers have done it in a really cool, organic way, for these two characters to find themselves on different sides and [immersed] in their own drama and neither one of the characters could really be there for the other, or felt like the other wasn’t really there for their personal trauma. And I think that happens in real life, as well. I like it because it seems to be a relationship and a situation that I think a lot of couples find themselves in — ‘I need your help, I really need you right now,’ and the other one is like, ‘Yeah, I can’t be there; I’ve got my own troubles right now!’ I mean, especially in this day and age.” That’s something to which he can relate. “My wife and I both started [back to] work the same week and our son is at home in school and we were like, ‘Wow, when we both weren’t working, we were able to do this,’ and now we’re both working. She’s working from home, but part-time, and we’re both kind of looking at each other like, ‘Hey, I’m doing the best I can here, but it’s hard!’ Life can be hard!”

Kiara Barnes (Zoe) put a lot of thought into the tune she wrote and performed on B&B, “I’m Just Fine”. “I made this song based off of where Zoe’s at in her life and when it comes to who she’s around and safe spaces,” Barnes explains. “She’s definitely feeling more comfortable with herself. With everything that’s going on around her and when she’s with a particular person, whether it be Zende or Carter — and it could be both —the song explores how she’s feeling about both of them. That’s where the inspiration for that song came from. It’s not about what’s in the past. It’s about right here, right now, and not having any fear or anxiety, and I can relate to that, too. It’s easy to overthink things and get ahead of yourself. It’s definitely something I’ve been working on, which helped inspire the song. That’s really the premise of that song — what you can do when you’re fully in the moment. It was really a terrific experience.”

November 3 marked 35 years since the release of the mega-hit miniseries NORTH AND SOUTH, which starred James Read (Clyde, DAYS) and the late Patrick Swayze, and Read looks back on it fondly. “Well, it was a pivotal experience in my life, professionally and personally, since that’s where I met [wife] Wendy [Kilbourne, who played Constance] and 32 years later, we are still happily married. It’s incredible that we have this documentation of our meeting and the early years of our relationship, shared with anybody who watches the series. That’s a singular and probably the most significant event both in my professional and personal life. I still get lots of fan mail, I still get lots of feedback, people are still watching it. It had amazing resonance, maybe more so in these times than anytime in the past 35 years.” Read reconnected with former N&S co-star Genie Francis (Laura, GH, who played Brett in N&S) when he appeared as Gregory on GH. “It was great,” he relays. “I’ve also seen Jonathan [Frakes, her husband, Stanley in N&S, who she also met on the set of the miniseries] more through the years. He directed me in an episode of a series I did a few years back, PERSONS UNKNOWN, and we’ve run into each other socially now and again. It was great to see Genie in the green room one day and we caught up and traded stories about our kids and so forth. It was really nice.”