WEBVTT - Peter Bergman, King of the Soaps 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:05.640 I'm Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:11.080 Actor Peter Bergman is an undisputed master of one particular 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:15.360 corner of the acting world, the soaps. For ten years, 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:20.000 starting in ninety nine, he played Cliff Warner, the legendary 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:23.640 good guy doctor on All My Children. Even if you've 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:26.840 never seen a soap opera, you've heard this. I'm not 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.360 a doctor, but I play one on TV. After a 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:33.360 headline grabbing firing from All My Children, you'll hear more 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.600 about that coming up. Bergman took on another of the 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:40.760 most durable characters in the history of television, Jack Abbott, 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.760 on The Young and the Restless. It's the role he 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:50.199 still plays today thirty years later. Where doctor Warner was 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:57.600 a heartthrob good guy Jack is deliciously complex. He's perpetually 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:02.000 trying to live up to his father, medics tycoon John Abbott, 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:07.280 perpetually battling rival makeup baron Victor Newman was signed with 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:12.800 perpetually remarrying Nicky Newman. Victor's ex I'm trying to be civil. 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:17.440 It's soap perfection. I should know. I too, am a 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.679 soap opera veteran. This is me in the early eighties 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.880 on NBC's The Doctors. Tell them you forgot something, lie, 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.760 I have forgotten something. What's up? What it's like to 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.680 make love to you? A couple of years after that, 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:45.840 I died. Jack Abbott, despite numerous threats to his life 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:48.880 and fortune, is still going strong, the star of the 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.480 show even And that says something because when I started, 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:56.240 it was the mature characters who got the juiciest stories. 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.120 But now, with few exceptions, it's the younger generation. And 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.640 to are the stars of the show. Well, I have 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.280 been both both of the young and the old, and 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.359 I now call it the young and the rest of us. 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.400 Um at your time where well, I'm very lucky. I 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.040 am still in a prominent place in this company, and 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.600 there are people behind me who are very unhappy to 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.600 be behind me. I know that well. I mean, obviously 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:28.280 you and I have daytime TV in common. This one guy, 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:30.520 David O'Brien, played my fan, and he said to me, 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:33.720 he said, don't mock the material, said, don't make fun 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:35.840 of you. That's not going to help you. Try to 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.960 make it work, don't send it up. And or if 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:40.760 you're gonna do it, do it first thing in the morning. 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.040 Let's get all our laughs out early and and and 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.480 play the absurdity of it all, and then let's all 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.400 get together and see how good we can make this. 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:56.080 We've got to figure it out. Um, you were born 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.840 in Cuba. I was born in Guantanamo, baking thus the 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:01.760 you know Latin much of the most thing that you 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.239 see right away, So I always make you a mistake 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:08.640 you for, Julio, exactly what did your dad do? My 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.480 dad was in the navy career, navy man, and we 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.040 moved every two years of my life. For what seemed 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:18.560 like my entire life, we were in Guantanamo for probably 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:23.960 four months. But strangely enough, I love Cuban music, I 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.920 love Cuban food. I have a certain fascination and have 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.519 not yet been Did you grow up primarily? Where? Was 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:31.640 there one place that he settled for a while. So 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.720 by the time I was in ninth grade, we settled 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:40.080 in Camp Springs, Maryland, outside of Washington, d C. Andrews 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:45.160 Air Force, And well, yes, exactly, and moving every couple 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.880 of years is as an odd thing. You probably talked 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.560 to plenty of actors who are from the military or 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:55.040 from from foreign service or things like that. Every couple 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.320 of years, you move and well, let's figure out what 0:03:57.360 --> 0:03:59.720 we gotta do here. Who do I have to be 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.000 for this group? And uh I was popular in the 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:07.120 last place, and I went to public schools. Did you 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.000 have a drama bug there where you are? Movie? I 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.760 sang in a band for a couple of years, you know, 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:15.960 rock and roll cover stuff and played dances and things 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:20.400 like that. So I had some nerve um, but not 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:23.599 not not any great talent for that. I certainly liked 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:28.320 my television. I watched old movies occasionally, but not with 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.839 a kind of fervor that that a lot of people watched. 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:35.480 At the map for where you wanted to go, I 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.400 didn't have a map. Strange strangely enough, if there was 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.440 an allegory for kind of my life in general, you know, 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:45.440 the first couple of homes you bought, you thought, oh 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:47.880 my god, how am I govern ever going to afford this? 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:50.119 How am I ever going to make this? Mate work? 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:55.000 I I and and somehow it works out. And then 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:57.800 you go get another house and you think, I'm never 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:00.560 gonna afford this one either, and you figure you're it out. 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:05.160 The drama bugs, strangely enough, was and almost an accident. 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:10.400 I was hanging out after school eleventh grade, yes, eleventh grade, 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:14.760 and there was a girl auditioning for the school play. 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.240 And I hung out after school with Margot, trying to 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.880 get her attention. She saw right through me. I was 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.839 kind of popular and this was not I was not 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.640 a normal person to show up at auditions in the 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.360 theater department. And uh, And so I asked, what are 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:35.240 we auditioning for? She said, Peter Pan. I knew this 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:38.479 thing inside out. The Cyril Richard thing with Mary Martin 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:42.120 was part of growing up and it went at my age. 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.480 I'm a little older than you are, and it showed 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:46.600 every year and I was parked in front of that 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:52.400 thing and I and look there you were. So so 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.479 there was a form to fill out part reading for 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.680 and Margot uh handed it in. And when she handed 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:05.479 it and she stopped and wrote Captain Hook. Only Captain Hook. 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:11.039 I learned this much later. I was, well, well, it 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:14.440 was a long process. It's it's because of Mr Darling 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.359 at the beginning. It's the largest role in the play, 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.640 even bigger than Peter Pan. I'm in terms of dialogue. 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.520 And here you have a high school drama teacher who 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:27.000 has his group of people he can count on. He 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.480 knows who's probably going to play Captain Hook, who's probably 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:33.039 gonna play Peter Pan. Incomes this guy who is just 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.880 I just I had nothing to lose. I just didn't 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.160 care in a good way, in a good way. So 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:46.400 that launch more school plays. Yes, it did it did 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:49.000 it got it got me going. I was I was 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:55.560 a pretty lost kid. Um, yeah, pretty lost. UM knows. 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:57.480 The moving around a part of I think there was 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:58.800 a big part of it. I just want to have 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:02.599 a home. There's a lot of you know, going back 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:07.560 to to my audition, um, mine was an endless process 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.240 that included um that I learned later. The head of 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.320 the drama department, Mr Messina, just passed away. Last year. 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.200 I went to the teacher's lounge and said, this weird 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.120 thing going on. I got this guy who keeps coming 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.320 in and auditioning really really well. I didn't even heard 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:28.280 of him. Well hoo Peter Bergman, Uh nah nah nah. 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.000 Now he's he's he's kind of all over the place. Um. 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.600 And then I went in there and the last night 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:40.680 I had to read how still the night is nothing 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:44.680 sounds alive? Now is the hour when all children in 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.120 their homes are a bed, their lips bright brown with 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:52.160 a good night chocolate, their tongues drowsily searching for belated 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:57.720 crumbs housed emptily in their swollen cheeks. I'm in eleventh grade. 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.560 This is the coolest thing I have ever read in 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.720 my life. What a thing to develop a passion for 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.920 that language. Then, because when I was in high school 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.320 and I did a high school play, we did Mr. Roberts, 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:11.720 and the drama coach said to me, asked some of 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:13.280 your friends on the football team if they want to 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:15.440 come to Mr. Roberts or whatever? And I was half in, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.640 half out. I didn't really care. But for you, when 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.640 you leave home, you go to New York after high school. Um, 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:27.080 I go to community college nearby for a year and 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:30.600 a half. I studied what English uh? And they were 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:35.800 auditioning for a play and I was I won a 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:40.920 best actor award. At a time another school was doing 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.240 a show called Celebration and the guy was so much 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.600 better than I was, and I won, and it drove 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:50.360 me crazy. Really, he was so good. What do you 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.480 think you won? Did he look like a cadaver? Was 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:54.880 he not a good looking guy? I don't know. He 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:57.520 was he was. He was great. So I'm a I'm 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:02.199 a community college, and there's a poster for auditions for celebration. 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.439 I can make this right. I can be better than 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:10.800 he was in the same role. I did you and 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.440 I did and how I did and and uh. And 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:15.439 it worked out pretty well for me, It really did. 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:20.040 While in that a play, my one of the cast mates, 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.240 a fellow I had just met who became a lifelong friend, 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.240 Tim Van Pelt, was playing another role, and he was 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.040 going to New York to audition for the American Academy 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:35.200 of Dramatic Arts. And I had no aspirations, no plans, 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:36.880 no anything. I said, you just want to be better 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:38.439 than that other guy. I just want to be better 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:42.960 than that other guy. And I was looking over my 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:46.560 show the old time. I got to New York with 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:52.040 two audition pieces. One was from Tchekhov's The Board, and 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.080 I had quickly they sent an audition book, and I 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.440 looked through the ones and I liked the words of 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:01.080 the check off the board. It was regal and stentorious 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:05.199 and and uh and a full of charm and dignity. 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.160 And I finished my audition and the fellow who was 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:11.880 running the auditions, who was one of the big shots 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.439 at the school. Um said, okay, um, very nice, can 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:19.240 sit down. Um, so did you get a chance to 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.400 read the play? He said, Yeah, this guy is the bore. 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:29.160 He's he's a beast, he's a dreadful, dreadful and George 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:33.360 Sanders exactly. Um so anyway, Uh, he was able to 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.520 overlook that. But it but it kind of marks um 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.240 the beginning of my cheating to get there, the foundation 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:42.680 of your career, The foundation of my career is false 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.200 and ugly. But he lets you in. He let me 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:49.079 in because I was, I think, honest with him, and 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.240 he maybe saw something in my my thing. And I 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:57.360 was a tall, straight white guy. So uh so yes, 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:01.800 I spent two years there and uh in that time, 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:07.040 UH got to play many roles again because I was 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.400 a tall, straight guy, and and they gave me a 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:12.960 lot of a lot of the really plumb roles. And 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:18.199 I started to take it seriously, but still not seriously enough. 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.360 I was a lot of a lot came too easily 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:24.079 to me. A lot came too easily to me. Did 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:27.000 you think at any time that this wasn't enough? Because 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:28.680 I know that when I would enter it, I thought, 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:30.679 people said to me, why didn't you study this? And 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.400 what did gw for political science for three years full time? 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:34.800 And people said to me, why don't you why don't 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:36.920 you study drama? And I thought, oh god, what a 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.280 waste of my parents money. A degree in theater that's useless. 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:42.199 Did you think the same thing? No, No, I I 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:46.240 didn't die honestly, was just lazy. I I just was lazy. 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:48.840 And I'm embarrassed to say that. And uh and and 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.400 I've spent the second half of my life catching up 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.280 with all of that, you know, making making right all 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:57.400 of those things. So so again I'm faking my way through. 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.680 And in that time, I I met to the woman 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.079 who was to be my wife, then, Christine Eversoul of 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.600 course has quite the Broadway career. And Christine and I 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.840 were together for for five years, still good friends, and 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.959 I'm very grateful married to a lovely love American Academy 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.720 matter at American Academy. She was upstairs playing, uh Joni 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.120 Mitchell on one of the pianos, and I'm a big 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.679 Joni Mitchell fan, and I just uh love love the 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:26.640 sound of that that was coming out of that room. 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:29.319 And then after you left American campy did you get 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:33.560 married another year? A year out both of us, both 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:38.000 of us unemployed, UM living where living on the Upper 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:42.199 east Side, two between First and New York and uh, 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:47.439 and Christine's career took off well before mine. And all 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.360 of what I told you in the lack of preparation 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.719 and the inability to take seriously enough that this is 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.679 a choice that people make, that people make big sacrifices 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.680 for this. I'd heard all of this talk and everything. 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.720 I just wanted to be a working actor, you know, uh, 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.600 whatever you know, um, And it didn't happen for me, 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:10.240 And I found out I wasn't terribly good at hustling, 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.560 wasn't terribly good at getting out there and just knocking doors. 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.720 Now to make it all hapushing. I waited a lot 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:20.200 of tables in the place. It was like your your house. 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:22.960 I was a waiter at Studio fifty four. Oh okay, 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:25.440 so we're closing down. So so I worked at a 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:29.560 few places Signed of the Dove, so was UM. I 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:32.320 worked there for I did Gara don service and all 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:34.880 of that business. And then UM I finished my waiting 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:40.120 career at Rustyes, Rusty Stabs Joint on Third Avenue. Now 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:42.240 when you talk about the when we talk about New York, 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.120 then I get to New York and nineteen seventy nine 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.200 and Studio fifty four is over. No one's going. I 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.559 was a waiter. The bus boys were the ones that 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.760 wore the were the kind of Roman slave boy outfits 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:57.160 with a little short shorts and no shirts that hustled 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:00.520 up and waist up. And I would go there and uh, 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.319 we used the place and clean all the glad, everything 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.199 was ready. And I turned to this one and all 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.000 the waiters were male models. They were all gorgeous and 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.920 not always young. Some of them were like thirty five, 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:12.959 and for me that was older. I was twenty two. 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:15.440 And I sit there and they were the loveliest guys. 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:17.040 They treated me like I was their kid brother, and 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:18.880 I said I was. Then the music is playing and 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.840 nobody's there. It's empty, and it's nine o'clock. We've been 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:23.960 there since six thirty, and we're clean and everything, and 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.040 I stocking everything, and I go, what do we do now? 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:30.120 It looks like a child. I go, what do we 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:31.640 do now? And they go what do we do now? 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:33.800 And they go all poor drinks and we do lines 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:37.400 of Coke on the barbworld, dancing on the clouds. I'll 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.240 show you what we do now. And it was the craziest, 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.240 dumbest thing. But that thing of waiting in New York. 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.640 I mean I did that for a while. Yeah, And 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:52.480 I'm I'm quick to say I liked waiting tables. It 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:56.280 was performing, it was it was fine so out whether 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.200 they were looking for a butler to come to the 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.320 table or they were looking for a charming fellow to 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.440 just knock their socks off when you when you're there, 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.720 the the you're waiting, you're there. You were involved in 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:13.520 some theater companies, wasn't It wasn't. I wasn't. Deed. Also, 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:15.200 on one hand, if you don't mind my saying so, 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:17.960 it sounds a contradictory. You're not very ambitious and you're 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.240 not very uh you know, driving yourself, but you form 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:23.760 a theater company. Well yes, So life was catching up 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.480 with me. So you could only fake it so long. 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.680 And I was learning that quickly. And I as I 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:34.080 watched Christine's career start to take off, I started seeing 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:40.040 that that, uh, some investment is really important here and 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:43.840 uh and I started studying with a fellow named Bob Smith, 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:49.960 a very famous UH Shakespeare scholar who worked Stratford for 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.720 a very long time before I had done a bit 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.840 at school and and it was language that I liked 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:59.560 and worked for me. That went on for some time, 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:03.240 well into all my children, and then I was one 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:05.400 of the heads of the company and putting all my 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:09.080 children money into these productions that we were doing, so 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:15.280 so they overlapped. She started UM nineteen seventy nine. He 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:19.360 started All my Children in nine. UM. I. I actually 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.240 I got the job at all my children from Rustys, 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.880 and I was so proud of myself. I gave them 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.040 a two week notice. I worked with plenty of people 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:29.800 who the day they got the job, they were gone 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.000 the next day. And I was so proud of myself. 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.720 I gave him a two week notice, and UH left 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.760 in some glory to this job. And then I get 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:42.720 to all my children. And the audition story again supports 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:44.880 this thing we keep talking about it. You've got to 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.560 be prepared for these things. You got you know, I 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.320 had three auditions that day. I had a commercial audition 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.400 in the morning. Everybody looked just like I did. And 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:53.960 I walked in there and it was you know, I 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.200 had I had to wear suit. It was summertime. It 0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:00.840 was um. I went from that back to the York Theater, 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.840 where I had been yesterday reading a new Tennessee Williams 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:12.000 play called View Carrey, directed by the Jose Quintaro. So 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.040 I read the play the day before. I went back 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.919 there and spent a couple of hours working on the 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.800 sides for what I was auditioning for that you had 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:22.879 to read it all backstage. And I stepped out on 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:27.440 the stage and everything that could go wrong did go wrong, 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:30.160 just right out of the gate. I was just horrible. 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:34.520 It was just just lost my place. And uh, and 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:39.920 a very sweet voice from the audience said thank you, yeah, 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.160 And I left and I went back to my apartment 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:48.760 so disconsolate. I was having growing concerns that I was 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:50.600 not going to help for this. This was not the 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.879 right idea. I'm not good enough, I'm not ready to 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:57.080 do the work. I'm not there's something wrong with me. 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.000 And I got to my apartment and Ricky, my agent, 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.760 I was with Don buck Wald and Company. I don't 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.680 know that name across your career legend, every voice over 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:11.199 it exactly right, um and uh, and Ricky Uh called 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:14.200 me as she never did to follow up on auditions 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:16.880 and said, how do you go? I said it was awful. 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.320 I was awful. I am awful. You should get rid 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:23.199 of me. This was a horrible audition. Terrible and uh 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.160 and I gotta get off the phone, Ricky. She said, 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.720 don't forget you have that. All my children audition this afternoon. 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:37.080 Ah ah. I don't even know where I agreed to 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:40.240 do this thing, and she she had kind of talked 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:42.840 me into it. Yeah, it's work, whatever you know. And 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.520 I went there and for an under five or like 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.680 a role for a role, for a role for for 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:52.760 for the role. And I went there and I didn't 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:55.960 know anything about any of it, but I didn't care. 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.680 I just didn't care if I get this, if I 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:04.119 don't at this time, because there you are. And I 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.560 went in and everything that could go right did go right. 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:11.280 I'm I'm in the lobby and every every everyone's paired off, 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.719 everyone's paired off, and cute little couples and everything, and 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.280 it's me standing there and Mark la Mural walked through 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.120 and I knew him from a co Jack episode i'd 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.280 done a while back, and and he says, who are 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:27.520 who are with? And I said, I don't, Uh, I 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:31.560 should be important, and in walks this sweet blonde girl 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:37.199 who was just oh, she was just adorable and she 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:41.360 was so open and kind and lovely and absolutely appropriate 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:43.360 for the for the scene that I was doing with her, 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:45.719 and we kind of paired off and she was scared, 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.320 and I kind of kind of hustled her through the 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.280 thing because we gotta go, We gotta I wish I 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:55.640 could remember her name. Um, so funny. What I didn't 0:19:55.840 --> 0:20:01.439 know was this was the beginning of this wave of 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:06.280 daytime craziness. When I started, there were thirteen soap operas. 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:09.760 There are four now. Um they were all doing well, 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:15.160 but ABC in particular that that love in the Afternoon thing, 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:19.960 I gotta go, yes a starting starting with loving Uh, 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:24.480 Ryan's Hope, all my children, One life to live, General Hospital. 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:28.080 This juggernaut. David O'Brien, my father said, he said, let 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:29.560 me give you a piece of advice. And when we're 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:32.080 not working, he says, always refer to the other soaps 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:34.280 and our own soap in French. We save them in 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:42.520 French because let make it seem more serious to you 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:48.000 our show in Frances and the food or the fire 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:55.320 of Love. But uh, it was. It was crazy. There 0:20:55.320 --> 0:21:00.960 were twelve thirteen million people watching us every day. Schools, 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:06.720 college campuses were just unshutdown for three hours during the day. 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:11.160 Everyone scheduled their classes around this. Elizabeth Taylor came out 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.880 of the closet. Is the you know, the great General 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:19.280 Hospital fan Uh Carol, Carol Burnett because st yes you did. 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:22.199 Carrol Burnette couldn't stop talking about all my children. She 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:24.760 too came on. I got to work with her on 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:28.359 the show. Lucci Susan Lucci, of course was was was 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:31.840 the far and away the most uh important person there. 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:35.360 So I was. I was in a one of those 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:38.640 pretty two dimensional roles that you describe all of those 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.960 love story kind of things. I was young lochinvar the 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.160 and and that was my job. But here I am 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.080 on the soap opera and and my first couple of days, 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:52.520 I walked in the makeup room and heard people talking 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:56.760 about plays they saw last night. I thought, oh, wait 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:01.440 a minute, and uh and pretty intelligent versation. And then 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:06.639 I'm introduced to Eileen Hurley. Eileen Hurley was was Gertrude 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.639 to Olivier's Hamlet on the in the film. Uh. And 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.639 then I you know, and one by one read by 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:15.960 male area. I mean, oh my god. I did the 0:22:15.960 --> 0:22:18.600 show and I would say to these people Jim Pritchett, 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:22.880 Jim Pritchett, and uh Jim Pritchett who looked like Burt 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:26.480 Reynolds's father with that mustache. David o'briener played my father. 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:29.359 I could name so many more of them who the theater, 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:35.600 especially the doctors at thirty Rock in Midtown. Half hour, 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:42.120 so much of the cast, um, oh theater centric O'Brien 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:43.560 get his big and I said, what are you gonna doing? 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:45.320 Her big said, I'm gonna go do King John at 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:49.520 the Paper Milk Player. And they would pre tape and 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:52.639 spring early in the day. The cast who had to 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:54.439 be at a broad back we had the same thing. 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:57.240 We changed the schedule again and again to get people 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.440 out for curtains. Some very serious actress in this exactly 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:03.680 exactly so New York soaps were a great thing because 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:09.920 all of these Broadway actors and everybody in the old 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:12.800 and the Old after contract, people don't realize. It's like, 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:15.560 you know, you're in New York and people just want 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:18.280 to make it. It's like what it was. What Law 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:20.440 and Order also did right, Who the hell wasn't on 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:22.040 Law and Order in a minute at some point. I mean, 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:25.639 it seems like everybody was. And so I'm around people 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:31.000 the David Canaries and the James Mitchell's and and I'm 0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:34.600 telling you what these guys did on these shows. Oh 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:40.080