In 1977, when I was 9 years old, I was flipping through the channels one weekday afternoon and came across a scene on Days Of Our Lives where two teenagers were about to have sex for the first time. The house could have caught fire and I would have had to get away from the television. I was hooked and thus began my relationship of more than twenty years with the program. It is ironic that thirty years later, he wrote a book about sex for the first time.
In high school, I would see him when he was sick at home and on vacation. I also put a lot of my friends on the show. When we got a VCR, I was able to record it and I watched it again every day.
As with most soap operas, many of the characters remained the same for decades. As a viewer, you feel that these characters are part of your family. It doesn’t matter that some of the plot lines are completely wacky or implausible. It doesn’t matter that continuity is often just a theory. Bo, Marlena, John and Maggie were my family. I cared about them and couldn’t wait to see what would happen next.
When he was 20 years old, he worked in a department store that sold perfumes near the NBC studios in Burbank, where the show was recorded. Many of the actors from The Days would enter. There were also several fragrance models that I worked with who were also actors and worked on Days. My mother worked as an extra on the show several times before landing her role as Eliana, servant to the evil Stefano DiMera.
When I was 21, I decided to pursue an acting career. I studied the Meisner Technique with Wayne Dvorak in Los Angeles. It was important for me to understand what I was doing before standing in front of a casting director. If she was horrible, she would surely only be remembered as the six foot blonde who didn’t know what the hell she was doing. So for two and a half years, I focused on honing my craft. When I graduated, my coach decided to create The Professional Level. The actors had to be voted on and we would continue to study and meet with casting directors and agents.
My mother, Ann Werner, also studied at Dvorak & Company. He graduated about a year before me. We were both in the pro class when we heard that Wayne knew Fran Bascom, the casting director for Days. We both chased after him to take her to the studio. We finally wore it down and Fran came into the studio with her assistant Ron Sperber. They hired almost everyone. I knew the whole backstory of my audition scene and felt like I had an advantage. I realized they were impressed and they hired me. I was so excited. Not only had I booked my first national TV show, it was DAYS! And to make it even better, two of my other classmates, Maria Kress and Kevin Molloy appeared on the scene with me. I played Marsha, a bitch model. Maria was also a model and we were doing a photoshoot with Sami, Will, Carrie and Austin. It had several lines but the one I remember (and my favorite line of all time) was in reference to Will, the son of Sami. I said, “Life is hard enough without being born illegitimate.”
It was in December 1995 when I first walked on set, I immediately felt comfortable. Although everyone was a stranger to me, I felt like I knew these people. Everyone was nice and I got to see the sets. I was very surprised by how small everything looks in person, including the stars. Keep in mind that I’m six feet tall, so I’m generally the tallest person in any given situation, but in the acting world, female height is rare, especially in soap operas.
When my episode aired, I was happy with my performance. A few months later, they called me. This time, I didn’t have the safety net of my classmates and I got very nervous. It showed up on camera and to make matters worse, I looked straight into the camera while they were filming. They broadcast it. They are on such a strict schedule that things like that slip by. I’m sure if I was one of the stars, they would have re-recorded it. They humiliated me.
Time passed and lo and behold, they called me back to play a reporter. Once again, I worked with Sami and Carrie. My acting partner Maria and I did the scene together. Once again I made a great sentence and pointed to Sami and yelled at the newspaper photographer “Take a picture of her crying!”
About a year and a half after I first worked on the show, I was called back to play a police officer and that was my character until my last day in late 2002. I worked more often and had a chance to feel really. as if it were a real part of the show, even if the role I played was small. I was part of the Salem Police Department. Jokes were made about the Salem Police Department’s lack of intelligence, primarily from the actors playing the cops. We called ourselves The Keystone Cops and we laughed a lot. In one episode, we were looking for the most important murder weapon. One of the lines from the officer to the chief of police after being instructed to keep searching until the wee hours of the morning was something like “But it’s dark.” Oh how I loved being a part of that show!
One of the other most memorable experiences I had was one day when we were filming a Gala. I was an undercover cop and was able to wear a gown. The day was long and exhausting. We were all on set early and recording until midnight. Deidre Hall aka Marlena (Diva of the Days) was on the scene and after rehearsal we took a short break. He pushed me aside and gave me directions on how to stand for the most flattering light. She made an effort to help me even though she and I didn’t really know each other. I got really excited. Everyone’s mood was weakening and people started to get nervous. She, like the rest of us, wanted to go home and this was not the time to be careless, she scolded the mischievous ones, she was grateful that someone took control. We were all very tired. I will never forget the kindness you showed me.
For the most part, I had a great time on the show. Of course, there were some people who weren’t so nice and I won’t mention names. As with any line of work, some people are nice, some are not. There was only one person on the show who was quite obnoxious and said things about me behind my back. Someone from the makeup team alerted me. I was not surprised by this because I heard this person speak ill of another actor on the show. But that’s the thing about human beings. It had no negative effect on my experience. Now I can tell that a soap opera star talked shit about me!
The last little story I’ll include is about my police uniform and my hair and makeup. The uniforms were designed for men and they never fit me, especially on the hips. Men tend to have slimmer hips than women and with the sheath he wore, the pain was often severe. Add to that the pants were always too short and the day I complained and asked for longer ones, they told me they wouldn’t shoot my whole body. Well guess what? That was one of the episodes where my high water pants were dazzled. On top of all that, my hair and makeup were insane! My hair was often put in a French twist and it felt like I was wearing makeup. She certainly didn’t look like an average police officer to me. Although I almost cheated on Ken Shocknek, an NBC news anchor. We were both having lunch at the NBC station and he was sitting next to me. He kept looking and finally asked me if I was a real cop to which I replied, “I’m not a cop, but I play one on television.”
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