Interview Outtakes

Most of the time when I am conducting an interview with a soap star, I have more interview material than space for printing the interview. Here are some blurbs from stars that did not make it to the print version of the interview, but were too good not to publish.

Dominic Zamprogna, pictured (Dante Falconeri, “General Hospital”), on working with James Franco: He’s great. He’s just a really nice guy and he’s a really passionate guy, interesting guy. He’s able to do a lot right now cause he’s been blessed with some great things happening in his career, and he’s taking advantage of it. There are a lot of people in his situation who don’t want as much as he wants or to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. He’s grabbing life and fulfilling whatever he wants to fulfill, which is amazing. There should be more people out there doing what he is doing. I think James just realized that [being on a soap opera] was something he wanted to try, and why not? He doesn’t care what people think, otherwise he wouldn’t do half the stuff he’s doing. I think that’s the problem with a lot of actors these days. They do it for the wrong reasons, and they’re losing sight of what matters. You’re not supposed to be doing this so you can get famous; you’re supposed to be doing this because it’s a fire burning inside of you and you have a passion to do this. I can say that’s why almost everybody on this show is doing it, and that’s definitely why James wanted to be a part of it.

Jennie Garth (ex-Kelly Taylor, “90210”), on husband/actor Peter Facinelli: “My husband is such a serious guy most of the time, but he's funny. Makes me laugh, I know that. I love that part of us when we're having fun together. Whenever we come to a crossroads and we are like, “Marriage sucks and it's hard,” I can always come back to, “But you make me laugh so much.” I don't want to end that.

Luke Perry (ex-Dylan McKay, “90210”), on his aversion to Twitter: “We live in a world where people are obsessed with the cult of Twitter, where they have to jump on and tweet every damn thing that happens. And they all have followers. Think about it: This is a media-generated thing where everybody can have followers. I question people who want to have a bunch of followers, and that presumes that they themselves are, what, the leader? I’m not buying into any of that. It’s so weird that everybody wants to tweet and everything, and I’m like, why don’t you just go and do it? I can’t do that – I like to do.

James Reynolds (Abe Carver, “Days of Our Lives”), on working with armed-forces veterans: “I started working with the active duty military about 12 years ago, working with the U.S.O. and with armed forces entertainment. It kind of took me back to those years ago when I was a young Marine serving overseas, and I began to recognize that in this country we ask a very, very small percentage — we don’t even draft anymore —and so we are asking a very, very small number of people to not only protect us in those places that we need protection, but to be the leading edge of whatever our foreign policy may be at the time. I got a letter a few years ago from a young woman whose husband was serving in Afghanistan at the time — this was about seven or eight years ago — she was losing their family home while he was in Afghanistan. It made me realize that we need to draw more attention to what is going on with these young men and women that we’re asking to put their lives and bodies on line for us, and we cheer them and do all of this here, but then we forget about them when they’re not there. So it seemed like a natural fit, and I wanted to make a point to them that all Americans care about them, regardless of political point of view.

Interview Outtakes, Part 6

Most of the time when I am conducting an interview with a soap star, I have more interview material than space for printing the interview. Here are some blurbs from stars that did not make it to the print version of the interview, but were too good not to publish.

Sharon Case (pictured, Sharon Newman, “The Young and the Restless”): “Right now, whenever I do a scene with Nick, I am aware that the love of my life is standing next to me. We might not be together, but they still have a lot of scenes together, and they share a son together. For me, every time I am in the room with Nick, it is a love scene between Nick and Sharon. We can’t be in the same room together and it not be about love. Even if we are fighting, it is about love. It is always there. I don’t think it is really over; it is just being played continuously in another form.”

Dominic Zaprogna (Dante Falconeri, “General Hospital”): When I read (the script with the scene of Dante falling asleep before he and Lulu could finally make love), I was like: ‘No, he doesn’t fall asleep! Come on! I’ve heard of that happening before, but I didn’t think I was gonna be the one!’ However, that is the same night he leaves the hospital, and I think he’s pretty drugged up. I mean, come on, he could have a heart attack. But I think it could be worth it at this point.”


JoBeth Williams (ex-Brandy Shelloe, “Guiding Light”): “For a long time, I was a workaholic. I felt very uncomfortable if I wasn’t working. Having kids really changed my perspective, as I think it does for many people, particularly women. My husband, who is a director, and I knew that we really didn’t want to be away from our sons. You just have to make choices, and they are choices that are often hard to make. There could be work that you wanted to take, but you can’t because your spouse is away working. Once you have a family, your perspective changes on how to balance work and life.”

Eileen Fulton (Lisa Grimaldi, “As the World Turns”): “I have so many stories I could tell you from the early days of filming the show. I remember we moved to Grand Central Station for our studio at one point. There was an office building there, and we had our studio there. We came on at 1:30, and at 1:35, all the dishes in Nancy’s cabinet started to rattle. There was a train coming into the station that had a square wheel or something, and it went ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom.

“Oakdale is supposed to be out in mid-America, near Chicago. It always varied how near Chicago was: Sometimes it took an overnight train to get there, and sometimes someone could drive it in the half-hour the show was on. At one point, our studio was over on 57th Street near the Hudson River, and the Queen Elizabeth would come in with its horn blaring, unmistakably, and here we are supposedly in the middle of America with big ships coming to port.

“Oh, and I caught the set on fire one time – it was Cherries Jubilee. We had to start timing this thing in the morning. I had to serve this flaming Cherries Jubilee to all of the Hughes men. I had to look around and say: ‘I see we’ve all finished. Shall we go to the garden?’ In rehearsal, we went over and over it, timing all of our bites, so that we were finished eating when my line came. So we kept pouring more and more brandy into the dessert; we were looped by the time we went on the air. Grandpa Hughes ate a flaming spoonful of fire.”

Interview (GH): Could Dante Falconeri Be Pulled Over to the Dark Side?

No one was more shocked than Dante Falconeri to discover that mob boss Sonny Corinthos is his father. However, his portrayer, Dominic Zamprogna, was ready and willing to play the good-guy son of Port Charles’ resident bad guy.

Daytime Dial: When you first came on “General Hospital” as the character of Dominic, you knew you would end up being Sonny’s son, Dante. How do you like that twist?

Dominic Zamprogna: My manager is a huge fan of “GH,” and she told me this would be a huge part, because they had been looking to fill this character for years. When I got the script and it said “Dominic,” I called the head writer, Bob (Guza), and asked what was going on. He told me that my character was going to be undercover as Dominic, but I really was Dante, Sonny’s son. At first there were some nerves, because I wasn’t sure if people were going to dig what I was doing. But the part has far exceeded what I thought it would be.

DD: Dante is having a rough few weeks — first he is shot and almost killed by Sonny, then he finds out Sonny, the man he’s been trying to take down, is his father. How is Dante feeling about all this?

DZ: He’s a little confused. He’s still the same guy underneath, but he’s being pushed and pulled in so many different directions. As far as his mother goes (with her keeping this a secret from him), that wound will heal a lot quicker. He’s a smart guy; he knows his mother did what she did to be a good mom. But the hurt and pain of that will hang around for a while, because it is a massive betrayal. This thing with Sonny, it won’t be an instantaneous “all is well” kind of thing. I think it is going to go on a long time.

DD: He must also be conflicted, because he was starting to develop a respect and a liking for Sonny, even though he’s the bad guy and Dante is the good guy.

DZ: He’s not a one-note guy. Things we are shooting now, I am making him a little less sure on the things he normally would never think twice about. Anytime he’s going to be around someone, he’s probably going to reach for his gun a little sooner. He’s not going to trust. Now everyone else seems to have an ulterior motive, and he doesn’t know who, apart from Lulu, he’s supposed to trust.

DD: What will it take for Dante to accept Sonny as his father?

DZ: Eventually he could, because of that pain of not having that person in your life that you’ve wanted to have your whole life. To now find that person, if he hadn’t shot me, it still would have taken a lot of time. But it would have been just that — constantly deep down wanting to be close to this man and wanting to acknowledge him as your father, just wanting to have a father. It obviously would have happened a lot quicker had he not shot me in the chest.

I think time is the main thing that will bring them closer — either time or a major occurrence.

DD: Dante has such strong morals and principles — how does that coincide with what his father does for a living? I don’t see Dante being pulled over to “the dark side.”

DZ: I honestly don’t ever see Dante becoming bad. When I spoke with Bob about Dante, we were saying how he has this great sense of right and wrong, and morals and all that stuff. I don’t even entertain the idea that he could become bad. If they decided to write it that way sometime down the road, sure, but I can’t see it happening anytime soon. Another option would be for Dad to retire and not do illegal things anymore. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen either.

DD: The fans really love Dante and Lulu together, as well as your chemistry with Julie Berman. What is it that makes you guys click so well?

DZ: A sense of humor — we make each other laugh a lot. If you can make each other laugh, you are one step ahead. We have a mutual respect for each other. And she is ridiculously talented. It makes me happy to hear that people are digging it. It is so much easier to go to work with someone who brings it every day, and she does.