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News for the week of 23-Feb-2015
In two recent interviews, both Joshua Morrow (Nick) and Gina Tognoni (Phyllis) indicated a need to see the dynamics play out between their two characters, former flames on-screen. Tognoni’s never played love scenes with Morrow, seeing as she’s Michelle Stafford’s (ex-Phyllis; Nina, GH) successor, and naturally, she’s curious to see for herself what dallying with the funny Morrow would be like. “Oh, Phyllis and Nicholas! So here’s the thing… I absolutely think that Phyllis and Nick have to have more scenes [laughs]. They share a child, Summer, [and] I just am looking forward to how we live in that place… what we’re going to do with that,” she elaborated in a February 18th interview with Soap Opera Network’s Errol Lewis. “There’s so much going on right now and really, from a practical standpoint, I love the time that I’ve had to find a relationship with Jack, to develop [the triangle]. I mean look, we have a lot of gold there and it’s been so well worked in building that in an organic way. I think with Nick it’ll be just as good. Whenever the writers decide to create the conflict, or whatever the story is, we have time. You certainly do not want to rush that. You don’t want to rush that kind of stuff. I hate rushing that stuff personally. I don’t like seeing it. Just two people in a room together for the sake of having them in the room together? It’s like, let it be story driven/character driven. I trust that it’ll happen. He’s [referring to Morrow] such a neat guy to work with. We haven’t had enough scenes, that’s for sure.”
In Errol Lewis’ February 20th interview with Cady McClain (Kelly), the subject of crazy prominently popped up — as in, the actress didn’t think her character was at all off her rocker, considering what the poor woman’s been through because of Jack and Phyllis. “He really courted her with the roses. They were in love. They seemed very, very real. Phyllis coming in just sort of really threw a big ol’ wrench into all of that. It’s really pushed Kelly to the edge. That doesn’t make her crazy, it just makes her willing to do things that maybe she would think about twice if her life was more stable.” As an interesting behind-the-scenes aside, McClain and Peter Bergman (Jack) inserted an improvised moment in their last bedroom scene. They made sure to be shot pulling up their underwear and putting on their pants. “Who has sex with their underwear on? That’s pretty difficult. I was like, ‘I want to make it look real.’ When you stand up, you kind of like have to pretend like you’re getting them back on… I think everybody really tries to keep that reality in there because the viewers don’t miss a beat. That was certainly my goal and Peter and I talked about that too. He puts his pants on. He puts his shirt on. That’s what people do!”
In Michael Fairman’s February 19th interview, Joshua Morrow (Nick) revealed a thoughtful, considerate side to the comic he usually plays off-screen. The actor, for all his goofing around, really possesses astute observational skills when it comes to the major characters and what each portrayer brings to those characters. He praised co-stars like a polished theater critic, from recast Justin Hartley (Adam/Gabriel) juggling two sides of the same coin with a different mysterious aura, to the powerhouse of Gina Tognoni (Phyllis) adding another layer to the role left by Michelle Stafford. His astute assessment of the differences Hartley and predecessor Michael Muhney each brought to the character speaks a lot to Morrow’s own. “There will never be another Michael Muhney Adam. Michael played him differently. Justin adds just enough of himself to create this mystique about this character that it really needed. That was really crucial to playing this role – and that is – keeping this element of danger, but being able to fool the town. There is something about Justin’s clipped line delivery that is fascinating to me. It makes you think, ‘What is going on with this guy?’ But then he says something, and you go, ‘Oh, OK.’ Justin’s delivery is such that he can brush things aside, but the way he delivers his lines are very effective. In Muhney’s portrayal, Adam’s heart was pulsating on his sleeve. He was this broken human, and you wanted to hate him, but yet you understood everything he was going through. Well, you can’t have that character come back, because then it’s so obvious. Justin plays him with the perfect level of ‘How am I going to get out of this?’ Next, there is a moment where in a scene the camera goes to the other person and Justin as Adam is looking at them, and then he kind of smoothes that over. Whether Justin came in as that as his plan, or his choice, or maybe that is just who he is as an actor … it works so well! My greatest compliment to him is that he needed to be able to play Adam completely differently with this shroud of mystery, and that is exactly what he is doing. I like watching him.”
Morrow summarized his own character quite well, as someone who tends to react to things going on around him rather than cause things to happen. “Listen, he is never going to win the Noble Prize for brains. Nobody wants Nick to be the guy to figure stuff out. Standing up has never been his problem, but he never is going to sit back and figure things out, because he acts too impulsively…. I like that Nick is all reaction. He is not calculating, that is Adam.”
Besides summing up everyone’s characters, Morrow went into the details of the February Sweeps “Flirt With Disaster” — heralding the entrance of new head writer/EP Charles Pratt Jr. You’d be surprised how much went on in such little space. He also talked about the fun of tagging along as Steve Burton’s (Dylan) “idiot” sidekick on the personal appearances, and his dream to host his own talk show. Check out Fairman’s interview for more.
Melissa Claire Egan (Chelsea) described the controlled chaos on-set during the filming of “Flirt With Disaster” on her end. She said everyone was so impressed with the vision and the execution of such an ambitious February Sweeps, with “real EMTS,” planned explosions, and everything. At times, the disaster enactments felt so real, even the babies were swept up in a little fear. Kambra Clifford turned in a detail-oriented interview February 18 for Soap Central. “We did a lot of the stuff with smoke, but we couldn't do too much because of the babies. We had the babies as part of our story, so we didn't want to do too much so we could protect their health. But it was really nail-biting because there's a fire and then there's an explosion, and we had real EMTs on set, which we often do, which is cool because they can tell us, ‘No, you're doing that wrong!’ We also had a lot of extras dressed in fire-fighting gear, and it just kind of added to the excitement. Even the babies seemed a little scared when they saw the firefighters, because it looked so real.”
The great Eric Braeden (Victor) — beloved and respected father to us all — live-tweeted with fans from all over the world on February 19. He was as honest and as kind as he always is with fans, answering questions about current and former co-stars, especially Jeanne Cooper (Katherine). “Jeanne had a very [bawdy] sense of humor. I had a great fondness & affection for her. I was very sad when she passed.” Like other co-stars, Braeden tweeted his admiration for the professionals in charge of making the Underground disaster look so authentic. “[i]t took about 3-4 days. I have enormous respect for the #YR production designers who made those sets look so damn real.” Say what you will about the man, but — unlike 90 percent of the soap opera actors out there — Mr. Braeden goes online to really engage with people about all sorts of subjects. He’s not there for endless self-promotion. And his fans simply adore him.
Gossip for the week of 23-Feb-2015
Kristoff and Mia St. John are the parents of Julian, 24, who passed away in a Long Beach, CA mental health hospital November 23. At the time, they were told and believed it was a suicide. But now, they’re preparing to sue La Casa Mental Health Hospital for wrongful death, suspecting that another patient may have sought to do their troubled son in. The clincher for Mia St. John is the phone conversation with her son hours before his death. He told her he was scared that another patient was trying to kill him. To support their case, they’ve requested to view hospital footage. Read more on RadarOnline.com February 19.
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