Scene and Heard

Finola Hughes (Anna, GH) is thrilled that her current storyline is giving her more chances to work opposite Maurice Benard (Sonny) and Dominic Zamprogna (Dante). “I am loving working with Mo and Dominic,” she enthuses. “Maurice and I have had several great scenes together now, and Dom and I spent a day doing three shows together, back-to-back, and it was just really great. He is so good. He’s just such an excellent actor, and obviously, Maurice is amazing, too. I learn so much from them, actually. It just helps me find areas of myself when I’m onstage with either of of them and it’s been really cool, I must say. It’s the same with James [Patrick Stuart, Valentin], where you get in a scene and you get lost, like you just kind of get taken over by the scene. Those moments are gold; it’s literally why we do what we do, for those kind of moments. I have that with James, and when I work with Dom and Maurice, I really get lost in the character’s world. They both have such a power to them, you feel so supported by them, and you just kind of get lost; I don’t know how else to put it. It’s been really wonderful.”

Amelia Heinle (Victoria, Y&R) loves any opportunity to work with the Newman family. “It’s absolutely my favorite time,” declares the actress. “I think Melody [Thomas Scott, Nikki], Eric [Braeden, Eric], Joshua [Morrow, Nick], Mark [Grossman, Adam] and I have a really great family dynamic on screen that I think the audience loves. It’s even better when they throw Abby in there, which is a little more rare, but I wish would happen more often so I could work with Melissa [Ordway, Abby]. All of these actors have been playing off of each other for such a long time, that there’s a real chemistry between us that I love.” Unfortunately, there’s a price to be paid for that kind of togetherness. “Whenever we’re together, it’s a given that Eric is going to start giggling and when that happens, he can’t stop,” Heinle sighs. “Joshua likes to wind him up and when we can’t get any work done, he’s like, ‘Who, me? I didn’t do anything.’ ”

DAYS’s Arianne Zucker (Nicole) and fiancé Shawn Christian (ex-Daniel) recently played hosts to GH’s Laura Wright (Carly) and boyfriend Wes Ramsey (ex- Peter), when the couple visited their home base in Lake Tahoe. “Laura and Wes always take these beautiful trips together. They’re adventurous and love hiking,” says Zucker. “Shawn and I were like, ‘If you’re ever up in Tahoe, you have to call us.’ They ended up coming to Tahoe and staying around the lake, so we had a day together. We had a really good time. It was nice to see Laura and Wes outside of work and on vacation. It was lovely.” The foursome has known each other for a while. “Shawn and Laura were friends first, years ago,” explains Zucker. “And Laura and I were friendly. Wes and I became friendly, because he was on DAYS. He had a small role [as Owen in 2009]. Then Shawn and Wes worked together on something in Washington. We kept running into each other more, started hanging out here and there, and kind of slowly built a friendship. They are very sweet, and we’re very like-minded as far as the things we like to do together as couples and family.”

Darin Brooks is happy to be back in the B&B mix as Wyatt after appearing in the Apple TV+ series AMBER BROWN. “I love it,” he says. “I missed it. I missed everybody and it’s nice to come back and play around a little bit.” He’s also thrilled about the amount of scenes he has with on-screen brother Scott Clifton (Liam), discussing the Hope/Thomas drama. “Scott and I love playing a lot of that stuff,” Brooks adds. “We’re brothers on- and off-set. We have fun with our scenes and do lean into that [brotherly dynamic] a lot to just give it an extra flavor for the audience. If we’re having fun doing it, hopefully it translates, and I think it has been, so that’s kind of nice.” Clifton also appreciates working together more. “Darin and I are really, really grateful for it,” he echoes. “I would personally love for him to get more involved and have more. Darin comes from a school of acting where scene study is really important and he’s trained to find these moments of motivation that really just make a scene interesting.”