Sara Bibel's Deep Soap Blog has a recap of a short interview that Michael Fairman did with Kim at the GL Universal trip. The blog also has an interview with Jeff Branson and some other info from the GL trip. Here's the KZ stuff and you can click the link below to read the whole blog.

Deep Soap Blog

Kim Zimmer Speaks Her Mind

Kim Zimmer, the incomparable Reva Shayne, may just be the best interview in daytime. She isn’t afraid to go on the record with what she really thinks about anything and everything. She did a group interview with all the bloggers after her autograph session. Robert Newman briefly joined her.

Michael Fairman: What was it like to meet all those fans?

Zimmer: What I always love is to hear the generations of viewers. I think the [most] was five. I’ve met as many as six generations. They were all there standing in front of me. It made me cry. I love q&a sessions. We used to do it all the time at our fan club gathering. I think that’s where you really get the feel of what the fans like.

Newman: It’s great to see them one on one in the autograph sessions. If you get too caught up in the whole internet thing, especially if you’re married to the wrong person on the show, they’re just harsh. You think, “My gosh. They’re just so angry at me.” Then you get here and people love to see you. All day long I heard, “I’ve been watching you for 30 years. I’ve been watching since I was twelve.”

Zimmer: Someone came up to me with a magazine cover of our wedding. I looked at it closely and asked, “Is that a mustache on Josh? Did you draw a mustache on him when he married Cassie?” And she said, “I did.” I said, “He already has a mustache.” She said, “I wanted it to be black.”

When you saw that long line snaking through the park did you feel the love?

Zimmer: When you see the line you go, “Yeah. There are still people watching.”

Fairman: You’ve got big stuff coming up in the next week.

Zimmer: It lasts for about a week. Then it’s over and I’m back on the backburner. They wheel me out for a little spark, then they wheel me back behind the curtain. It’s totally bizarre. I understand the financing thing behind it but I want the Tony Geary contract. If you can’t afford to work me four days a week, then don’t work me for three months and give me a story where you can work me, an arc story, then have me disappear again. Tony works seven months out of the year then goes to Amsterdam. When he comes back they have a story for him and the fans are ready to see him again. You could tell today in the Q&A that nobody had questions for me. Even though I’ve got this whole baby storyline going on they really don’t care about that. It’s frustrating and odd and heartbreaking all at the same time.

I asked Robert yesterday. Now I’m asking you. Is there any truth to the rumor that you are opposed to a Josh and Reva reunion?

Zimmer. No. I think where that probably got started was they wanted to put us back together again right after he was with Cassie. I was like, “He’s got to beg. He’s got to crawl on his hands and knees. Are you kidding me?” It wasn’t that I said never. I lied. I covered up my cancer. It was all bad. So we needed the separation. I would love if God forbid the show ever goes off the air or whatever then we reconnect. I have to tell you that I really like us as friends. I think it would be great fun if — does anyone watch Private Practice — Taye Diggs and Audra McDonald. It’s fun to watch them be jealous of each other’s flirtations. I think that would be fun for Josh and Reva. Then eventually something dramatic happens that throws them back together again. That’s soap opera. I want to tell old fashioned soap opera stories.

Do you think there has been a shift towards that style of writing over the past few months?

Zimmer: I notice it when I watch the show. I like what I see. (laughing) I wish I were a part of it!… Everyone was like, “You’ve got a lot of sun.” I said, “Yeah. I’m the healthiest leukemia patient ever. I don’t care. Nobody else seems to!

Do you ever visit the messageboards?

Zimmer: Yes. I get so worked up. My husband says, “Get off there, now!” You can tell when a storyline’s starting to tank because they get vicious. And then they think we can fix it immediately. They think the actors write the show. But I can’t learn anything from positive comments. I learn from the negative, as hard as it is to read it. I’m like, “I guess I really do have to lose 40 pounds. They’re noticing I put on some weight. I didn’t think they noticed.”

I think Ruth Warrick said it best when she asserted that you should never play as yourself on screen, that is not acting. I feel like that is where Kim Zimmer is now, and that is why the character proves to be very irritating to me.

I agree, I like that Reva is a full sized, beautiful, active character on a soap opera... but that is not to say her characterization is spot on. She is not like the Reva of old, at all. When Reva was over the top in the 80's, it was in a subtle less-than-Dorothy-Lyman sort of way.

Now it seems like Kim is phoning the scenes in. She doesn't deliver, she screams. It comes off as shrill, and not authentic. The new production model and all its flaws seems to accentuating Zimmer's lacks in the acting department. She is one of the few actors who I think became significantly worst in the new model. It is very outside her element. I wonder if she watches herself to see how outside of her element she is.

Yep.

Zimmer: Yes. I get so worked up. My husband says, “Get off there, now!” You can tell when a storyline’s starting to tank because they get vicious. And then they think we can fix it immediately. They think the actors write the show. But I can’t learn anything from positive comments. I learn from the negative, as hard as it is to read it. I’m like, “I guess I really do have to lose 40 pounds. They’re noticing I put on some weight. I didn’t think they noticed.”

OMG...

I wish Ellen Wheeler and her goons were reading the boards. They would learn soooooooo much.

It depends on what they read. If they read comments which say GL should have been canceled years ago, it wouldn't do them much good. Or if they read comments saying bring this person/that person/those people back or this viewer or that viewer will never watch the show again, that probably don't do anything to change their minds, since they'd end up being asked to bring about 15 or 20 people back. Certainly they should follow some of the comments, the ones they can work with. I hope they at least take all the negative comments about Mallet and Marina to heart.

I'm surprised Kim reads them because I'd think she's already heard them a million times anyway (comments about her appearance, claims that she hates her female co-stars, claims that she comes up with all her own stories and her relationships).