NIGHT AND DAY: These days, Carla Jimenez is best known as the wisecracking Alba on Fox’s THE MICK, and prime-time soap fans will remember her 2010 run on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES as Juanita’s biological mother, Carmen, who tussled with Eva Longoria’s Gabi. But among Jimenez’s long list of credits, there is one job that will always remain a standout for her. “I did a day on DAYS OF OUR LIVES where I played a prison nurse, and Patch [Stephen Nichols] was going to visit someone, and it was the most amazing day of my life,” the actress gushes. “This was 10 years ago, and it was so much fun that I remember it like it was yesterday. I had a number of friends who are DAYS fans and they were so excited for me. They were like, ‘You have to tell us everything!’ I didn’t care that it was only one day. I was just so happy to do it — and I’d love to do it again. That prison must still be around.”
HONORABLE MENTIONED: Y&R veteran Peter Bergman (Jack) has a list of co-stars he’d like to share more scenes with. “There’s actually a bunch of people who I really admire,” the actor shares. “I know I’m impressed when I watch them and say to myself, ‘Ooh, this person is good.’ One is Christel Khalil [Lily]. She will not fake anything. She’s as real as real can be, in the same way Sharon Case [Sharon] is. I don’t know how Christel and I would work together, but I’d like them to figure out some way. I’m a huge Mishael Morgan [Hilary] fan. I think she’s really quite good. And the other person who I wish I worked with more than we already do is Amelia Heinle [Victoria]. I think Jack and Victoria have more in common than anyone else in Genoa City, if you think about it. Both of them are attracted to power, both are family-oriented, and both are easily misunderstood. I like Amelia’s work. Her performance is always so subtle and real.”
KISS AND TELL: Eden McCoy (Josslyn, GH) recently notched Joss’s first on-screen kiss, with Garren Stitt’s Oscar. “It was very uncomfortable,” she groans good-naturedly. “My mom read the script first, and she was like, ‘I have some bad news.’ I knew what was coming, so I was like, ‘Please, just don’t even say it!’ It was obvious, kind of, that it was going to happen soon, but I was like, ‘This is really awkward!’ I just reminded myself that this is part of the job and I got through it. They had us kiss and then it faded to commercial and when it came back, we were still kissing, so we had to do it for, like, a really long time; it wasn’t just a peck. My mom was too nervous to be on set, so she stayed in my dressing room and watched it on the monitor. I asked her how it was and she was like, ‘It was a lot longer than I thought it would be!’ I was like, ‘Yeah, me, too!’ They were really nice about it and we had a female director for that scene, which was good, but I’m glad it’s over!”
Photo credit: Steven Bergman
BIG SOAP: BIG BROTHER 19’s Jessica Graf (Jody, B&B) was a soap fan long before she landed her first daytime gig. “I did grow up watching soap operas,” she shares. “My grandmother got my dad into it, and my dad got my mom into it, and my mom got me and my brother into it. We watched GENERAL HOSPITAL when I was growing up, and I know that a lot of the actors in daytime make the rounds and do other soap operas, so there’s an actor on BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL now who was on GH back when I was watching: Scott Clifton [Liam; ex-Dillon, GH]. Seeing him here was so cool!” While B&B was Graf’s first professional acting job, she reports that living in the BIG BROTHER house had its own soapy elements. “It is absolutely a soap opera!” she chuckles. “There is constant drama in the BIG BROTHER house. In fact, it was hard for me to sit back and watch the episodes I was in because I got to see what everyone had been saying about me and what they were plotting behind my back. That was the toughest part. I have to say, having done both shows now, I like it better when the drama is scripted [laughs].”