| Interview with Linda Dano | |
Click Here for More Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly Articles
|
|
SOAP OPERA WEEKLY hadn't interviewed Linda Dano since 1999, six months after she joined One Life to Live. So when WEEKLY's Kate Walsh had lunch with the busy actress, there was a lot of catching up to do on everything from Dano's family to her feelings about hopping from one ABC town to another. For the full interview, check out the Nov. 19 issue of WEEKLY.
WEEKLY: Your mother used to be a your constant companion at industry events. I understand she's not doing so well.
DANO:
[This summer] she broke her hip and her pelvis. It's been a rough few months. She's rallied back again. She's unbelievable. She's 91, she'll be 92 in January. I don't believe that she'll ever walk again with just a cane, and that's not because she couldn't, that's because the dementia. She doesn't quite understand or remember what happened, so we're afraid for her to be standing and trying to walk because she'll fall again. So she uses a walker and then a wheelchair. It's OK, she doesn't mind it at all. She's very happy to go out for hours on end in a wheelchair for walks. She's amazing.
Just The Facts Other Acting Jobs: Played "Joy" in episode: "Angels on the Air" of CHARLIE'S ANGELS in 1977.
Martial Status:
Likes to do in her spare time:
|
WEEKLY: I heard you're moving. Are you selling your house in Connecticut?
DANO:
No, I have my home in Connecticut. I live in a townhouse on the East Side, and it's large. I did that because my mother and father were going to live with us. My father never did, but my mother has for 11 years. So what we've done is [get one apartment for me and Frank and] we bought my mother an apartment in the next building. Frank's working on that now, fixing it all up. Then, I'll be one building away from my mom, and she has caregivers, so I'll see her everyday. It'll be like now, but it's all one floor, no stairs. The townhouse was a problem when my mother really started to get dementia, and then when she broke her hip... it's been an impossible thing, because the elevators are those little old elevators, you have to hold the gate, the doors are very heavy, so this will be so much easier for her. Now she can use the whole apartment, which is very nice. They're very excited about it.
WEEKLY:
So is that where you'll live most of the time?
DANO:
No, when I'm in New York, I'll be at this little apartment. Just Frank and me there. It's nice. We haven't been alone in a long time.
WEEKLY: We haven't interviewed you since six months after you joined ABC. Now three years later, how has it been? Is it how you thought it would be?
DANO:
It's been great. I've worked with some wonderful actors, people that I've admired for years, and now finally I can say I got to work with. I hope it will happen again. Of all of the stars at ABC, I was asked to go out and open the Bistro Restaurant in Disneyland. I've been offered lovely things to do, so there really isn't a downside other than a few story things, and I'd like to work a little more, or have something really juicy to play. But that's true of every actor.
WEEKLY:
It would be nice to build up Rae's story in Llanview.
DANO:
Well, that was always the idea that Llanview would be home base and then when she has to go off to be with family or friends, you always know she's going back there. So, whether they do it again, I don't know.
WEEKLY: Do you prefer staying in Llanview and now being in a core family, rather than floating from soap to soap?
DANO:
I did love floating. I loved it. I loved going to General Hospital. Then, no one is saying it's over. Part of our problem is we're so far ahead at One Life, that it's hard to make it work.
|
WEEKLY: Did Rae know about Skye's wedding?
DANO:
Yes she does, in fact, at the wedding, someone asks her about her mother and she says, "Well, she's going through a lot right now." That aired, which means that I either called her, or I had already said to her, "I'm going through a lot. I can't talk about it right now."
WEEKLY:
Do you think Rae is a villain?
DANO:
She made a mistake and lied to everybody. She tried to help people. I mean it's not like she's out-and-out rotten. And I think at some point she did get to a place where she just got tired of everybody beating up on her. She just got mad, and decided to take everything into her own hands. Is she happy about that? I don't know.
WEEKLY:
Hosting the Super Soap Weekends must be fun.
DANO:
I love Super Soap. It's so much fun. First of all, I get to see all my old friends from all the different shows, which always is fun. And actors come to play, so when we do the talk show with them, they want to hang upside down from the chandelier. They want to put the lamp over their head. And we just have a really good time. I make the room comfortable enough that everybody can feel at home, and relaxed, so that the audience can really get a sense of who their favorites are, who they really are.
WEEKLY:
Have you ever been surprised by something you've learned from an actor?
DANO:
Oh God, many times. I learned that Susan Lucci [Erica, All My Children] used to hide behind her curtains, and then jump out, and play actress, and she was very shy, and her mother literally locked her out of the house because she wouldn't go outside and play with anybody. It was so darling of a story when she told it out in California, and it was something about Susan, who I've known forever, I did not know. So that's what you find out. You find out really intimate, personal...and if an actor feels comfortable, they will talk. They will share stuff. So, it's really fun, and it's fun for me, and I think fun for them. And all the actors that I know come to this are grateful, and love to see their fans.
•
Linda Dano's Biography
•
Linda Dano's Professional Credits List
Click Here for More Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly Articles
© Copyrights by
Katherine Thurston, Soap Opera Weekly and About, 2002. All Rights Reserved.
Photos used with permission from ABC MediaNet
