Chatter Box
June 1, 2004
Soap Opera Weekly

OLTL’s Catherine Hickland (Lindsay) answers your questions

What aspect of Lindsay’s personality would you like to see the writers explore more? If you had an episode devoted to Lindsay, what would the storyline be? –Kathy Fuller, via e-mail

I miss doing extreme comedy and extreme drama. I love her clever side, the up-to-something side. I liked it when she was funny and mean at the same time. If I had an episode dedicated to Lindsay, I would like it to be that she literally gets hit in the head, and for one full episode, she can read people’s minds – every single thing someone thinks. That would be hilarious.

Which character do you wish Lindsay would have more interaction with? – Joshua, via e-mail

On a pure acting level, I would love to work with Michael Easton (John). But I don’t know how that would work. Dorian and Lindsay was a fun and interesting friendship. I would love to work with Robin Strasser again.

Is Tad (Michael E. Knight) as silly at home as he is on All My Children? – Susan, via e-mail

That’s the No. 1 question I get asked about him. Actually, he’s pretty serious in real life. He’s a deep person. He’s funny, no question about it, but he doesn’t walk around being silly (laughs). He doesn’t do the Tad faces at home.

What does Michael think of you kissing a younger man – as we call him, Sexy Rexy? – Missy, via e-mail

Shhhh. We’re not telling him about this. He hasn’t seen it. He doesn’t want to know.

What are your cats’ names and what do they look like? – Vivienne Thorne, via e-mail

Peanut is brown. He’s an Abyssinian. Murphy is my chocolate point Siamese. Spots is my ocicat. Binky is a gray mutt cat that I found in the street when he was 2-inches long. And Mavis – who is 20 years old and shows no signs of giving up the ghost – eats more than all eight animals combined.

I loved you on Loving and The City, and you are my favorite on One Life to Live. How did it feel to turn a one-episode character into a long-term character? Out of all the Nora/Lindsay scenes what has been your favorite moment with Hillary B. Smith? – David Roberts, Chicago

This is the show that I wanted to be on for a long, long time. I had watched it for many years. So the one day was exciting but I tried not to put too much hope into it. I wanted to do my very best. It turned into three days, then three years, and now six years. I’m blessed and honored to still be there.

Nora and Lindsay moment…ahh, there are so many. Was it the changing the paternity test results? Was it injecting her with memory-erasing drug? Or perhaps the food fights or the trash compactor? I did like the moment where her son (Matthew) got the croup and we had to sit in the steamy bathroom and make peace with each other to get him to stop coughing. That was cool.

Do you plan to appear on Broadway again? And what was your inspiration for wanting to become an actress? – Karen Yates, Bartlett, Tenn.

I don’t think I would do Broadway and a soap opera at the same time again. I did Les Mis when I was on Loving. It’s very hard. It beats you up. Inspiration for wanting to become an actor is usually always from a highly dysfunctional, “Look at me! Look at me!” place, that you didn’t get enough attention as a child. I’d say that’s pretty true of every actor out there, whether they’d admit that or not. That’s the fun answer, but the true answer is that I was a born entertainer. I grew up loving Ann-Margaret and Doris Day. When I was a child, they were full-blown adults, but those were the ones that could do it all. I wanted to sing, to act, to make people laugh.

What is the best present that Michael has ever given you? – M. Livingston, via e-mail

Cash. What could be more thoughtful? You can say she threw her head back, and laughed wildly. Actually, that is the truth. After Sept. 11, he gave me an emergency kit. It had a lot of cash in it, with a letter about having to be prepared. Not that that sounds so sentimental but when someone is showing concern for your well-being, it’s sentimental for me. We don’t do a lot of gift-giving to each other because I don’t need anything and neither does he. I would rather him give money to people in need, like an animal shelter or homeless shelter. I’m very fortunate that I don’t need anything.”