Soap Opera Digest
August 19, 2003
Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her
Sailing Into Year Six Of Playing ONE LIFE TO LIVE’s “Loonsey,” La Hickland Proves A Cat Can Live All Nine Lives – At Once
1. Catherine Hickland is giddy. Tossing aside her ever-busy cell phone and turning on her megawatt smile, she greets guests with hugs and a high-schooler’s breathless enthusiasm. Minutes ago, she was being beamed into millions of homes as a guest on LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY, but while the show has ended, she’s still very much on. “I was so excited standing behind the [show] partition, waiting to come out, that I nearly fainted,” she admits. “That’s the truth, I was so excited. Can’t you tell by looking at me?”
And even if we couldn’t (we can), other restaurant patrons do, casting her sidelong glances. In her off-shoulder black top and cheeky, black leather pants, Hickland simply radiates “someone special” vibes. And yes, you can tell that by looking at her.
“I treat every single thing that happens in my life as a big deal because it keeps me excited about everything,” she says. “Lindsay, for example, she’s a great adventure. When they told me she was going to be killing Sam, I sat down because I felt sick. I certainly knew it was the end of Sam, but I didn’t know if it was the end of me or my character. I thought I was going to be losing my job. And I love what I do.”
Even if loving what she does – in this case, Lindsay Rappaport – has taken time to find a firm footing. Since May, 1998, Hickland has been playing a character who has driven everyone, including herself, to distraction. She has switched DNA tests, lied, created fake Web sites to sting her daughter’s beau, switched pregnancy tests so her daughter would think she was knocked up, lied, left a man chained to a fun-house wheel –and did we mention lied about it?
“Until I came to ABC [as Tess on LOVING], I was always the heroine,” she laughs. “Tess was not only not the heroine, she was a bad girl – and when she morphed onto the new show, THE CITY, she became a sick character. Then, I cam to ONE LIFE, and this character is the most unlikely thing I’ve ever played. And it’s the most fun. Whenever you play someone who is that crazy, first of all, you have nothing to draw from because as far as I know, I’ve never been that crazy. I mean, I’m crazy, but I’m not insane.”
2. Catherine Hickland is organized. You would be, too, if you had to juggle a full-time soap opera gig, a bustling cosmetics company (Cat Cosmetics), the forth-coming release of a how-to cosmetics video, and … oh, right, a personal life that includes your husband (Michael E. Knight, Tad, ALL MY CHILDREN) and several pets. “Linda [Dano, Rae] and I used to tease each other to see who could have the most work, that our third jobs were as friers at Friendly’s,” grins Hickland.
Which means she schedules everything, from when she eats to when she has free time to when she designs and mixes cosmetics colors. “It keeps me organized and sane,” she explains. “I literally was losing my mind. What’s scary is that I’ve even learned to compartmentalize my emotions, I compartmentalize everything.”
Next up: Time for a personal reinvention: Both Lindsay and her portrayer are about to undergo a makeover of sorts. “I do it every five years,” she says. Last time, “I had a breast reduction and cut off all my hair.” To that end, thus far she has dropped quite a bit of weight and is planning to hit the gym regularly, despite “absolutely, positively loathing it.” (And despite her sidebar comments, page 40.) Says Hickland, “I decided that if I learned how to sing in my 30’s, and if I was able to start a company from nothing, and all of the other achievements I’ve had that I’ve created out of sheer will, if I can’t get my weight off me and get my body in shape, then what is wrong with this picture? If I can do all these other things. I can pretty much do anything I set my mind to. My livelihood depends on it.”
True enough: In this business, when teens are eternally “it” and being of a certain age can be a liability, there is not time to let yourself go. Hickland prays that the rumors of soaps becoming less-friendly to the over-40 crowd aren’t true, but won’t take that chance. “Forty today is what 20 used to be,” she says. “Into their 60’s, women can look amazing if they want to. What they know in their minds is certainly better than what they had in their heads at 20. So, all I can say is that I hope [the over-40 bias] is not true. I don’t know who that would serve. In the book according to Catherine Hickland, that would be a sin.”
3. Catherine Hickland is in love. And steadily so, for at least the last 11 years, which is how long she and third husband Knight have been hitched. Knight does not require special scheduling, but he was inked into Hickland’s workday for OLTL’s Fan February episode earlier this year – and the two finally shared a scene. (They had performed in a stage production of Run For Your Wife in 1992, but were separated on-stage for the whole play.) “I always thought it would be weird to act with your husband,” she admits. “But there he is, standing in front of you, in your scene, and you’re like, ‘Wow, wow – you are really good.’ I thought he was so adorable.”
That said, a decade-plus into being married, Hickland harbors no illusions. “I’m not saying, ‘Look at my relationship, it’s so successful.’ I don’t live some fairytale life. Believe me, there are times I want to fire him out the window in flames [laughs], but I cannot imagine my life without Michael. So, there you have it.”
One thing she has realized – at least for herself – is that actors who mate with other actors are doing themselves a favor. “They can be there for you in a way a civilian can’t because they don’t understand that we’re all just children, we really are. Rich people and successful celebrities don’t have to be emotionally mature.”
Catherine Hickland is happy. She can be a breathy youngster when she wants, but deep inside, Hickland is grounded, practical – and optimistic. Twenty-odd years in show biz will, with a little luck, do that to a person. “I had a really big setback yesterday,” she reveals, avoiding specifics, “and I was in the middle of something else, so I took my sadness, shoved it to the side and marked it ‘deal with it later.’ Five hours later, I cried a river of tears over it, realized I’m where I’m supposed to be when I’m supposed to be there and that the thing wasn’t meant to be. God gives me every single thing I need. Now, I’m moving on.”
And as for that reinvention she’s working on? No specifics on that yet, either. “People will just have to wait and see,” she teases, flashing that smile again. “Life is like a soap opera, you know. You have to have a ‘Stay Tuned.’
JUST THE FACTS
Birthday: February 11
Makeup: Go to www.catcosmetics.com
Restaurant Choice For Digest Interviews: Sarabeth’s, Upper East Side, N.Y.C
Soap Resume: Tess, LOVING/THE CITY (1993-97); Brooke, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL (1987); Julie/Jenny, CAPITOL (1983-1987); Courtney, TEXAS (1980-81)
Body Beautiful
When Catherine Hickland came across a June, 1984 Digest interview about her health regimen, she immediately wanted to give us the updated version. “They’re all different!” she cried. And so she did!
Then: 1984
Role: Julie Clegg McCandless, CAPITOL
Exercise Program: “I try to work out several times a week, I prefer to work out by myself rather than with another person. Like most women, my problem areas are my thighs and stomach. I aerobicize and like to work on a slant board. I do not job. In fact, I think jogging is bad for a woman’s body – particularly her breasts.”
Diet: “I was very heavy until my early 20’s, and I can tell you that the hardest thing to wean yourself away from is sugar. It’s like a drug. But it has to be done. Starch and red meat are two other items I avoid. I love fish; lots of shrimp, lobster and vegetables.”
Extracurricular Activities: “Living my life to the fullest!”
Weakness: “A giant bowl of Cheerios with a ton of sugar plastered on every ‘o.’”
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Now: 2003
Role: Lindsay Rappaport, OLTL
Exercise Program: “Are you kidding me? I have eight animals at home – not including my husband – that I run around taking care of. One of the dogs has a glandular problem and weighs a ton, and picking her up and putting her down every time she wants to get up and off the bed helps my arms a bit. My cardio workout is mainly cruising the aisles of Target, and that doubles as my therapy, as well.”
Diet: “Okay, that I can tell you. I food combine. My body wants to be a 12, my career wants me to be a 6. I live on a diet. I’ve been on ‘em all, but Somersizing works for me because I am an eater, and you can eat like you’re going to the electric chair on this one. I swore off cigarettes last September, as well as sugar, which is like crack to an addict for me, and I am as proud of that as any of my achievements.”
Extracurricular Activities: “Still living my life to the fullest. I am doing a [stage] show this year, so I am in rehearsals for that now. I had to put that part of my life on hold for the past three years while I got the company [Cat Cosmetics] up and running. I forgot the pure joy I get from singing. Taking this on has made me realize how important it is not to forget the entertainer in me. I’m a happy Cat.”
Weakness: “Don’t have many of those anymore, which is a gorgeous by-product of getting older. Though I do have to say that I still get a little weak-kneed when I look into Michael E. Knight’s eyes.”
