Scene And Heard

LADIES’ MAN Tristan Rogers enjoyed his reintroduction to the GH landscape as Scorpio, thanks in no small part to scene partners Finola Hughes (Anna) and Brooklyn Rae Silzer (Emma). Working with Hughes “is always a pleasure,” he praises. “We are like a couple of comfortable shoes. She is generally prepared for what I’m going to do and I am totally into what she’s doing, so it’s not a case of, ‘We have to get used to each other.’ We know each other. We’ve been working together off and on for 30 years. It’s just always comfortable, always easy.” And he is very impressed with on-screen granddaughter Silzer. “She’s as sharp as a tack, no question about it. She comes on to the set very carefully prepared. It’s not unlike what it was when Kimberly [McCullough, Robin] first started. Kimberly would come on to the set fully prepared — and Finola and I weren’t always completely prepared! We had our own way of doing things and Kimberly fit right in with that. It didn’t throw her in the slightest that we got off script. Brooklyn is cut from the same cloth. She comes in, knows her character, understands Grandma and Grandpa, and just slides right in with us.”

MAMA’S BOY DAYS’s Vanessa Williams (Valerie) had a very special reason for enjoying shooting season 2 of Freeform’s FAMOUS IN LOVE, where she plays Ida. “I’m thrilled beyond belief because my 14-year-old son got to work on the show,” she reports. “He did two consecutive episodes, which was such a blast! His name is Haile Wiseman and there’s a storyline that Keith Powers’s character, Jordan, does where he is dating a woman who runs the youth center and my son Haile is featured as one of the kids in the youth center. It was pretty darn amazing! My kid’s first job in the industry: a two-episode arc on a show his mama’s on! It was just pretty heavy stuff and he was really good and I was excited about that and proud. I was extra-nervous when he went in for his meeting and I was trying to be cool and he was so cool and sure of himself. He really had to carry his own weight and he was so good and everyone was really happy. It was just a brilliant blessing that came unexpected and unannounced. It was just great.”

THESE FRIENDS OF MINE Pierson Fodé (Thomas) was thrilled to come back to B&B and work with his real-life pal and on-screen leading lady Courtney Hope (Sally) again. “I would have been so disappointed and frustrated if I had come back and not have worked with her,” he says. “To be honest, if I were in Thomas’s shoes and the love of my life took a shot at the guy that I hated the most, and that she hated just as much, I’d think it would be kind of hot [laughs]. Thomas and I feel the same way, like, ‘What a badass she is!’ ” Fodé has also kept in touch with buddy Rome Flynn (ex-Zende), and couldn’t be more thrilled about his pal landing a plum role on HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER. “I knew he was up for it, but couldn’t really say anything about it,” Fodé divulges. “We share the same representation, as well, so we always get a chance to see each other and make fun of each other whenever we can, and make sure that we’re staying humble. There’s a lot of good stuff happening with everybody right now. I couldn’t be more excited.”

TAKING THE PLUNGE Elizabeth Hendrickson (ex-Chloe, Y&R) had a memorable time at the 2015 Daytime Emmys. “I don’t think anyone got this on camera, but after the show, I got behind the gift bag table and I started handing out gift bags as everyone was leaving,” chuckles the actress. “I was telling everyone, ‘Thank you for coming to the Daytime Emmys,’ and no one had any idea who I was.” There was a reason why Hendrickson performed such a non-star duty. “This was after I fell,” she sighs. “I had a long dress on and this was when they held the Emmys on the lot of Warner Bros. Studios. There were these Porta-Potties outside that had four steps, and as I was coming out of a Porta-Potty, I fell down the stairs just as one of the trams that was shuttling people around came by. I tumbled down the stairs right in front of them, so I thought, ‘Well, I just better hand out gift bags because this is by far the most embarrassing night of my life.’ ”