Thursday, June 11, 2009

The We Love Soaps Interviews

We Love Soaps has a lot of exciting interviews and surprises lined up for this summer as the site continues to grow, so I thought it would be a good time to take a look a back at some of our exclusive interviews.

FAMILY DINNER Time For Lauralee Bell
"What people don't really know about my Dad, and he's very much like Brad, was that he was the most approachable boss ever. He was a jokester, and was always waiting for a punchline, and was never really angry or mad, and was like a mini-comic in my eyes. I feel like what I'm doing now in FAMILY DINNER, which people think is so different from Christine, is really my natural instinct, to always go to a humorous place. Our rehearsals at THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS were also so funny because we would do it exactly opposite of how it was written. Doug Davidson and I would have the best time. So even though my Dad wasn't an actor per se, he definitely had some show business in him."

EVAN ALEX COLE: Welcome to the Soap WORLD
"Basically, I had been in with Mary Clay [Boland, Casting Director] many times trying to see what might work and what wouldn't work. One week I didn't have any auditions lined up so I made plans to go home and see Momma in Atlanta. Everything was great and I was on the plane and I get a phone call from my agent saying that Mary Clay called and has this role she thought I'd be great for it and wanted to get me in to see the producers. He was like, "Where are you?" and I told him I was on the plane and he said he would call her to see if we could get it on tape or whatever. After I got off the phone, I was sitting there and thinking this could be great and it was what I wanted for so long, and the door was still open, so I literally got up and got off the plane. I called my agent back from a cab on the way home, and told him I wanted to make sure Mary Clay knew I was here. I went in the next day and met the producers. I got to meet Chris Goutman the next week, and was playing Hunter the following week."

INTERVIEW: Stage, TV and Film Star Patrika Darbo
"I didn't even think I was coming on full-time. The casting director at the time was Fran Bascom who I also knew personally, and we were at a party at Ronnie Claire Edwards' (Corabeth, THE WALTONS) house and in passing she asked me if I would considering doing a soap. I said, 'Of course, Fran, absolutely', thinking I could come on going, 'Hey, here's your beer. Do you want any peanuts' or 'Your hair looks good, mam. Thank you very much' or 'I finished dusting in this room'. I had no concept of what she was asking me until I got there and saw my hunky husband and I'm thinking to myself, 'Oh my God, they don't know who I am, they've cast the wrong person'."

INTERVIEW: Daytime Emmy Winner Judi Evans
"I’ve done a few projects for friends, and auditioning like crazy. I’ve also started a new facet to my life. I now sell cemetery property and funerals on a pre-need basis at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California. I find it extremely rewarding to be of service to the community."

INTERVIEW: From Soaps to Novelist, Louise Shaffer
"As usual, I was playing the bitch, which is what I have always played. I don't know whether's it's because my eyes are deep set or I have high cheek bones. I have the feeling maybe I come across as a little calculated. As an actor, I have an emotional content and I can turn on all that Italian in me and it kind of bubbles up, but my first way of approachings things is kind of analytically, which is not necessarily good. I think it gave me a slightly calculated thing that seemed to suggest bitches."

INTERVIEW: Writer/Director/Producer Mark Jones
"My grandmother watched DAYS OF OUR LIVES, and our maid watched THE EDGE OF NIGHT. I watched GENERAL HOSPITAL with my sisters, the Luke and Laura adventures. I also was a big fan of DALLAS and KNOTS LANDING. I love the real honest-to-God Friday afternoon cliffhanger or the primetime cliffhangers like 'Who Shot JR?' That's something we really strongly wrote in each episode of ON THE EDGE OF HAPPINESS."

INTERVIEW: NIGHT SHIFT Head Writer Sri Rao
"The other thing about bringing in new storylines, whether it be gay storylines, or stories about people of color, different ethnicities, unless it comes intrinsically from the writer, the writer living this, what that is, it's not going to work. The only way for gay storylines to really resonate is if gay writers are writing them. I know that is controversial and all the straight writers out there will be like 'you think I can't write a love story because I'm not gay'. I'm not saying that at all, but for the storyline to have heart, someone on the writing team who is gay, or has a very strong personal connection with that, needs to take the lead on writing the heart of that story."

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: ATWT's Colleen Broomall
"All of the memories that I do have are amazing ones. The ones that stick out the most would have to include the annual ATWT holiday parties, charity softball games, meet and greets with fans, and the wardrobe team who so kindly allowed me to try on all of the "grown up" shoes, dresses and jewelry -- talk about a little girl's dream. I also absolutely loved my time with Scott Bryce, Lindsay Frost, and Patsy Bruder. During the summer months, production arranged it so that my brothers and sister were extras at the beach club. It was so fun for all of us to be on set together."

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