Best Storyline Or Scene? “I loved
[Andre as] the clown. He dressed up
... He had to become a nurse and then
he had to become the hooker from
Brazil, as I call her, and then a nun. All
that took me back to my MISSION:
IMPOSSIBLE days. I love the idea
of disguises. You go in and you run
your lines, but when you put on your
costume, something changes: your
walk, your attitude, your speech. I
really loved how I upset Sami in the
hospital [as the clown]. It was a real
challenge to play that role. I remem-
ber I came in with balloons and she
didn’t know who I was. I was making
like I was deaf or dumb, and then I
threw myself onto a stool that had
wheels on it and it took me right up
to her bed. She went, ‘Who are you?’
And I said, ‘The kind that ends with
a bang.’ I went down to the lowest
register I could go to. Then I jumped
on the bed because I knew she was
really upset. I put my arm around her
and started applauding with my feet in
those big shoes.”
Favorite On-Screen Foe?“Certainly
Joe Mascolo, because with Tony there
were a lot of fights and mistrusts. He
was probably the greatest challenge,
because that voice of his, that roar that
he had when he lost it.... He lost it one
day and everybody just stood there
frozen during rehearsal. I just looked
at him and I said, ‘I’m not chang-
ing anything. You don’t scare me.’
And he apologized. He was always
pretty solid. You know who else was
good? James Read [ex-Clyde]. He
comes from good schooling. He’s a
fine actor. I’d never met him before.
I did scenes with him on the pier as
Andre. As I looked at him, I thought,
‘How do I get beyond this person?
Well, you come in knowing more than
he does, and I’m sure he’s going to
Favorite Death Scene? “Oh, what a
question! Does anybody have a favorite
death scene? I can’t say any are my
favorites. All I can say is each one of them
was different. I remember the day after
Tony had fallen from the stairs on the pier. I
was lying there in a coma [in the hospital].
The EJ character had a page monologue
telling me what he was going to miss about
his brother. He was going on and on and
on. In my head, I looked at the ceiling and
thought, ‘My, God. How many times are
they going to [kill me]?’ And I started to
cry. The tears were running down my face
while my eyes were closed. When [James
Scott] finished his monologue, he said,
‘Even when you’re playing supposedly
dead you steal the scene.’ It threw him.
But I couldn’t give up the fact of just being
in a coma. They gave me some nice close-
ups, so it was like winning. Those tears
were about me not wanting to leave, to be
honest. I wasn’t ready.”PAUL SKIPPER/JPIplay it that way, too.’ I didn’t know what was
going to happen until we started doing it, then
we started having fun with it. By the time we
finished, who was going to beat the other? I’ll
never forget it. He walked away and turned
around and looked at me and said, ‘Man, that
was just great.’ And he came over and gave me
a big hug. That’s what makes him so profes-
sional and so good. He knows how to come
full circle.”SOAP OPERA DIGEST
Unhappy Ending:
Penghlis got emotional
during these scenes
with James Scott
(ex-EJ).