DAYS: SOW Interview with Martha Madison.

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DAYS OF OUR LIVES Interviews

Martha Madison: Baby Love

By Janet Di Lauro

No one is a bigger fan of Ava and Olivia White, the twin girls who play DAYS OF OUR LIVES' Claire, than their TV mother, Martha Madison (Belle). The actress couldn't stop raving about the adorable toddlers during her latest interview with Weekly. Read on to find out how Madison handles daytime motherhood and how she's bonded with the tykes behind the scenes.

Soap Opera Weekly: Were you at all hesitant about having to work with a baby on a regular basis after Belle had Claire?

Martha Madison: I was warned about working with kids when I started, but I have never, ever had a problem with Ava or Olivia. Those kids are born for this, and they are both just amazing. They are a pleasure to work with and the cutest things. You can only hope to even have one that cute, much less two. Their parents are very lucky.

Weekly: Did you have to work at forming a motherly bond with the girls or did it just happen naturally?

Madison: I have four nieces, so I've certainly been around kids a lot. I did have to be taught a lot about how a mother would react to her child in different situations. As I've been told many times, imagine the person who you love most and then multiply it by a million. I have to think about that when I'm doing these really intense scenes about the baby. It's certainly gotten my mind wrapped around that kind of feeling. I hope I get to have that someday, but not now.

Weekly: Are you close to the twins behind the scenes? Do you spend time with them?

Madison: I do. I play with them a lot when we're not taping. It's good for all of us involved in storyline with the girls to be as familiar with them as possible. They're a lot of fun. Who wouldn't want to hang out with them?

Weekly: Is there anything specific you like to do with the girls?

Madison: Right now, they're singing that song, "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round." If you sing that with them, they actually can do the "round, round, round" and "the mommies on the bus go, 'shush, shush, shush'" parts with their hands. It's adorable. We play airplane sometimes, too. I fly them around in my arms. They love that.

Weekly: Are the girls switched back and forth a lot during taping?

Madison: They are. As you get to know them, you [find out their preferences]. Ava is really good with me. Olivia is sometimes good with me, but always good with the boys. She loves the boys. She's my kind of girl. Ava seems more like a mommy's girl. She's more familiar with women.

Weekly: How do you feel about the twins two-timing you, now that they're also appearing on the prime-time series, WHAT ABOUT BRIAN?

Madison: Those twins are going to be the next Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. I just know it. They've done more work than a lot of people on our show. I Tivoed WHAT ABOUT BRIAN, but I haven't seen it yet. I have talked to their mom a lot about it, though; the fact that they're learning sign language, because their character is deaf on that show. The kids are so smart. They know different signs for different words, words that they can't even say yet. That's fascinating. It just goes to show you that they understand what you're saying. They just can't say it.

Weekly: Does the twins' mother ever give you any pointers about the girls?

Madison: Not really pointers. She is the coolest lady. She's really young and hip and fun. She has two other kids, too. I ask her all the time, "How in the world do you have four kids and do this? How do you have two of your kids on two shows? How do you sleep?" Yet she does it. I admire her. It's a hard job being a mother of four, much less being a mother of two up-and-coming actresses. When she's not at DAYS, she's at WHAT ABOUT BRIAN with the girls. And the days there are twice as long than the ones at DAYS. It's a tough job, but somehow she and the girls handle it.