DAYS’s Matthew Ashford (Jack) has nothing but praise for his new co-star, Cady McClain (Jennifer). “It’s going very well,” he reports. “Cady’s wonderful. She’s such a pro and lots of fun and just jumped right in. When I was first introduced to Cady it was through her husband, Jon [Lindstrom, Kevin/Ryan, GH], and he introduced her as a director, so I know Cady first as a director. And we’re actually neighbors; we live close to each other, so it’s just very funny that here we are together. And she’s wonderful. She’s so sharp and ready to go with everything. And ready to play. She’s done her whirlwind of research but I’m still able to have some fun moments, like, ‘Lucas is your brother,’ and she’ll say, ‘Oh, okay.’ You realize there are so many layers to what we’re playing, so I’m glad that I’m able to help.” As for his longtime scene partner, Melissa Reeves (ex-Jennifer), Ashford notes, “Well, of course, it’s different, and I had to be cognizant about what Cady brings is different from what Missy brings and I just have to be ready to reflect Cady. You realize in doing these long-running characters that there’s so much that you just kind of rely on to look at that person, you just kind of go with it, and we can’t just do that right now. We have to dig in a little bit more, Cady and me. Missy and I have a lot of stuff, and you just have to find it with somebody new. I understand why Melissa made the calls she has and I’m glad Cady was there and available to step in.”
Since Madison Thompson’s soap knowledge was limited to Joey Tribbiani appearing on DAYS in the sitcom FRIENDS, the actress says she consulted a family friend for help when she was up for the role of Y&R’s Jordan. “Claudia is my sister’s godmother and one of the biggest fans of the show,” Thompson explains. “When I told her I was auditioning for Y&R, she listed specific episodes to watch, as well as extensively filled me in on the background and drama of the characters. She was very integral to my soap opera education, so when I booked the show, she was the first one I called and she cried over the phone.” Thompson’s first day at Y&R was a little daunting. “I got lost trying to find the set they wanted me to report to,” she sighs. “Thankfully, Aly [Alyn Lind, Faith] saw me and said, ‘I think you’re supposed to be with me. I’m Aly, nice to meet you. Follow me.’ She was so sweet. She was great to work with, really hardworking and talented. I also worked with Joshua [Morrow, Nick], Sharon [Case, Sharon] and Hunter [King, Summer] and they were all just wonderful to me.”
Photo credit: MediaPunch/Shutterstock
When Mark Lawson (ex-Dustin, GH) first started his acting career, he wasn’t particularly jazzed at the prospect of doing a soap. “My first soap audition, I want to say it was either for Y&R or DAYS, in maybe 2005 or 2006,” he recalls. “I don’t remember much about that other than just how gorgeous everybody at the audition was! At that point, I was kind of doing what a lot of young actors do, which is, ‘I don’t want to be on a soap, anyway, so I’m just gonna go in and do what I do and leave.’ So it didn’t make much impact.” But after pounding the pavement for a few years, his attitude changed. “My first ONE LIFE audition [for the role of Brody] came at a point where I hadn’t worked in a couple years,” he explains. “Somehow I just found a manager who sort of sent me out and after a few months, I got a general [audition] with [GH Casting Director] Mark Teschner,” who was helping OLTL source L.A.-based actors for the New York-based role. “It was one of those points where I was counting down auditions, where I was like, ‘I’m gonna do 10 more and if I don’t book anything, I’m done. I’m gonna go home [to his native Virginia], or open a gym.’ My rule with that was, ‘If you’re gonna do 10 more, you’ve got to pull out all the stops and do all of the things that you’ve learned to do. You’ve got to really treat each one like you actually have the job,’ and I did that. I went in stone-cold with the script and I got a callback, then a screen test, then I booked it! And at that point, I really wanted it.”
B&B’s Matthew Atkinson (Thomas) admits that working with a mannequin that eerily resembles your co-star can become a little unnerving. “It looks enough like Annika [Noelle, Hope] to be creepy but I wouldn’t say it looks too much like her because that would be downplaying Annika, who is an incredibly beautiful woman,” says the actor. “I think there’s an innate creepiness to the whole thing but I do think it looks enough like her, especially at certain angles, where you go, ‘Whoa!’ ” Atkinson found himself startled during one particular encounter. “When we’re not shooting, they keep the lights off, and this one time, I was walking across the stages on my way to shoot a scene and I passed by Thomas’s apartment set and they had the Hope mannequin sitting there on the sofa,” he recalls. “I didn’t know it was the mannequin and I literally got scared because at first I thought Annika was sitting there by herself in the dark, maybe going over lines or something. I was like, ‘Why are you sitting there in the dark?’ and then I looked closer and was like, ‘It’s the freaking mannequin!’ So when you turn the lights off, it does get a little creepy. It was like Halloween came a month-and-a-half early.”