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Photo credit: Getty
AND SO IT BEGINS
Suzanne Rogers (Maggie, DAYS) remembers clearly the first time she met John Clarke (ex-Mickey). “I went into this room for my audition on Friday the 13th and I saw this man with a beard sitting there, who was, I found out later, John,” she says. “We did a scene where Mickey came to the farm for the first time, and he asked Maggie how she became crippled. She’s telling him about her mother and father — and I cried. The thing of it is, when you go to audition, rarely do they ever let you know at that moment whether you got it or you didn’t. They just say, ‘Thank you very much. We’ll be talking to your agent.’ So I went and got in my little car and I drive off the lot and as I’m pulling up to the stoplight, this car pulls up alongside of me and toots its horn. I turn around and look and it’s the guy that I just read with! He rolled his window down and he said, ‘You knocked me out! You just blew me away!’ and I said, ‘Thank you!’ And then the light changed and he went off and I sat there for a few minutes and went, ‘Wow, okay, great!’ ” Rogers learned she was cast as Maggie from her agent, but it wasn’t right away. “The audition was on a Friday and I waited — the weekend was terrible — and then Monday … nothing. I didn’t hear from my agent, and then on Tuesday I finally called him and said, ‘Okay, what happened? I thought I did a pretty good audition,’ and he said, ‘Oh, you have to go over and pick up your crutches! You start tomorrow.’ It was amazing. It all happened so fast.”
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Photo credit: JPI
CLASH DANCE
He appeared nearly nude in one scene, but Y&R’s Michael Mealor (Kyle) says the degree of difficulty was even more intense when he was called upon to participate in a brief dance sequence on the GCAC roof deck set. “I hate dancing, I am a horrible dancer; I am so self-conscious when I dance,” groans the actor. “I read the stage direction in the script that Kyle and Mariah would dance and I was, like, ‘I don’t think they’re going to actually truly follow through with this. We’ll just kind of do our own thing.’ Then I was told, ‘Yeah, you’re gonna dance,’ so sure enough, they wanted us to really dance. I was thinking, ‘Oh, God, no! Please no!’ ” On the day he shot the scene, Mealor was a nervous wreck. “First of all, I completely forgot how the setup is done,” he admits. “They play a song for like 10 seconds and let you start dancing, and then the music turns off while they’re shooting but you have to keep that beat. It’s the most miserable, miserable experience in the world! I mean, I say it’s miserable, but it’s hilarious at the same time. I have to say that Camryn [Grimes, Mariah] and I laughed really hard about it! I don’t know what the dancing looked like because I never watched when it aired. It was probably horrible, so I feel I have to apologize.”
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Photo credit: JPI
I’LL DRINK TO THAT
From time to time, Hayley Erin’s (Kiki, GH) storyline has required her to play drunk — and the actress says that she has a blast playing her character under the influence. “Kiki is in her head so much and has been through so much that there’s something liberating about getting to play her with a little more funk,” she enthuses. “As an actor, I try to take note of things that I do in real life, in various situations, like, ‘Oh, I should remember that!’ So whenever I drink or I’m around people who are drinking, I’m very cognizant of any funny little ticks, the way people pronounce words and all of that. That’s definitely helped me prepare. And I find that the action of taking a shot is almost like muscle memory. When Kiki takes a shot, even if it’s just water or a soda or whatever it is, your brain is like, ‘You’re supposed to feel drunk right now!’ It’s always really fun to play and the fans seem to like it, too, so it’s a win-win!”
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Photo credit: Getty
FUNNY GIRL
As B&B’s Sally, Courtney Hope can always be counted on for a witty one-liner, but comedy wasn’t always the actress’s forte. “Something that I’ve always wanted to do is stand-up comedy,” Hope shares. “My first step to do that was going to UCB [Upright Citizens Brigade]. I loved it, but the last thing you do when you go through it is you have to get up on stage and perform. You invite people you know and people you’ve been working with. It’s like an eight-week program, and the idea of performing comedy in front of them terrified me. I don’t mind being up in front of people. I have no fear of public speaking, but something about doing comedy was absolutely terrifying — and when I did it, it really surprised me. Those weeks waiting to do it I was living in fear, but I got up there and, most importantly, I loved it — and people laughed! And it was people I didn’t know who laughed, so it wasn’t just my parents [laughs]! That really surprised me. I think about that moment a lot when I’m afraid of something. I’m like, ‘You know what? I did that. I overcame it, and in the end, I completely enjoyed it!’ ”
AND SO IT BEGINS
Suzanne Rogers (Maggie, DAYS) remembers clearly the first time she met John Clarke (ex-Mickey). “I went into this room for my audition on Friday the 13th and I saw this man with a beard sitting there, who was, I found out later, John,” she says. “We did a scene where Mickey came to the farm for the first time, and he asked Maggie how she became crippled. She’s telling him about her mother and father — and I cried. The thing of it is, when you go to audition, rarely do they ever let you know at that moment whether you got it or you didn’t. They just say, ‘Thank you very much. We’ll be talking to your agent.’ So I went and got in my little car and I drive off the lot and as I’m pulling up to the stoplight, this car pulls up alongside of me and toots its horn. I turn around and look and it’s the guy that I just read with! He rolled his window down and he said, ‘You knocked me out! You just blew me away!’ and I said, ‘Thank you!’ And then the light changed and he went off and I sat there for a few minutes and went, ‘Wow, okay, great!’ ” Rogers learned she was cast as Maggie from her agent, but it wasn’t right away. “The audition was on a Friday and I waited — the weekend was terrible — and then Monday … nothing. I didn’t hear from my agent, and then on Tuesday I finally called him and said, ‘Okay, what happened? I thought I did a pretty good audition,’ and he said, ‘Oh, you have to go over and pick up your crutches! You start tomorrow.’ It was amazing. It all happened so fast.”
CLASH DANCE
He appeared nearly nude in one scene, but Y&R’s Michael Mealor (Kyle) says the degree of difficulty was even more intense when he was called upon to participate in a brief dance sequence on the GCAC roof deck set. “I hate dancing, I am a horrible dancer; I am so self-conscious when I dance,” groans the actor. “I read the stage direction in the script that Kyle and Mariah would dance and I was, like, ‘I don’t think they’re going to actually truly follow through with this. We’ll just kind of do our own thing.’ Then I was told, ‘Yeah, you’re gonna dance,’ so sure enough, they wanted us to really dance. I was thinking, ‘Oh, God, no! Please no!’ ” On the day he shot the scene, Mealor was a nervous wreck. “First of all, I completely forgot how the setup is done,” he admits. “They play a song for like 10 seconds and let you start dancing, and then the music turns off while they’re shooting but you have to keep that beat. It’s the most miserable, miserable experience in the world! I mean, I say it’s miserable, but it’s hilarious at the same time. I have to say that Camryn [Grimes, Mariah] and I laughed really hard about it! I don’t know what the dancing looked like because I never watched when it aired. It was probably horrible, so I feel I have to apologize.”
I’LL DRINK TO THAT
From time to time, Hayley Erin’s (Kiki, GH) storyline has required her to play drunk — and the actress says that she has a blast playing her character under the influence. “Kiki is in her head so much and has been through so much that there’s something liberating about getting to play her with a little more funk,” she enthuses. “As an actor, I try to take note of things that I do in real life, in various situations, like, ‘Oh, I should remember that!’ So whenever I drink or I’m around people who are drinking, I’m very cognizant of any funny little ticks, the way people pronounce words and all of that. That’s definitely helped me prepare. And I find that the action of taking a shot is almost like muscle memory. When Kiki takes a shot, even if it’s just water or a soda or whatever it is, your brain is like, ‘You’re supposed to feel drunk right now!’ It’s always really fun to play and the fans seem to like it, too, so it’s a win-win!”
FUNNY GIRL
As B&B’s Sally, Courtney Hope can always be counted on for a witty one-liner, but comedy wasn’t always the actress’s forte. “Something that I’ve always wanted to do is stand-up comedy,” Hope shares. “My first step to do that was going to UCB [Upright Citizens Brigade]. I loved it, but the last thing you do when you go through it is you have to get up on stage and perform. You invite people you know and people you’ve been working with. It’s like an eight-week program, and the idea of performing comedy in front of them terrified me. I don’t mind being up in front of people. I have no fear of public speaking, but something about doing comedy was absolutely terrifying — and when I did it, it really surprised me. Those weeks waiting to do it I was living in fear, but I got up there and, most importantly, I loved it — and people laughed! And it was people I didn’t know who laughed, so it wasn’t just my parents [laughs]! That really surprised me. I think about that moment a lot when I’m afraid of something. I’m like, ‘You know what? I did that. I overcame it, and in the end, I completely enjoyed it!’ ”