While Willow kept vigil for a dying Chase along- side his family on GH, Katelyn MacMullen spent many intense days working closely with actors including Josh Swickard (Chase), Michael Easton (Finn) and Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth). “I loved working with this group; it’s just a really sweet group of people,” she reports. “But there were definitely days where we were trying to stay in it — we were in hospital mode where we don’t know what’s going to happen, the stakes are high, people are tense for their own reasons. Working with them as actors is so much fun because they are really committed to the story and really in it, but I told Michael one day, ‘It’s so hard for me to be mad at you, and I’m always mad at you!’ Like, he is the sweetest man ever! We definitely had to find some sort of way to stay in that zone of tension.” She also had to fight to stay in the moment during Chase and Willow’s impromptu wedding in G.H. — spe- cifically when it came time for Michael to place the ring on Willow’s finger on Chase’s behalf. MacMullen chuckles, “When we got the script, we were like, ‘Oh, no.’ There are just certain things where you’re like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be hard!’ We had to figure it out through block- ing. Josh was so freaking great dealing with [the physicality] of developing weakness in his hands and stuff, so he was just finding a way to, you know, drop the ring and make it look like he was at least trying [to put it on her finger]. It was definitely a hard moment!”
Bryan R. Dattilo (Lucas, DAYS) may be Catholic, but identifies strongly with another religion. “I was raised with a lot of Jewish influence in Beverly Hills,” he explains. “You’re talking to a Catholic kid who went to Hebrew school. I hung out with a lot of Jewish kids growing up and the first place they went after school was Hebrew school and I’d be like, ‘I’m coming with you,’ and they’d be like, ‘No, you can’t come to Hebrew school,’ and I’d be like, ‘I’m coming.’ So I would go and I would sit and they would let me get my hand in on the challah, and I would have a little grape juice and then when they started teaching the real strong Jewish messages, they’d be like, ‘You’re not in this class; you have to go.’ But at recess, they’d let me play basketball with them and stuff, but I would just hang out in the office of this Hebrew school. And then growing up in Beverly Hills and having all my friends being Jewish, I went to a lot of bar mitzvahs, so I would be with my friends while they were studying for their bar mitzvah, so you’re talking to someone who knows half the Torah.”
Lawrence Saint-Victor (Carter) is thrilled that his new B&B story has him sharing more scenes with John McCook (Eric). “I’ve always loved working with John,” smiles the actor. “My very first scene on the show was with John. I remember every scene I’ve worked with John because it’s always so easy and fun. I always feel so supported and to be in these scenes with him now, it’s been wonderful. I wouldn’t say Carter is an antagonist here. These are like father/son scenes where you completely disappointed your father, and he is so disappointed in you that he won’t even look at you, and you’re just standing there and you don’t know what to do. During all my time on the show, there was never a scene where Eric was even sarcastic to Carter. This man has been nothing but loving, so to play those scenes where you get to be the son who broke his father’s heart has been challenging. We’ve tried to put all of that emotion into all of our scenes, and it has been so intimate and so vulnerable to play with John. It has been absolutely lovely.”
Photo credit: Gilles Toucas/Courtesy Of Bell-Phillip Television Inc
Elizabeth Leiner (ex-Tara, Y&R) made sure she and Kellen Enriquez (Harrison) became acquainted with each other before sharing any screen time. “The first day, we had fast [Covid] tests that morning so we could hang out together,” she recalls. “I visited with him and we played with his toys and we talked about when he plays T-ball and he likes swimming. I was supposed to carry him in our first scene together so before that, I first held his hand, walking up and down the hallway and then I carried him that so he wouldn’t freak out when I picked him up for our scene. We connected and in our first scene together, he was just fine.” However, Leiner reports that Michael Mealor (Kyle) felt outside his comfort zone at times with such a young co-star. “I’ve worked with kids before but some people like Michael have never worked with kids,” she chuckles. “We would be sitting there and he would always have this look on his face, so I would have to assure him, ‘We’re going to get by, we’re going to get by.’ ”