68F
rom her years playing Y&R’s Phyllis
(and her recently concluded run as
GH’s Nina), Michelle Stafford has
been through her share of on-screen break-
ups. When one of her pairings reached an
end, “I used to get very uneasy,” she recalls.
“Only because you’ve been working with
someone day in and day out for years. To
compare it to another type of job, say you
were working on a project together with
one other person for four years and all of
a sudden, ‘Oh, you’re not going to work
with that person anymore.’ It can be a little
jolting, especially if you like them. I think
that it is only human to react in some way. It
throws you off, especially if you don’t have
anybody else that you’re gonna go to!”For Stafford, that feeling intensified
when her on-screen “ex” moved on with
another love interest. “I have experienced
that,” she admits. “They’re laughing with
their new person just like they laughed
with me. And you’re like, ‘Hey, wait a
second. I thought that was our joke!’
But now they’re using that same joke on
a new person. It’s like real life. I used to
think feeling that way was kind of crazy
and now I really don’t only because [as]
an actress, when you’re pretending to
fall in love, you’re creating it, too. This
is why actors fall in love when they work
together! You really have to check your-
self and be like, ‘This is pretend,’ because
you are feeling a lot of the same feelings.Stars Sound Off On What It’s Like Backstage
When Their Characters Break Up.
One And Only: When
Y&R’s Nick and Sharon
called it quits, “I couldn’t
imagine working with
anyone else as a love
interest,” admits Sharon
Case (Sharon) of her
longtime leading man,
Joshua Morrow (Nick),
pictured in 2017.SE
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/JPI