Scene and Heard

Victor Alfieri (ex-Franco, DAYS et al) has fond memories of his daytime career, but a professional highlight for him was the 2003 remake of THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE. “That was such an amazing experience,” he recalls of working with Oscar-winners Helen Mirren and Anne Bancroft. “That was such a great memory. Watching Helen Mirren was such a wonderful opportunity, and Anne Bancroft was one of my favorite actresses, so working with her was like winning the lottery. We shot it, believe it or not, in Rome [where Alfieri was born] and then the indoor scenes were shot in a studio in Dublin, Ireland. If you see the film, you’ll see they had such beautiful locations. I was very fortunate to get that job, and it was an experience I will always cherish and one that I will never forget.”

DAYS’s Bryan R. Dattilo enjoys the comical aspects of Lucas’s current tale, where he’s lying to Chloe about having a brain tumor. “At first I found it to be really funny because Nadia [Bjorlin, Chloe] was so good at playing not being aware that Lucas wasn’t really in that condition,” he says. “She sells it so well on her end as a believer and being sympathetic; the whole thing is hilarious because of the way she’s playing it.” For Dattilo, however, the situation wasn’t all laughs. “I remember that being really hard to play for me, personally, because in real life, I had just found out that my wife has breast cancer and I had to play a brain tumor cancer,” he explains. “So all of this cancer stuff, just at that specific time for me, a week into it, I don’t feel like I was playing the fun in it enough because there were some serious undertones for me. In the beginning, I feel like I had a really good time with it; I just hope I didn’t cheat it by having too much personal stuff mute the humor in it. It was great that they would even go there.”

With Sonny presumed dead on GH, Jeff Kober (Cyrus) misses going toe-to-toe with his character’s original nemesis. “He’s so interesting,” Kober says of Sonny’s portrayer, Maurice Benard. “In his memoir, he talks about his challenges with bipolar. There is a sweetness to him and a vulnerability that when you know about [his illness] and then watch his performance, you can see it. I got thrown into it with him right from the very start. My first night, before I’d even met him, really, we were going at each other through bulletproof glass. He doesn’t suffer fools and he didn’t give me any quarter, but we let each other really go at each other energetically. That’s all you can ask from another actor.” He also enjoys playing Cyrus’s on-screen enmity with Jason, played by Steve Burton. “Steve, his superpower is that he can stand still in the face of anything,” Kober observes. “I keep trying to make him flinch, and I haven’t succeeded — which is pretty amazing, because I can’t imagine me jumping into my face and me not flinching!”

 Mosley (ex-Maya, B&B) felt an instant connection when she stepped in to play Y&R’s Amanda. It turns out that the middle name of Mosley’s 2-year- old daughter, Aurora, is Imani, which is also the name of Amanda’s sister. “I saw that and thought, ‘Wow, how kismet,’ ” smiles the actress. “We also look at Imani as my daughter’s alter ego, so the fact that there is tension between Amanda and her sister is so great. I have a sister and we’re very close, and then Maya had sister drama on B&B, so that type of relationship has a special place in my heart. I feel I can hook into that energy pretty easily. I miss my sister in the last year because she lives in New York and I haven’t been able to see her, so that gives me a lot to pull from in playing Amanda, and it feels very rich and timely.” Being mom to a toddler keeps Mosley busy. “Aurora’s a firecracker,” she chuckles. “Toward the end of BOLD, Aurora was just a baby then and it was different. But I come home now from Y&R, exhausted, and she’s like, ‘Hey, come on, let’s play!’ so there’s no sitting on the couch and staring into space. While this job continues, I’m so grateful to be a mom who works.”