SoapCity
Network - November 15th, 2002
Guiding
Light: Exclusive One-on-One with Joan Collins
Get it here first! In this revealing interview, the
fabulous Hollywood icon talks about age, glamour, cue cards, her new
Springfield co-stars -- and the real reason for her surprise move to
daytime.
She's a movie star, a prime time goddess, a
best-selling author and, now, Joan Collins is Guiding Light's newest
Alexandra Spaulding. To find out what brought her to daytime (and about
Alex's heretofore secret connection to Alexis Carrington), read on...
SoapCityAlina: Television has changed quite a
bit since your Dynasty days. That kind of glamour seems to be out. Joan
Collins: They don't make things that women between the ages of 25
and 65 want to see. The networks have got this idea that people only
want to see gritty real-life drama, lots of violence, or things with
kids. Frankly, the word glamour is an anathema to them. You say to them,
"We want to show glamour and glitz," and they'll put their
fingers down their throats. I think that daytime, from what I've been
watching, all seems to be about traumas and troubles and problems and
relationships and marital strife. But I suppose that's the closest thing
that there is (to '80s-style glamour).
SCA: Is that what attracted you to daytime
television?
JC: I wasn't necessarily attracted to daytime, per se. What I did
want to do was come to New York. I wanted to be with my husband, who's
doing a show here, and so I said to my agent, "Get me something
that I can do for six months." And he said, "Would you do
daytime?" And I said, "Sure, I can do daytime, I'm an actress.
We act." And so when he came up with this idea and told me about
the character, I said, "Yes, why not give it a shot for a few
months?" I watched a few of the episodes with Marj Dusay (ex-Alex).
I was told the character was based on Alexis Carrington in 1983, and
that's why she's called Alexandra. I saw the way she was described and
the way she dresses and I realized that she was really an Alexis clone.
The character is an immensely strong, confident, powerful, arrogant,
assertive woman who is determined to get what she wants. At the moment,
my scenes have to do with meddling. I'm meddling here, I'm meddling
there, I'm meddling with this one, I'm meddling with that one. The other
actors have had to give me background information. "You've been
married to him. And you've been married to him. And you are the
grandmother of this one..." I'm still trying to figure it all out.
SCA: How have you managed to both learn about
the character and also learn the incredible amount of lines that daytime
actors have to memorize every day?
JC: I have to be perfectly honest with you -- it's difficult
enough just to learn the lines. To think about the interpretation, you
just have to have it in your head and just get up there and do it. I
just asked Grant Aleksander (Phillip), "Do you have a lot to do
today?" And he said, "No, only about four or five scenes.
Twenty-five to 35 pages is about our average." If I had been told
beforehand that I would have to do 25 to 30 pages of dialogue a day, I
think I would have said, no, I couldn't do it. I was under the
impression that there were cue cards and idiot boards. There is nothing
like that, here. You have to learn it. So, to be able to get any kind of
interpretation out is a miracle! Most actors, I have to say, could not
do this. They could not.
SCA: It's true. Many film and prime time
actors haven't been able to make the transition. Samantha Eggar is
famous for working one day on Santa Barbara, and running away in a
panic. So, what's your secret? How come Samantha Eggar couldn't do it,
but Joan Collins could?
JC: I can do it because I'm a professional, darling! No, I can do
it because it's a challenge. Because I want to be here in New York,
because I love the actors I'm working with. I love Ron (Raines; Alan),
Grant, Crystal (Chappell; Olivia), and Beth Ehlers (Harley). And I don't
give up that easily.
SCA: How long is it taking you to learn all
your lines?
JC: I'm studying my (next) scene now! I find that I'm not able to
really learn it. I learn the essence of the scene, but not the actual
scene. I'm not able to learn it until we do blocking, which we do
between the outlandish hours of 7 to 8 in the morning. And then you sort
of lull around until we do the camera blocking, and then I won't work
until after lunch. But when we have big scenes, the actors will either
come in here or I'll go to Grant's room or Ron's room and we'll work on
those scenes together. I was told it wasn't going to be a piece of cake
and it isn't, but it's fun.
SCA: Are you having so much fun that you might
consider extending once your six-month contract with GL runs out?
JC: I can't extend because I've got another commitment to do --
another book. So, I have to write that book. But if they wanted me to
come back and be a continuing character, I wouldn't rule that out.
SCA: Speaking of books, your current one is
called Star Quality. It's a family saga -- kind of like a soap,
actually. What gave you the idea to do a story about four generations of
actresses?
JC: My Aunt Pauline, who's my father's sister, died about five or
six years ago and I went with my brother and a couple of other people to
her house. We found drawers and drawers and drawers full of the most
amazing photographs and theater programs and telegrams from 1915 and
1920. It was because my grandmother was a dancer and her sisters were
dancers. My brother was trying to throw all of these away and I said,
"No, I'll keep them." And I threw them in a bag, and didn't
think anything about them. And then about three years ago, I went
through them and saw all of these amazing photographs of people who were
from the same family, like my grandmother, then my aunts, and then of
course there was me. So I thought that it would be interesting to do a
saga about show business throughout the last century, and at the same
time, show our readers how things have changed probably more in the 20th
century than at any time of our entire recorded history.
SCA: Joan Collins is practically a brand name
for glitz, glamour, and a certain kind of story. When you sit down to
write a book, are you conscious of readers' expectations and do you
write to that?
JC: The most difficult thing about writing a novel is to get the
plot and to write the concept. I don't think about writing what people
equate my name with. I write what I enjoy writing. I do a column for The
Spectator which is very different. I don't know what the brand is, I'm
just me. That is, if there is a brand. I certainly don't have any
clothes or perfume or anything like that so I haven't been branded --
unfortunately. Everybody I know seems to have some kind of a label
thing, and I don't. I'd like to be, though.
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