Scene And Heard

BAD TO THE BONE Coming and going as DAYS villain Xander Cook is exactly how actor Paul Telfer likes it. The reason is simple: If he was on the show for any real length of time, the powers-that-be might feel compelled to redeem him. Telfer has given the scenario some thought. “There are ways of doing that where the show could be ambiguous as to whether or not any of Xander’s softening was genuine, because he’s basically a sociopath,” notes Telfer. “I think that’d be kind of fun, where you’d have half the audience assuming he’s sincere and then the other half going, ‘No! Any second now he’s going to turn evil again.’ So long as he stayed the weirdo that he is, I, obviously, would very happily play him as more sympathetic.” What constantly surprises Telfer is how soap viewers totally embrace the villains who wreak havoc. “The other night I was getting back from New York and waiting for my suitcase to arrive when I noticed this woman next to me looking at me,” recounts Telfer, who soon learned she was a DAYS fan. “She said, ‘You’re so evil, but you’re so good! I love you.’ ” At times, however, Telfer admits that the love does seem a tad ill-placed. “We were doing a fan event up in Colorado and all these girls kept coming up to Robert Scott Wilson [Ben] and asking to be strangled by him,” reports Telfer. “He was like, ‘I don’t know if we’re sending the right message here.’ ”

DADDY’S GIRL B&B’s Kiara Barnes (Zoe) was intrigued to learn that Zoe’s father would be joining the canvas, but enthusiastic doesn’t begin to describe how she felt when she learned that her TV dad was going to be played by Wayne Brady (Reese). “Oh, my gosh! Finding out Wayne Brady was my dad was such a thrill, really, because I’ve loved watching him over the years,” she declares. “He’s such a fun personality to be around. I was excited to be able to work so closely with him.” Barnes reveals that the pair hit it off immediately. “It has been nothing but excitement and joy. He’s all about comedy and fun, so it was very refreshing. I’d say our first day together went very smoothly. Our first scene was Reese coming into the office and Zoe being surprised to see him. We ran through the lines a bit and discussed where we felt our characters’ relationship was, which was cool because we got to have a little backstory so we could really get into the moment in the scene. He’s really easy to study with and communicate with, and he’s open to bouncing ideas off one another, which is really the best way to work.”

THE MENTALIST It took an off-camera village to figure out how Daisy should heal Oscar’s headache on GH, reporters her portrayer, Kelsey Wang. “The healing with the hands stuff was really funny to shoot,” she says. “Garren [Stitt, Oscar] is awesome and we’ve become good friends, and that day was fun because we were all trying to figure out, ‘Is Daisy using Reiki techniques? Is she doing a meditation?’ Tamara Braun [Kim] actually knows so much about this stuff, and she comes into the scene later, so she was on set and she was telling me, ‘Oh, you should rub your hands first, like they do in Reiki, for her to feel the energy to help Oscar.’ Then the director was like, ‘Kelsey, your hands just need to lightly touch his temples.’ It was just a group of us trying to figure out how to do it the way they wanted it, with everyone pitching in with their ideas about how it should look. And then Wil [deVry, Julian] was going, ‘Eh, I don’t believe any of this.’ Wil was laughing the whole time — actually, we all were!”

WELCOME MATTERS Aside from Peter Bergman (Jack), Alice Hunter (Kerry) credits two other co-stars for making her feel welcomed right away at the Y&R studio. “Gina [Tognoni, Phyllis] is one of my favorite actresses I’ve ever worked with,” raves Hunter. “I don’t think I can say anything that hasn’t already been said about her talent. She’s also such a wonderful person. She’s made some time for me to get together outside of work and we always have a great time. She’s just a lovely, warm, wealth of experience and knowledge and just a cool lady. I know that when we are going to have scenes together, it’s a good day.” And big props also go to Tracey E. Bregman (Lauren). “I told her a few weeks back that she was really the first person that just eased my nerves on set,” Hunter explains. “She is just such a staple in the soap world. She looked at me and was like, ‘Girl, I feel ya. This is hard.’ I was like, ‘Oh, if Tracey Bregman says that then of course, I’m going to feel this way!’ She has been really great.”