STAGE FRIGHT
Jason Canela (Arturo, Y&R) has made it known that he loves scaring his soap fiancée, Melissa Ordway (Abby), but the opportunity hasn’t presented itself yet in 2019 — although it hasn’t been for lack of trying. “It had been a while since I last scared Melissa,” says Canela. “Y&R shoots on Stage 41 and 43, and both soundstages have stairs that go up to dressing rooms. Melissa’s room is right off Stage 41 and I knew she’d be walking down the stairs soon but because I have such a terrible sense of direction, I went to Stage 43. I don’t know how I even fit in the little space under the stairs but I hid there and waited.” And waited and waited. “I started wondering when the hell this girl was coming because I knew this would be the best scare of all time, but after a while, I realized that I’m in the wrong spot,” Canela chuckles. “Thankfully, nobody walked by because if someone had seen me, I would’ve just pretended I was sleeping. Then I had to squeeze out of there, which took longer than getting in. So, my first attempt to scare Melissa in 2019 was a big fail!”
APPRECIATION STATION
The late Kristoff St. John (ex-Neil, Y&R) made an indelible impression on STATION 19’s Jason George when the latter was just starting out as SUNSET BEACH’s Michael back in 1997. “I still remember going to my first Soap Opera Digest Awards and Kristoff grabbed me from behind — I didn’t know who it was — he turned me around and I was shocked because, of course, I immediately recognized him,” George recalls. “I was just stunned that he knew who the hell I was. He pulled me into a bear hug and said, ‘Welcome to the party, brother! We’re going to have a great time. You’re on an Aaron Spelling show, so you are off to a great start!’Anybody who knew Kristoff knows that when he talked to you, it was like y’all had been hanging out for 10 years, like you went to college together and you’re just catching up. I just had that conversation with a hairdresser on STATION 19 who knew him, as well. He was a generous and gregarious person, and he encouraged everyone he met. He was just that dude for me, and I’ll never forget that.”
SCENE STEALER
DAYS’s Kate Mansi (ex-Abigail) says Asher Morrissette (ex-Thomas) nearly stole the show during the taping of Chad and Abigail’s wedding. “Asher’s parents were on set that day watching the scene,” she recounts. “And Steven Williford, who is one of my favorite directors, was directing us that day and he was saying, ‘Okay, you guys do this,’ and he looked at Asher and said, ‘Okay, now at this part, you just run over and give your dad a big hug.’ And so the sweet little guy, he just runs over past Billy [Flynn, ex-Chad] and over to his real dad, who is standing right behind Billy. We’re all like, ‘Where is he going?’ So that was the sweetest thing. And everybody laughed and he looked back at us like, ‘What did I do wrong?’ We brought him back and he did it right that time. We found really sweet ways to incorporate the children into the wedding. Another moment that was so sweet was in the middle of the wedding ceremony, we went to tape it and it all got really quiet. I think I was about to say my vows and we looked over and we heard this snoring. I saw that Asher’s head had drooped down onto Missy’s [Reeves, Jennifer] shoulder and he was sleeping and snoring at the wedding, which we thought was so cute. We were like, ‘Do we wake him up?’ ”
BABBLE ON
Steve Burton has had a major uptick in dialogue since returning to GH as Jason in 2017, threatening his character’s reputation as a man of few words. “The fact that I’m talking more than Carly in a scene is ridiculous,” the actor teases. “We know something’s wrong. Maybe I have the flash drive somewhere and they have to take a chip out of my head, I don’t know. But this is a bunch of bull crap! I need to freaking go back to not talking. What happened to that part of my career? Come on, dude. They have no sympathy for me at all [at work]. They’re like, ‘Finally, you’re talking! Good job. You can talk.’ But this is why I kind of joke about the new Jason. Once I go back to staring at people and not saying anything, then I’ll say he’s like the old Jason again. Right now, he’s the new version of Jason, Jason 2.0!” All kidding aside, he thinks he’s at least partly to blame for the change in Jason. “Jason was such a unique character that when I went off [and played the role of Y&R’s Dylan], who I guess is more like me, more of who I am, I had to figure out how to dial it so far back to play Jason again. I’m so much happier now in my life than I’ve ever been, and being probably more emotionally available as a human being is what’s going on. That’s what I joke about: ‘Jason cries more than he’s ever cried and he talks more than he’s ever talked!’ ”