BYE, MOM! Wyatt may be thrilled that his mother moved back into the Forrester mansion, but Darin Brooks (Wyatt) already misses his comedic scenes with Rena Sofer (Quinn). “We did some really cool things. I was sad to see her go,” he says. “I ad-libbed some fun stuff. In one of the other episodes — it didn’t make it and ended up on the cutting room floor — there was a scene when Quinn was leaving and was like, ‘I’m going to go get my husband back!’ It was right after Wyatt was kind of yelling at Quinn with Flo there and I had ad-libbed, as she storms out the door [in a quiet, sarcastic voice], ‘No. Wait. Please. Come back.’ It was his half-assed attempt to get her to come back and talk to him but really, he was like, ‘No. Good-bye.’ They cut it and they left it on the ‘look’, but I had a lot of fun ad-libbing in that story.”
MAKE ME LAUGH DAYS’s Lindsay Arnold (Allie) admits she has to try to keep a straight face while shooting with on-screen dad Bryan R. Dattilo (Lucas). “When we’re working, even if we have a scene where we’re both really emotional or something really serious, which most of our scenes are, he will be joking and making weird noises and doing impressions of someone on the set up until we’re right about to be, like, ‘Action,’ ” she explains. “So I think that’s always kind of funny to navigate because I’m usually in character when we do all these things, and I’ll be trying not to laugh or trying to remember my lines coming up, and then as soon as we start, we’re in it, we’re serious. So it’s a really fun dynamic to have because depending on the day, we’re always going to get him being a little cuckoo and then we’ll get some serious Lucas stuff so it’s fun to be a part of.” Arnold is also happy when she gets to work with her peers. “It’s nice to have people in my storyline who are my age because most of Allie’s scenes have been with Nicole or with Sami. Even though we’re not hanging out because of Covid, it’s nice to have them on set all the time to joke around with each other and stuff.”
STAIR MASTER Melissa Ordway’s (Abby, Y&R) lack of coordination is common knowledge around the studio. “Everybody knows I’m a klutz,” sighs the actress. “They’ve seen me trip, stumble, slide, slip and run into things over the years. I don’t think there’s anyone who hasn’t seen me either almost fall or fall down completely.” Which is why there was behind-the-scenes concern when Ordway would be descending the grand staircase at the Chancellor mansion for her character’s nuptials. “I had to do several test runs in heels before we even shot the wedding,” she chuckles. “They knew exactly who they were working with. They wanted to make sure I could walk in those really high heels without falling down the stairs. It looks so much more elegant to come down the staircase without looking down at your feet so it appears you’re almost gliding. Since I already have trouble managing stairs when I am looking down, I’m sure there was a discussion of, ‘She needs to practice before we put this on tape.’ They were quite worried. Luckily, I did it in one take but if you counted all the times I practiced coming down those stairs, I better have gotten it right.”
THREE’S COMPANY While storyline circumstances have broken up GH’s Sonny/Carly/Jason triumvirate for the time being, Laura Wright (Carly) remains grateful for the tight connection she shares with co-stars Maurice Benard (Sonny) and Steve Burton (Jason). “I spend more time with Maurice and Steve, I think, more than anyone on the show, and they are like my buddies,” she smiles. “There’s an incredible trust that the three of us have. Carly, Jason and Sonny, they are family, their own individual family, and it is everything to [the characters] — and it’s there off camera, too. We are all so comfortable with each other; we’re like three best friends off camera, as well, and we honor, we adore, we respect each other. The three of us are very different and yet we respect who each other is and each other’s individuality. We know we are at work every day to tell story — to serve the story and the audience and not our egos, and we want to have a good time doing it, and that’s really, honestly how the three of us show up. We want to be the best we can be and we want to have fun while we do it, and we’re actually able to pull that off! It’s really cool, I have to say.”