On Tuesday, September 30, 2014, Emmy-winner Eileen Davidson is poised to make history when she appears as both Susan and Kristen on Days of Our Lives, and as Ashley on The Young & the Restless. In many markets, these shows air at the same time, so warm up your DVR's or go for it old school with the remote control.
And while you wait, check out what Eileen had to say in my book, Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama's Greatest Moments, about the challenge of playing multiple roles.
Read how she practiced to act against... herself, here.
*** (Previously published on 8/20/14)
In my latest for Entertainment Weekly, I tackle the topic of soap-opera long-lost twin stories, including the best from All My Children, Another World (hi, Anne Heche), As the World Turns (hey, Julianne Moore), The Bold & the Beautiful, The Young & the Restless, One Life to Live and more, plus this quote from Days of Our Lives Eileen Davidson about playing multiple roles:
Eileen Davidson began playing the role of Kristen on Days of Our Lives in 1993. A year later, she also took on the role of Susan. Susan was no relation to Kristen, but they did (coincidentally) look enough alike for Kristen to hire Susan to pretend to be Kristen and give birth to a baby that Kristen would then pass off as her own (and this was on one of Kristen’s more reasonable plans). But then, it turned out that homeless waif Susan had a twin sister named Penelope, who was a British socialite. And another one named Mary Moira, a God-fearing – and somewhat sadistic – nun. And a brother named Thomas. Davidson played them all. As she summarized in my book, Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama’s Greatest Moments, “They worked me to death. I was going to leave after the first year I played Susan. And they asked me to stay an additional year to finish off the storyline, so I did. It was a great, great, great thing for me. I would do something like this again, but I would want to know a beginning and an end date. Even when I left DAYS, I knew that the shelf-life of those characters was running out. It wasn’t something that could go on forever because it would lose its punch. I felt like I got out at the right time.”
Travel down memory lane with Vicky/Marley, Lily/Rose, Todd/Victor and other cases of Double Trouble at: http://community.ew.com/2014/08/19/soaps-most-memorable-twin-stories/
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