Soap Talk
Hosts: Lisa Rinna and Ty Treadway
August 14, 2002
Ty: From the good girl Kayla on Days of our Lives, to the gold digging Katherine on GH, our next guest is always a fan favorite. Now viewers of ATWT get to see her as Sierra Montgomery.
(Clip of ATWT)
Ty: Please welcome, Mary Beth Evans. (Mary Beth walks in, looks beautiful. Her hair is up; she is wearing sandals, a white shirt with a beige skirt and beige jacket)
MBE: It’s funny. I saw Kin back there. Kin and I… I was on my very first talk show ever with him. He took me on Merv Griffin when I was in my very early 20’s. In fact, I made the dress that I wore just in case we ran out of things to talk about. I could talk about making the dress. It all worked out ok.
Ty: You and Kin were love interests on “Rituals”.
MBE: That’s right. I had this classic character. I had a brain tumor, I was a virgin, a surrogate mother, roller-skating, ice cream cone…you know, whatever they could add on there.
LR: Oh, how funny.
MBE: It was very funny.
Ty: You played some, a bunch of different characters. You went from Days to GH, and now you’re on As The World Turns playing the leader…Sierra Montgomery
MBE: Ya, that’s’ a great way to live…in California and have a show in NY. (MBE points to Ty who also has to travel from LA to NY for work).
Ty: …the leader of- ya, you have your own South American country. That’s a nice gig!
MBE: It’s great conversation when I’m out with my friends…”You run your own country? Really?”
LR: Now how did that come about? Normally if you’re doing on a soap, you do it where you live, and you live here and you’re doing it in New York…
MBE: You know, they called me up and just asked me if I wanted to do it, and I was going to be in New York anyway. And I didn’t think, one, that it would go on, and two, what it really meant to stay there for extended periods. But, I was going to be in New York for Thanksgiving that year, and I said sure, I’ll send my husband home and the kids home, and I’ll stay. This’ll be great. I’ll be in a hotel and shop! And it was great fun. So now it’s been…I don’t know how many times I’ve gone back, eight or nine or ten, or something like that.
LR: Do you take the kids or leave them home?
MBE: I did take them last summer because I was there for three weeks and…(picture of Mary Beth’s family comes on screen), it was a BUMMER!
(Ty and Lisa laugh)
MBE: I have a teenager who I…on Madison Avenue…I was doing one of those under-his-shirt locks, like this: (Mary Beth demonstrates how she had to have a talk with her teenager- Danny- with her arm up because he is so tall). He’s big. He’s like 6”1 now, if you guys can believe that, for all those of you who have followed along.
Ty: How old is he now?
MBE: He’ll be 15 in October. It’s funny…because I don’t know if guys remember when Patch and Kayla (talks to audience) first got together on Days, I was very pregnant…when we had love scenes (Mary Beth demonstrates what she and SN had to do for the taping the love scenes) …so that pregnancy is this kid who is turning 15.
Ty: You have three children right?
MBE: Yes, three, but he’s really the (puts her arm up).
Ty: He’s the tough one?
LR: He’s a lifeguard, and yet you have a baby sitter for him, at home.
MBE: When I was away this time, the other kids were away at camp, he has this lifeguard job and he’s saving kids, teaching them to swim, but before he went to the job, in the morning, I would have a babysitter come and stay at the house with him because I didn’t trust him. I don’t even want to say all the things that teenager boys do… (lighters and sounds…and you know).
LR: And you met your husband when you were nineteen?
MBE: (nods) yes nineteen…and we’re still together, amazing.
LR: That’s something…
(Picture of Mary Beth with her husband Michael).
Ty: You were a self-proclaimed beach girl at the time, and he was from Chicago. How did that work out?
MBE: I think we both dreamed of people like each other when we were kids. He grew up in New Jersey and he’d hear all those Beach Boy songs…and I lived out here, and I didn’t want a surfer boyfriend. So I met him and it was love at first sight and I dropped everything and moved to Chicago where he lived, and that was a very long time ago.
LR: Was it in the winter time?
MBE: Ya, it was January, and it was 80 below windshield factor.
LR: It’s so cold there…
Ty: Being a surfer girl in January in Chicago!
MBE: It was tough, and he lived in this kind of junky apartment…like in the back of a brownstone, so it looked into a brick wall. So I’d sit with a blanket and open the oven and just sit in front of the oven.
LR: Oh, those were the days.
Ty: So now, nineteen years you guys have been together, and every year you do a Christmas card, is that right?
MBE: With my kids.
LR: You do that when you have kids (jokes to Ty)…and it’s a big deal, it’s a huge deal. (looks back at Mary Beth)
MBE: Trying to get everybody looking right and with three kids, it’s really hard. My husband actually used to take the picture and then one year that crazy older son was just being a nuisance, and all over the place. He wouldn’t smile. My husband was finally like, “That’s it! You’re out of the picture!” and he was like, “You can’t kick me out the Christmas picture Dad, this is our family picture.” So after that, I got a photographer, and now we go somewhere, a beach, go somewhere and shoot these pictures.
MBE: It really is, it’s hard to get a lot of people looking good.
LR: Absolutely. Nobody wants to do it. I love it when I get them cause I know what goes into it. I cherish them.
MBE: Yours are so cute, your kids.
LR: Thanks. We met at a Mexican restaurant in Pasadena recently. And my kids were throwing every piece of food on the floor. probably hitting you all.
MBE: No, no they were very cute. Very, very cute.
Ty: Her son was probably lighting them on fire. Don’t go away. We have a little surprise for Mary Beth.
Ty: We’re back with Mary Beth Evans from As The World Turns.
LR: Now, Stephen Nichols; you were a supercouple, you two. Kayla and Patch were a supercouple on DAYS.
MBE: I don’t know about you when you were off of DAYS, but for us and for me in particular, I get recognized all the time for that and I think… I know, I know I look different, and I always get recognized, no matter how many other things I do, that’s the show I get recognized for.
(Picture of Steve and Kayla comes up)
LR: Me too, we’ve talked about that before. No matter what I played, Taylor, anybody else, they all want Billie.
MBE: Isn’t that crazy?
LR: It’s crazy. It really is…
MBE: In that show in particular, they put you with someone and you work with them forever and ever, and the supercouple thing kind of happens. And if you’re lucky like Stephen and I, we had incredible chemistry and that has kind of carried over, but I don’t think other shows do that.
LR: I don’t either. There’s something about DAYS that really nurtures that whole supercouple thing.
Ty: Now, do you and Stephen still stay in touch?
MBE: We’re great friends, really great. He’s always been an incredible friend when I was having kids or whatever. He was always right there even when I was in the hospital. He used to pick my kids up and take then to Griffith Park to go on the trains and do all this other stuff. And now since we aren’t working together, we call all the time… ‘what are you doing? Blah, blah, blah. And he was just in a great play. I don’t know if anyone saw it here. It was at the Geffen Playhouse, but he was so funny. So yeah, we see each other all the time.
(Picture of Stephen and Mary Beth at the Emmys comes up).
Ty: Well, actually we have him right backstage. Let’s bring him out.
LR: Stephen Nichols!
Stephen walks in, looking great- wearing jeans, a black t-shirt and black blazer. He waves, and Stephen and Mary Beth give each other a warm, long hug, and a kiss.
(Stephen greets Lisa and Ty)
Ty: Rumor has it you were just in a great play at the Geffen Playhouse?
SN: I was. Did you see it?
Ty: No, no. We just heard about it.
SN: Oh yes, you came (to MBE) with the whole family, with the kids and everything.
MBE: I came, my kids, they loved it.
LR: You are so good with one another.
MBE: We are great friends.
LR: That’s nice.
Ty: Do you guys remember the first day you met?
MBE: I remember the first day I met you. (To Stephen)
SN: Ya, the audition.
Ty: Tell us about it.
MBE: I went to the producers’ office for the audition and he came in with his leather jacket and the scar and the patch, the whole thing, and I had never seen the show.
SN: Well, I was working that day!
(Picture of Steve and Kayla comes up)
MBE: I had never seen the show and I thought, ‘Oh boy‘. And here’s me….
LR: So you were already on the show? (To Stephen)
SN: Yes.
LR: So you were already playing Patch, and you came in to screen test, which is always terrifying anyway. So you got along, you actually liked each other while you were working together, which doesn’t always happen.
SN: Oh, yes.
MBE: I think we had a great work ethic together. I mean, we always ran our lines a million times. We were always working on our stuff. We never, you know, just phoned it in as they say.
Ty: You think that’s the secret to great chemistry?
MBE: That and being great friends. I mean, we always trusted each other and we could easily say to each other, “You know if you said it like that it would be better,” and not be offended.
SN: Yes, we weren’t offended by it.
Ty: Open lines of communication.
MBE: Yes.
SN: And those lips…
MBE: (laughs)
Ty: Doesn’t hurt.
SN: Doesn’t hurt at all, no.
Ty: So, actually you were on DAYS for a while as Patch and Kayla, then you went to GH where you played Katherine and Stefan.
MBE: Right.
SN: Yes.
MBE: And they put us together for a little while. It just depended on which writer was there, you know, if they wanted to put us together or they didn’t.
Ty: Yeah. It’s tough to recreate magic when you have a character, two characters, in a moment of time. It’s tough to recreate that magic in the future.
MBE: I think you’re right.
SN: I think it is a mistake to try.
Ty: I agree.
MBE: I agree.
SN: I think if you put the two actors together, that’s one thing, but to try to recreate the same thing that you had…
Ty: With different characters.
SN: It’s dumb.
LR: Now, have they approached you to come back to DAYS as Payla and Catch?
SN: Payla and Catch, yes a matter of fact those are our new names.
(Everyone’s laughing)
MBE: They have approached us for those characters, haven’t they?
Ty: The cartoon version of Days of Our Lives.
LR: Oh God, help me.
MBE: You know we have never really been off shows at the same time, so….
LR: So you could now, so if they came to you, do you think maybe?
MBE: We could.
LR: It’s kind of fun there now. You’d have a good time. I’m there! Come on over maybe I’m starting something here.
MBE: Put in a good word for us.
LR: I will. That would be fun!
MBE: That would be fun. When did you start or leave?
LR: I left seven years ago and I was on for three years.
MBE: What year did you start?
LR: ‘92 to ‘95. You guys were long gone, both of you. So I’d like to work with both of you.
MBE: That would be so fun.
Ty: I think we have a Days of Our Lives reunion. The reunion tour, let’s get the band back together again, man. Guys, thank you very much for joining us.
SN: Thanks!
Mary Beth and Stephen hold hands.
End of the show- as the music plays, Ty, Lisa, Stephen and Mary Beth are all still in chairs- Mary Beth and Stephen holding hands, talk to each other and then to Ty and Lisa.
__________
This is the recap as it appears on the SoapTalk Site:
“Mary Beth Evans has been on Day of our Lives, General Hospital, and now she plays Sierra on As the World Turns. After seeing Kin backstage, Mary Beth is reminded that she did her first talk show, The Merv Griffin Show, with Kin many years ago. Also, Mary Beth played Kin’s love interest on the short lived soap Rituals. ATWT approached Mary Beth about playing Sierra. Even though she lives in California and ATWT tapes in NY, it seems to be working out. Mary Beth met her husband when she was nineteen. When they met, it was love at first sight and she dropped everything and moved to Chicago to be near him.
Mary Beth still gets recognized for her role as Kayla on DAYS. She was one half of their supercouple of Patch (Stephen Nichols) and Kayla. Mary Beth and Stephen are still great friends. As a matter of fact, Mary Beth got a surprise visit from Stephen on the show. The first time Mary Beth met Stephen was at her audition. Stephen happened to have been working that day, so he was in his Patch outfit complete with leather jacket, scar, and eye patch. That look made Mary Beth a little nervous. They were paired again when they both joined the cast of GH. Lisa encourages them to return to DAYS. Hey…you never know!”
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