Credit: Gilles Toucas/Courtesy Of Bell-Phillip Television Inc
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Photo credit: JPI
Melissa Ordway (Abby, Y&R) admits it was challenging to make a blanket-swaddled doll look like her character’s infant son, Dominic. “Because of Covid restrictions, we couldn’t have really young babies on set,” explains the actress. “So whenever we were using the doll in scenes, we had to make it look like we were holding a real baby by being super-gentle with it and making sure we were supporting its neck.” However, during rehearsal time, “We would be so unprofessional,” Ordway chuckles. “We would toss the baby doll around to each other or throw it back into the bassinet like a basketball. We were horrible. What was funny about that is I grew up playing with dolls and my daughters love them, too, but when I came home after pretending for hours that this inanimate object is a real baby, the last thing I wanted to do is play with dolls. I’d have to say, ‘Sorry, but Mommy is done with dolls for the day.’ ”
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Photo credit: JPI
Melissa Ordway (Abby, Y&R) admits it was challenging to make a blanket-swaddled doll look like her character’s infant son, Dominic. “Because of Covid restrictions, we couldn’t have really young babies on set,” explains the actress. “So whenever we were using the doll in scenes, we had to make it look like we were holding a real baby by being super-gentle with it and making sure we were supporting its neck.” However, during rehearsal time, “We would be so unprofessional,” Ordway chuckles. “We would toss the baby doll around to each other or throw it back into the bassinet like a basketball. We were horrible. What was funny about that is I grew up playing with dolls and my daughters love them, too, but when I came home after pretending for hours that this inanimate object is a real baby, the last thing I wanted to do is play with dolls. I’d have to say, ‘Sorry, but Mommy is done with dolls for the day.’ ”
Playing the storyline of baby Liam’s passing was emotionally intense for GH’s Johnny Wactor (Brando). He recalls, “There were some days where I didn’t turn it off [when I left work], where I would keep it on the back burner in my mental program and continuing to let it play if I had to be back on set the next day. I’d allow myself to rest and eat some food, but it was really kind of all I would think about and I didn’t allow myself to remove myself from that world or remind myself, ‘It’s not real.’ You know when you go on your computer and you have multiple web browsers open? I’d minimize it or have it play in the background, but I wouldn’t close it. When a weekend would come, I’d allow myself one day to kind of breathe out and not sit in it — but I found that was even more difficult because then, when you have to dive back in, everything in your body is like, ‘No! Don’t revisit that! It’s too painful!’ It was really hard. It was hard to stay in that vulnerable state for so long and I found it even harder to stop and go after a weekend. It was a roller coaster in every sense of the phrase.”
Melissa Ordway (Abby, Y&R) admits it was challenging to make a blanket-swaddled doll look like her character’s infant son, Dominic. “Because of Covid restrictions, we couldn’t have really young babies on set,” explains the actress. “So whenever we were using the doll in scenes, we had to make it look like we were holding a real baby by being super-gentle with it and making sure we were supporting its neck.” However, during rehearsal time, “We would be so unprofessional,” Ordway chuckles. “We would toss the baby doll around to each other or throw it back into the bassinet like a basketball. We were horrible. What was funny about that is I grew up playing with dolls and my daughters love them, too, but when I came home after pretending for hours that this inanimate object is a real baby, the last thing I wanted to do is play with dolls. I’d have to say, ‘Sorry, but Mommy is done with dolls for the day.’ ”
Playing the storyline of baby Liam’s passing was emotionally intense for GH’s Johnny Wactor (Brando). He recalls, “There were some days where I didn’t turn it off [when I left work], where I would keep it on the back burner in my mental program and continuing to let it play if I had to be back on set the next day. I’d allow myself to rest and eat some food, but it was really kind of all I would think about and I didn’t allow myself to remove myself from that world or remind myself, ‘It’s not real.’ You know when you go on your computer and you have multiple web browsers open? I’d minimize it or have it play in the background, but I wouldn’t close it. When a weekend would come, I’d allow myself one day to kind of breathe out and not sit in it — but I found that was even more difficult because then, when you have to dive back in, everything in your body is like, ‘No! Don’t revisit that! It’s too painful!’ It was really hard. It was hard to stay in that vulnerable state for so long and I found it even harder to stop and go after a weekend. It was a roller coaster in every sense of the phrase.”