FIRST IMPRESSIONS
“I actually do remember it perfectly. DAYS brought me in to read for the part of Kayla with Stephen. He had on his leather jacket, his patch, his scar, his whole look there. And I don’t remember him being out of character the whole time I saw him. I hadn’t really seen the show, so I think I thought, “Oh boy. This is a twist.” {Laughs} But we really hit it off from the beginning. We have always been great friends and trusted each other.”
-Mary Beth on meeting Stephen for the first time, Soap Opera Digest, March 30, 1999
“It was when she auditioned for DAYS. Right after she said her last line she turned to me and said, “Well, that was s–t!” {Laughs} and walked away…I thought she was very spunky and energetic and very pretty. I liked her a lot. I got a nice vibe from her.”
-Stephen on Mary Beth, Soap Opera Digest, March 30 1999
“I loved Mary Beth’s honesty and outspokenness right from the start. I remember she was testing for the part {of Kayla, Days}, under this tremendous amount of pressure, and we were doing this really intense scene. After we were done, she just walked away and said, ‘That was s–t!’ Most actors are so paranoid to ever admit they did something wrong, but not Mary Beth. She’s brave, and she’s honest. She knows when she’s on and when she’s off, and isn’t afraid to admit it. I thought right then, this is my kind of actress, my kind of actor.”
-Stephen Nichols, Soap Opera Digest, August 22 1989
“‘We both knew that we had found our match when I started working there,’ smiles Mary Beth Evans on her electric pairing with Stephen Nichols.”
-Mary Beth, www.soapoperadigest.com (Supercouples article, Week of April 27, 2004)
“I fell in love with her immediately.”
-Stephen Nichols on SoapTalk, 11/07/05 (when asked his first impression of Mary Beth/discussing her honesty at the audition)
“It takes a lot of people to decide whom to cast, but actors do have some input, so when they asked me, I said ‘Mary Beth”
-Stephen Nichols, Soap Opera Digest Presents, August 1 1989
FRIENDSHIP
“She’s one of the most special people I’ve ever known, and she’s really my best friend on the set and one of my best friends in life, and she always will be. She has a way of not taking things too seriously that creates an easier environment for everyone else to work in. I am guilty of being too serious a lot of the time, especially about my work. And she’s the first one to call me on it and to make me crack up and forget about it.”
-Stephen talks about Mary Beth on a Canadian News Program “Trials and Tribulations” 1990
“Mary Beth, first of all, is the absolute most cheerful person I’ve ever known in my life and she lights up a room.”
-Stephen Nichols on SoapTalk 11/07/05
“‘Stephen and I are the oldest of friends’, Evans gushed. ‘He’s always been there for me and I for him…'”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Previews, March 14, 2005
“I consider Stephen Nichols one of my dearest friends. He’s a very loving person…”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Magazine, 1997
“I’ve always loved Mary Beth a lot. I didn’t think I could love her any more, but now that she has ‘Milo’ cooking in the oven, I love her even more. I think she’s one of the cutest pregnant women I’ve ever seen.”
-Stephen in Soap Opera Digest, 1987
“There’s a lot of love there, and I think it shows. It seems kind of corny to say, but we connect.”
-Mary Beth Evans, Soap Opera Digest, Feb.23, 1988
“Mary Beth is one of the closest friends I have.”
-Stephen, Soap Opera Stars, Jan 1989
“She’s a very special friend and I treasure our friendship. We’re really close and we really know one another.”
-Stephen, Soap Opera Stars, Jan 1989
“There is a very sweet tender side to him. He’s a guy who loves kids and loves me, and so when I was pregnant, he’d always be rubbing my tummy and asking how I was feeling. He never made fat jokes…He came to visit me at the hospital. He is very special to me in that way.”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Digest, August 22 1989
“Mary Beth is the very best friend I have at the studio. I’ve just never had this type of good, good platonic relationship with a woman before. We both have the same outlook on life. We have the same way of working and we are both deeply committed to our families.”
-Stephen, Soap Opera Digest, August 22 1989
“When she’s not at the studio, I’m miserable. Who am I going to lunch with? Who will I work out with at the gym? I’m just lost without Mary Beth.”
-Stephen in Soap Opera Digest, August 22, 1989
“The best part of being on the show was, of course, working and becoming friends with Mary Beth Evans,”
-Stephen in Soap Opera Update, October 8, 1990
“Stephen and I just did a photo shoot for Soap Opera Digest and, I swear, we were like the old married couple (laughs). We were sitting on the couch, all cozied up, he was reading something, I was doing something. It’s like we don’t even have to talk to each other. It cracked me up! We’ve known each other for such a long time and we’re so comfortable with each other. So I’m hoping that we work together again, because I always have such a great time!”
-Mary Beth Evans, www. soapoperadigest.com(Supercouples article, Week of April 27, 2004)
“I have a very special friendship with Stephen. He is not only a great actor, but also a wonderful person. I feel so lucky because we get to work together so much. Stephen and I literally spend all day together at the studio. We run our lines a million times, laugh, joke around, and always go out to lunch together. He’s a lot sweeter and a lot nicer than Patch in real life. He’s a very loving guy. He took such good care of me when I was pregnant. I’ll never forget that. He’d get up and get me things all day long and was always rubbing my tummy. Stephen went through my pregnancy right along with me. He was as excited about it as I was. He even came to visit me right after I had my son. It was the sweetest thing. Stephen had a cold that day, and he wore a doctor’s mask so Daniel wouldn’t catch any of his germs. Stephen couldn’t wait to hold Daniel. He waited for him, just as long as I did, and I could tell right away that Stephen loved my little boy very, very much.”
-Mary Beth in Soap Opera Stars, May 1988
“We love each other tremendously as friends. He was driving down PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) with the ocean and sunset, and he called me for my birthday, and I was like, ‘I love you so much.'”
-Mary Beth Evans, Soap Opera Weekly, 4/24/01
Friendship Quotes From TV SOAP – 12/26/07
“When Mary Beth is not there, and I am working by myself or with other people, I am a completely different person. I am so sad and lonely in my little dressing room. When she’s there, she comes in and throws her stuff on my chair. She never goes to her room until she has to get dressed.” -Stephen
“… We are like little buddies. When I am at work with her, I am in heaven, and when she’s not there, I miss her badly. I really do! ” -Stephen
“To me, Mary Beth is like a family member. I love her that much and I would give her anything. I see in other people, when they do compete in scenes, instead of being partners in collaboration.” -Stephen
“I don’t even think we realize how much we mean to each other. We’re good friends. He has a big heart. He makes me laugh like crazy and he doesn’t mean to.” -Mary Beth
TVS: What’s the key to your enduring friendship?
SN: We are totally honest with each other.
MBE: We are so honest with each other that it hurts, and it has hurt before.
SN: We can hurt each other.
MBE: We do come around to each other with an apology, now and then.
SN: And we are not afraid to fail with each other. We are never in competition with each other….
CHEMISTRY
“Stephen and I have chemistry even if we’re sitting around a 7-11. We’re very good friends and we connect on a visceral level. I truly believe that would be there no matter what we played.”
-Mary Beth Evans, Soap Opera Update, 1/4/00
“I think a major part of their (Steve and Kayla’s) success was the chemistry that Mary Beth and I had. When we looked into each other’s eyes, there was trust. We connected on a deep level, and that translated. When people see that connection on their television screens, they relate to it as something they have or long for.”
-Stephen Nichols, Ultimate Days Fan Guide, (SOD), Spring 2003
“..There was sort of a magic that we had that I don’t know if you get that many times in your life.”
-Mary Beth Evans, Ultimate Days Fan Guide (SOD), Spring 2003
“It brings tears to my eyes to remember how Mary Beth and I connected in our work…we are the best of friends.”
-Stephen in Soap Opera Update, Oct. 8, 1990
“The thing that people like to call chemistry (a hackneyed term in my book), for Mary Beth and me was simply concentration and trust- and yes, the trust was supported by our relationship off camera.”
-Stephen in Soap Opera Update, October 8, 1990
“We work together as a team. I think it was the two of us, not just Patch and Kayla. We look into each other’s eyes and we know what the other person is thinking and what’s going on. We’re never afraid to try anything or do anything…We have our own style of working together.”
-Mary Beth in Soap Opera News, April 8, 1997
“Even John York, who was my onscreen partner at the time, encouraged that. He even jokingly said, ‘You never looked at me like that.’ There is just a certain something that Stephen and I have. Our friendship goes very deep.”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera News, April 8, 1997
“Naturally we’ve grown as people and as actors. We totally trust each other. I haven’t found that chemistry with anyone since. We walk into a scene and we look at each other and I can just see the twinkle in his eye. We know what we mean to each other as friends- and it comes across when we work together. We create magic.”
-Mary Beth in Soap Opera Magazine, 1997
“Aside from my wife and daughters, Mary Beth has without a doubt, the most beautiful eyes. They’re not only expressive, they’re soulful. She gives you so much through them.”
-Stephen Nichols, Soap Opera Digest, April 1997
“The sexiest thing about Stephen is his eyes. Even with one eye hidden behind a patch, he has more expression than most actors.”
-Mary Beth Evans, Soap Opera Digest, November 1, 1988
“I think we just have that connection to each other. We both know how to kind of stop everything around us and just listen to each other. When I have scenes with him now, it’s hard for me not to do that.”
-Mary Beth, March 30, 1999, Soap Opera Digest (Stefan and Kat were no longer together)
There is a mutual respect, and there’s nothing I couldn’t say to Mary Beth about anything and vice versa. We can be completely and totally honest. We don’t have to play games or dance around each other’s ego or any of that crap you have to do with other people. With Mary Beth, it’s just so easy.”
-Stephen, Soap Opera Digest, March 30, 1999
From the March 27, 2001 issue of Soap Opera Update: The evening briefly reunited Nichols with former leading lady Mary Beth Evans, who had just wrapped up a stint as Sierra on ATWT. The two fan favorites performed a scene from ‘Night of the Iguana’. Attendees later commented on how the chemistry between Nichols and Evans radiates on the stage as well as the screen.
“Inevitably, Mary Beth and I connect in a way that many actors never get to. For us, having a live audience to feed off of made working together again all the more joyful.”
-Stephen on the onstage chemistry with Mary Beth at the Los Angeles Media & Education Center’s festival, where they performed a scene together.
ACTING WITH EACH OTHER
“Stephen takes his job and acting very seriously. He’s not one who memorizes his lines on the staircase. He’s worked on it, he’s thought about it – and if it’s not what he thinks his character would do, he suffers over it. He brings the standard up a couple of notches because he’s so into his work in such a positive way.”
-Mary Beth, in Soap Opera Magazine
“Sometimes if one or the other or both of us were having a hard time getting to the place we needed to be emotionally for a scene, we would whisper little secrets in each other’s ears, that we knew might put us in the place we needed to be. When all else failed, we would get lost in each other’s eyes, or “eye” as the case was with me. ”
-Stephen in Soap Opera Update, Oct 8, 1990
“We trust each other as actors. We really pay attention to what each other is doing. He’ll say, ‘Look at me’, and we’ll block out all the rest of the baloney and concentrate on the scene that we’re doing.”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Digest, August 22, 1989
“On her first day of work, she was absolutely brilliant. Patch had ransacked her apartment in Cleveland, and was hiding in the closet, watching her. She came into the room and saw the place in disarray. When she turned her back and caught a glimpse of the message on the door, she just cracked. She broke down right there on the spot. It was beautiful. A good example of how so much can be said without words is in Mary Beth’s scenes when she is deaf- our scenes in the hospital after the accident, and when we’re home on the loft roof. Check those out. Mary Beth is so beautiful there- her work so clear.”
-Stephen in Soap Opera Update, October 8, 1990
“We always work so great together because we’re very comfortable with saying, ‘If you said that line like that, that would be so great‘, or, ’Maybe if you did that…’ We don’t get offended; we’re very encouraging. If he got cast in something and there was a part for me, I’d be knocking on the door, saying, ‘Can I be with him?'”
-Mary Beth Evans, Soap Opera Weekly, 4/24/01
“Mary Beth could be laughing one minute and the cameras turn on and she’s instantly in the scene.”
-Stephen in Soap Opera Update, October 8, 1990
“If something tickled her, she would laugh until she cried and have the whole place roaring. I’ve seen her get four or five actors going at once all with tears streaming.”
-Stephen Nichols, Soap Opera Update, Oct. 8, 1990
“She is a lot funnier than I am. I’m only funny when I feel like it, but she is funny all the time. She’s hilarious. Believe me; everybody around the set really loves having her there. You know , the makeup room is a good gauge of who’s liked and who isn’t because the hair and makeup people have to be in there all day and watch everyone come in and go out with all their bulls–t. And I have got to say, hands down, that Mary Beth is the absolute favorite.”
-Stephen Nichols, Soap Opera Digest, March 30, 1999
FAVORITE SCENE
“My Favorite scene was when I was pregnant with Danny and they were trying to hide it every way possible. It was a drag because if it showed, we’d have to take it over. And then Stephen and I did that little dream of his where I was pregnant. We ad-libbed everything. We put in all these things we had talked about during my pregnancy; singing songs, things Michael (her husband) did and things Stephen had done with me being pregnant… things I said to my husband about ‘no fat jokes’. We incorporated it all. In that scene, it shows how much Stephen loves me and how he cared about me while I was pregnant. It was a sweet time for both of us.”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Update, October 8, 1990
“…the time that Kayla was nursing Patch back to health after he was beaten up on the docks. It was pretty early, maybe the first or second year. And she removed the patch to nurse his wounds. I’ll never forget the exchange between the two of us in those moments. I’m not referring to the end result, rather to the experience of being in those scenes with Mary Beth on that day.”
-Stephen Nichols, Ultimate Days Fan Guide (SOD), Spring 2003
FAME AS STEVE AND KAYLA
“Even being in the middle of it at the time, I don’t think we were aware of how popular we were. It’s only in retrospect that we see that Patch and Kayla were the biggest thing on daytime at that time….”
-Stephen Nichols, Soap Opera Digest, March 30, 1999
“It was a lot of work and a lot of lines and you just got wrapped up in your everyday existence. There certainly was a huge response, but we never discussed it. Isn’t that funny? We even went to Australia together and there was a huge following there. But I have to say, we never said to each other. ‘Wow, that was amazing.’ It was never really discussed. It almost seemed like we were just the people who came to receive {the attention} for someone else; we were sort of the liaisons.”
-Mary Beth Evans, March 30, 1999
“The only cover I really liked a lot was the first one we ever did [10/7/86]. Mary Beth looked gorgeous, which she is.”
-Stephen on his favorite Soap Opera Digest Cover that he posed for Nov. 27, 1990
THE END OF STEVE AND KAYLA’S FIRST RUN
“The Patch and Kayla story has been beautiful. They showed you that you don’t have to be beautiful to be loved or to love yourself, and you can find beauty in yourself. That’s what happened in Patch. I’m sorry to see it end. It has made all of our lives grow.”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Update, Oct. 8, 1990
“The show is part of my life, but it’s a smaller part than the rest of my life. It is my living, and I love being an actress, but my children and my family and my friends are 95% of my life. Stephen falls into that 95%. I’d rather have that 95% of friendship than that 5% of work…”
-Mary Beth, on Stephen leaving Days Soap Opera Update, Oct. 8, 1990
“I had such an incredible connection to him as an actor. I thought I’d never have that again and it was very sad.”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera News, April 8, 1997
STEFAN AND KATHERINE
“We want to give it our all, not because we’re trying to live up to something that once was, but because we enjoy working together.”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Digest, March 1997
“Reunited and it feels so good…”
-Mary Beth in Soap Opera Weekly, Dec. 17, 1996
“That magic; you’d have to be stupid to ignore that. We’re two actors who work well together. We have an instant connection.”
-Stephen Nichols, Soap Opera Weekly, 1996
“She was one of the main reasons why I came on the show.”
-Stephen Nichols, Soap Opera Digest, March 30, 1999
“I remember the first time our characters spoke-when Katherine was in the hospital after Stefan shot her -Stephen and I were both so excited. We were like, ‘This is so much fun!’ So that part was great. I just adore him.”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Digest, March 30, 1999
“A lot of fans really liked Stefan and Katherine. I would have probably given it more time. The idea of pairing us again was wonderful, but it has to be handled very carefully. I think Mary Beth and I could’ve clicked, and made it work again, but it was done too hastily. So yeah, I’m a little bit sad that it didn’t work out for us. Anyway, I’m glad Mary Beth is moving on, because she wasn’t getting anywhere in that role. There was never a clear [vision] of who [Katherine] was. Of late, she was being used as a [story] vehicle and not as a solid character in her own right.”
-Stephen Nichols, Soap Opera Weekly, November 9, 1999
ON THE RETURN OF STEVE AND KAYLA 2006
“The story almost doesn’t matter,” muses Evans “Stephen and I both know what we can bring to it. We have the same work ethic. We’re connected emotionally. We understand each other. That’s what works for us.”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Weekly, 6/13/06
“…Like I died and crossed over and all my old friends were there waiting to greet me with open arms. And then the ritual of getting back into the groove of working was like a celebration.”
-Stephen (on what it was like returning to the Days set), Soap Opera Digest, 6/13/06
“Both characters have a strength, an incredible vulnerability and a real connection. That’s what we tried to bring to it then and what we’ll be trying to bring to it now.”
-Mary Beth, CBS Soaps In Depth, 6/27/06
“Stephen and I both talked about this before we came back. We just want to be honest; we want to have real moments. And if we leave each day thinking we got a few in, then we feel good.”
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Digest, 8/29/06
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