Scene And Heard
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Photo credit: JPI
BUDDY UP
Drake Hogestyn (John) is enjoying working more closely with Stephen Nichols (Steve). “Stephen and I get along great,” Hogestyn reports. “He’s real flexible. He’s so smooth with his instrument and he reminds me a lot of Kirsten Storms [ex-Belle; Maxie, GH], who was really free with her instrument, very comfortable with herself. She was very pleasant to be around. Every line that she said was real. With Stephen, it’s the same thing. I would like to see them do more with us with Black Patch up and running. It kind of reminds me back when they would give [the late] Joe [Mascolo, ex-Stefano] and I some story. I still miss the hell out of Joe; I just love that guy. His big picture is up in the DiMera mansion and when I come out of my dressing room, I go through the back door of that set to get to the makeup room and I always stop. He’s got his hand up at his chin in the portrait and I always give him a knuckle. I am still so pissed that he’s gone. He was such a tough, tough, stubborn man. So proud. I liked working with Joe and those were special moments.”
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Photo credit: JPI
BOUT TIME
Y&R’s Sharon Case (Sharon) reports that her brief on-screen brawl with Melissa Ordway’s Abby was labor intensive. “It was a lot of work more than anything,” Case explains. “I was focused the whole time and working hard. We did the fight scene many times and I was wearing a sweater and leather pants and I just remember being very hot and out of breath. I was concentrated on doing it right, so when people ask if I had fun, I guess sweating to death is a form of fun [laughs].” Since Ordway was pregnant at the time, tricky camera work was involved. “For the long, wide shots, we used a stunt double for Melissa but for the up-close ones, we actually did use her,” Case recounts. “I was actually afraid to lay my hands on her or even touch her, so what I did was shake her arms a little and let her move her own body so she could do as much as she felt she could.” Case was impressed with Ordway’s general disposition. “I have never seen anybody with a better attitude throughout a pregnancy,” Case marvels. “Melissa was like sunshine every day; nothing bothered her and she was great. If she ever didn’t feel good or was tired, she never showed it.”
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Photo credit: JPI
A LIFE TO REMEMBER
A two-time prime-time Emmy winner for her role of Claudia on THE AMERICANS, which returns to FX on March 28 for its sixth and final season, Margo Martindale has done everyting from TV to film to Broadway — and daytime. “I did do ONE LIFE TO LIVE,” recalls Martindale. “I actually played two different characters on there. I can’t remember what the first one was but the second one was a running character. It was just after I had done Nobody’s Fool [in 1994] with the late, great Paul Newman, and they called me up and asked me to play a bartender. I think the character’s name was Stretch or Tex or something like that [it was Jonesy, the bartender at Rodi’s]. I did it for about six months, at least 10 or more episodes during that time frame.” Despite all of her experience, Martindale admits, “It’s the scariest job in show business! Soap operas are tough. They move so fast, and you better be ready. If you’re coming in there and you are not prepared, then watch out because your ass will be out the door fast!”
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Photo credit: JPI
MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION
Denise Alexander was thrilled to be back onstage at GH with Genie Francis when she reprised the role of Laura’s mother, Lesley, when Laura wed Kevin. “The connection that you make with some actors, as with some human beings, is just beyond explanation and that is what I have always felt with Genie,” says Alexander. “I met her when she was 14 and to work with her through the years, there is not a greater joy for me. I have a stepdaughter that I love dearly, but Genie has felt — I don’t know how to say this without sounding really odd — but she has felt more like my child. Here was this talented, gifted young person who had to be a grown-up. When you are working as a child or teen actor, you are working on the level of all of the adults and there’s no question, that’s where and who you have to be. And she was. It was a struggle for her and she was born to do this, there is no question, and yet, she was only going to be a teenager once and she had such a burden. It was a joyful one, I know, but the main focus of the show being Laura and Luke was so huge, huger than I ever knew and I’m sure huger than Genie ever knew. I didn’t know it until one day, I don’t know how it happened, somehow I understood how many magazine covers they had been on. I had no clue when it was going on!”
BUDDY UP
Drake Hogestyn (John) is enjoying working more closely with Stephen Nichols (Steve). “Stephen and I get along great,” Hogestyn reports. “He’s real flexible. He’s so smooth with his instrument and he reminds me a lot of Kirsten Storms [ex-Belle; Maxie, GH], who was really free with her instrument, very comfortable with herself. She was very pleasant to be around. Every line that she said was real. With Stephen, it’s the same thing. I would like to see them do more with us with Black Patch up and running. It kind of reminds me back when they would give [the late] Joe [Mascolo, ex-Stefano] and I some story. I still miss the hell out of Joe; I just love that guy. His big picture is up in the DiMera mansion and when I come out of my dressing room, I go through the back door of that set to get to the makeup room and I always stop. He’s got his hand up at his chin in the portrait and I always give him a knuckle. I am still so pissed that he’s gone. He was such a tough, tough, stubborn man. So proud. I liked working with Joe and those were special moments.”
Photo credit: JPI
BOUT TIME
Y&R’s Sharon Case (Sharon) reports that her brief on-screen brawl with Melissa Ordway’s Abby was labor intensive. “It was a lot of work more than anything,” Case explains. “I was focused the whole time and working hard. We did the fight scene many times and I was wearing a sweater and leather pants and I just remember being very hot and out of breath. I was concentrated on doing it right, so when people ask if I had fun, I guess sweating to death is a form of fun [laughs].” Since Ordway was pregnant at the time, tricky camera work was involved. “For the long, wide shots, we used a stunt double for Melissa but for the up-close ones, we actually did use her,” Case recounts. “I was actually afraid to lay my hands on her or even touch her, so what I did was shake her arms a little and let her move her own body so she could do as much as she felt she could.” Case was impressed with Ordway’s general disposition. “I have never seen anybody with a better attitude throughout a pregnancy,” Case marvels. “Melissa was like sunshine every day; nothing bothered her and she was great. If she ever didn’t feel good or was tired, she never showed it.”
Photo credit: JPI
A LIFE TO REMEMBER
A two-time prime-time Emmy winner for her role of Claudia on THE AMERICANS, which returns to FX on March 28 for its sixth and final season, Margo Martindale has done everyting from TV to film to Broadway — and daytime. “I did do ONE LIFE TO LIVE,” recalls Martindale. “I actually played two different characters on there. I can’t remember what the first one was but the second one was a running character. It was just after I had done Nobody’s Fool [in 1994] with the late, great Paul Newman, and they called me up and asked me to play a bartender. I think the character’s name was Stretch or Tex or something like that [it was Jonesy, the bartender at Rodi’s]. I did it for about six months, at least 10 or more episodes during that time frame.” Despite all of her experience, Martindale admits, “It’s the scariest job in show business! Soap operas are tough. They move so fast, and you better be ready. If you’re coming in there and you are not prepared, then watch out because your ass will be out the door fast!”
Photo credit: JPI
MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION
Denise Alexander was thrilled to be back onstage at GH with Genie Francis when she reprised the role of Laura’s mother, Lesley, when Laura wed Kevin. “The connection that you make with some actors, as with some human beings, is just beyond explanation and that is what I have always felt with Genie,” says Alexander. “I met her when she was 14 and to work with her through the years, there is not a greater joy for me. I have a stepdaughter that I love dearly, but Genie has felt — I don’t know how to say this without sounding really odd — but she has felt more like my child. Here was this talented, gifted young person who had to be a grown-up. When you are working as a child or teen actor, you are working on the level of all of the adults and there’s no question, that’s where and who you have to be. And she was. It was a struggle for her and she was born to do this, there is no question, and yet, she was only going to be a teenager once and she had such a burden. It was a joyful one, I know, but the main focus of the show being Laura and Luke was so huge, huger than I ever knew and I’m sure huger than Genie ever knew. I didn’t know it until one day, I don’t know how it happened, somehow I understood how many magazine covers they had been on. I had no clue when it was going on!”
Photo credit: JPI
