COMPANY OF WOMEN DAYS’s Matthew Ashford has enjoyed getting deeper into the story with Jack and Gwen and working with his talented co-stars. “Emily [O’Brien, Gwen] is a wonderful actress,” he raves. “I feel very fortunate to be working with her. She’s very able to take the words and flip them and use them to the character’s benefit. Yet when it started cutting very close to home, a whole other self came out that is quite wonderful. I get the benefit of right now working with two wonderful actresses, three including Cady [McClain, Jennifer]: Marci [Miller, Abigail] and Emily. They’re ready to go, so I’m very fortunate to be with them both. I look over at Billy [Flynn, Chad] and I’m like, ‘We both better learn to duck because it ain’t pretty. Get out of the way.’ And at the same time, there’s Cady there, and getting a chance to be around Jaime Lyn [Bauer, ex- Laura]. Just really fine actors. We don’t have the chances to hammer it out together in little groups, so you see people have done a lot of work to bring the best they can.”
CRAZY FOR YOU Y&R’s Mark Grossman (Adam) loved when his character was locked up in a psychiatric hospital. “That was pretty intense stuff,” reports the actor. “It’s so much fun to me to put on different clothes and go onto a different set because we work in Adam’s penthouse most of the time. It’s a nice change of scenery, even if it’s a seedy motel room or a psych ward.” Grossman reports that sharing the scenes he did with TV dad Eric Braeden (Victor) was the cherry on top of the soap sundae. “I love when Eric and I get to mix it up” Grossman enthuses. “Obviously, Victor and Adam’s relationship is very important, good or bad. Through this wild thing of Adam going a little crazy, Eric plays the vulnerability that’s so true to life with a father who desperately wants his son to get well. Adam and Victor have had such a contentious relationship that it’s nice to see Victor showing how much he cares for his son. I’m always honored when I get to work with Eric. He’s been very complimentary, which is especially nice coming from him. It means a lot to me.”
THE WRITE STUFF Tracey Thomson, the creator/executive producer of Disney Channel’s new sudsy mystery series, SECRETS OF SULFUR SPRINGS, has served as a co-head writer for Y&R, Associate Head Writer for ALL MY CHILDREN, wrote for GH: NIGHT SHIFT and penned her first daytime script for GH, where she began her showbiz career as an intern in 1995. With all of that soapy excitement, Thomson’s Port Charles days still rank as some of the best memories of her career. “I grew up watching GH with my mom and my grandmother, and the first day I was an intern there, I was sorting mail and Maurice [Benard, Sonny] came into the room,” she recalls. “As somebody who grew up with Sonny and Brenda in the ’90s, this was huge to me! He was the nicest man — and he still is. He came over and talked to me and he then walked out of the room and I had that moment of, ‘Oh, my gosh. I just talked to Sonny Corinthos!’ I called my grandmother and she was so excited because she was such a huge fan, and then everything came full circle when I got to write my first script for the show I loved and grew up watching."
ONE NIGHT ONLY Haley Pullos (Molly) made a strong first impression on Johnny Wactor (Brando) when a surprise hookup was scripted for their characters last year on GH. “First of all, Haley is an absolute professional,” he praises. “She is so impressive. She shows up and she has no worries, no concerns, no insecurities about acting, she’s just got this character dialed in and she has such a presence on set. It’s so admirable.” The actor admits that at first, he found Pullos’s poise “almost intimidating , ”explaining, “Being that this discipline is still very new to me, I’m getting more comfortable and I’m still meeting people, and when I met her, I was thinking, ‘Holy cow, who is this person?’ But she’s so lovely, and she is wildly talented and we instantly had a connection, just kind of talking and getting to know each other before we went on set and did our scenes. We connected on a personal level and she’s funny and very beautiful and so it made it very easy, I think, to have that chemistry that you see on the show. You always wish for that in acting because that’s what really gives acting that special quality and makes it real, so that the audience can connect with it.”
Photo credit: Seth Kupersmith