Brian Patrick Clarke (ex-Grant, GH) has a very special memory of the late Jacklyn Zeman (ex-Bobbie). “In 1985, Jackie, Sherilyn Wolter [ex-Celia], Shelley Taylor Morgan [ex-Lorena], Steve Bond [ex-Jimmy Lee], Brad Maule [ex-Tony] and I were chosen by the producers of the syndicated series STAR GAMES to represent GH in what began as an 18-team quest for actors from popular TV shows. Jackie, while not a natural athlete, like either Sherilyn — fast as lightning! — or Shelley — a beast in the water — was absolutely unrelenting in both preparation for and competing in what was ultimately whittled down to just three shows through four rounds of competition. Knowing that we needed her to come through with a solid 100-meter leg in the track relay race, she spent weeks working out, running at 6:00 a.m. with a high school buddy of mine, who had excelled in the 400 in both high school and in college. No matter how heavy her work and travel schedules were, she never missed a single workout! The result? Sherilyn led off with an insane 100, Jackie followed with her rock-solid 100, I ran the 200 leg, and Steve killed it with his 400; we set a new relay record in each of the four rounds, and Jackie might as well have won an Olympic gold medal, based on the way she reacted in a well-deserved celebration! Alas, we lost our overall lead on the final event, finishing second to FALCON CREST. They kicked our asses in the tug-of-war conclusion. As Jackie said, ‘A little bit of humility never hurt anyone.’ ”
her decade on Y&R, Melissa Ordway (Abby) has cultivated a close friendship with TV dad Eric Braeden (Victor), who, she reports, isn’t as gruff as his alter ego. “Eric is such a kind, dear friend,” the actress attests. “He’s also hilarious and when he starts laughing during a scene, good luck getting back on track. He also likes to check up on me and he randomly texts when he hasn’t seen me in a couple of weeks. It’s so sweet.” Ordway remembers a specific instance where Braeden went above and beyond. “We were flying to a fan event, and I had a middle seat in coach while he, of course, had a first class seat,” she recalls. “During the flight, he came back at one point and said, ‘I want you to take my seat for a while and I’ll sit here.’ That was so sweet and I said, ‘Oh, no, you don’t have to do that.’ When he said, ‘I want to,’ and I said, ‘Okay!’ We switched places, and he sat in that middle seat for most of the flight, that’s how thoughtful and kind he is. I wonder if anybody was wondering why Victor Newman was in coach and not on his private jet.”
Shooting the dramatic scenes where Nina learns from Carly that Willow is her daughter was an emotionally exhausting experience for GH’s Cynthia Watros (Nina). “By the end of those chapel scenes, when Nina walks out of the chapel calling her a monster, it was really probably one of the hardest things that I’ve ever done,” she says. “The dialogue had to be so crisp. It wasn’t like we had major monologues, but it was a lot of back-and-forth and a lot of emotion, a lot of anger and disbelief and then the realization that what she was telling me was true and then the undercurrent of the volcano of emotion that Nina has about having a child because it’s such an open wound for her, and then complete anger and resentment that, ‘Carly did it to me again,’ she kept a daughter from Nina again, so, the sort of cruelty settling in for Nina. There was one day [of filming] that was particularly emotional for Nina, understandably so, and I, Cynthia, couldn’t shake it. I just sat in my dressing room and cried because it was soaked into my skin! I’ve never really had that, where I couldn’t shake it off; I’m pretty good at shaking off my characters. It was a very difficult few weeks.”
When it comes to crying on screen, Alley Mills (Pam, B&B; Heather, GH) has a rule of thumb to follow: Less is more, something that former co-star Susan Flannery (ex-Stephanie) embraced). “Susan was not a really big crier on the show but yet, she could make people cry,” recalls Mills. “That is our job as actors, which is to make the audience feel. So yes, crying is wonderful but it also isn’t necessary a lot of times, which Susan knew. You just have to feel what you’re doing. I remember when Pam first arrived in Beverly Hills and it said in the script that Pam bursts into tears because she feels like she’s part of a family, and so I opened the door and everybody was there — and they all sobbed! They burst into tears and I smiled, but inside. I was laughing so hard because Pam had to tend to all of [her]my sobbing family members!”