Scene And Heard

LANGUAGE BARRIER Though he has lived in the United States for years, Gilles Marini (Ted, DAYS), who was born in France, admits that it takes him awhile to learn his lines. “I have spent half my life in France, half my life here, but it’s still interesting to learn and digest where you need to emphasize words,” he explains. “It’s completely the opposite way with the inflection and obviously the accent and the tongue and the speed, so it’s always harder for me to learn. For one show, we need to shoot an enormous amount of dialogue in two-to-three hours, and you’ve got to do it in one take. It takes me about 10-12 hours just to get that one show. I walk everywhere and do my lines in my head, on my phone with my app and with my lines, and it’s an enormous amount of work. You have to get to work like, ‘I’m Ted, I don’t have to think about it,’ and that means I’m ready.” His DAYS training came in handy during a recent film shoot. “At 10 p.m. the night before, I got the lines, and at 7 a.m., I had to be on set,” he recalls. “And because of DAYS, I could look at the page twice and not concentrate on learning because I had them already. I didn’t say thanks yet, but I will. To me, that is why it’s so easy for people to say, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s just a soap.’ No, no, no, just try it. It is the hardest thing I’ve done so far. If anybody tried to tell me otherwise, I would tell them nicely come to set and do this every day.”

PARK AND RECOGNITION Jordi Vilasuso (Rey) was surprised when he found a familiar face at the Y&R set. “I had actually met Melissa Ordway [Abby] a month before I started on Y&R but I didn’t know that she was on the show,” says the actor. “We met at a park without knowing who each other was. She had her kids there and I had my kids and I just started talking to her and her husband, Justin [Gaston, ex-Ben, DAYS]. I was trying to remember what I knew her from but couldn’t and I didn’t ask. I just remember really enjoying our conversation and hoped that I would run in to them again.” That happened sooner than Vilasuso expected. “When I got to Y&R, we recognized each other right away,” he chuckles. “She and I were like, ‘You were at the park!’ It was such a nice surprise and she’s just the biggest sweetie. I also told her, ‘Well, looks like we’re going to have park dates in the future.’ ”

WE ARE FAN-ILY When Kiara Barnes (Zoe) got the job at B&B, her relatives may have been even more excited than the actress herself. “They were all ecstatic,” Barnes shares. “My mother, my grandmothers, my aunts, their friends, the people that they work with, you name it. Some of them even watch the show while they’re at work. I have friends and family who actually won’t leave work until they can finish watching the show and see what happens so they can get on with the rest of their day! So yes, it was really exciting to finally share the news that I had gotten the job, and then get so much love and support and excitement from people in return — especially from the ones who’ve been watching the show for years and years. That was really cool.” As for what they think of her troublemaking alter ego, Zoe, Barnes chuckles, “That remains to be seen. Either I’ll be the girl they love to hate, or the girl they hate to love but either way, as long as they’re watching, I’ll be happy — and I’m sure I’ll get an earful!”

VIRGIN TERRITORY Josh Swickard (Chase) was thrilled that GH introduced a backstory between his character and Chloe Lanier’s (ex-Nelle). “I came in kind of slowly as the new cop and had a lot of PCPD cop jargon, so giving Chase that history was a lot of fun to explore,” he enthuses. “And Chloe is a ridiculously strong actress. There were times when we’d work together and I would just get straight-up lost in the scene because she’s so freaking talented.” The episode that told the Chase/Nelle history in flashbacks, he says, “was my first 60-page day on the show. It kind of got to the point where you almost go numb. We shot the love scene last and I’d never done one on camera before. Frank [Valentini, executive producer] was super-cool about, ‘Hey, kill the lights, everybody get off the set that doesn’t need to be here, cut the feed.’ I told Chloe [whispering], ‘Hey, Chloe, I’m scared!’ She said, ‘You got this, dude!’ And it ended up being super-easy and kind of effortless, and when I saw the final snip of it, I thought they cut it together really well.”