OLTL: TV Guide Canada interview with Susan Haskell

[dragonflies]

Four corners of Hell

By Nelson Branco

‘One Life to Live’ Emmy winner Susan Haskell looks back on Marty Thornhart’s most horrific year yet

And the Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress is awarded to… Susan Haskell?

That’s what critics and awards show fans are predicting when the 2009 Daytime Emmy Awards finally air on Aug. 30 on The CW.

As one of the most naturally gifted actresses to ever grace the One Life To Live stage, the 40-year-old star appears destined to pick up her second Daytime Emmy for her latest mind-blowing performance as daytime-TV’s ultimate survivor and most tortured anti-heroine, Marty Saybrooke-Thornhart.

As most diehard soap fans know, in 1994, the then-relative newcomer easily destroyed her formidable competition in the supporting actress Emmy race by taking home her first golden lady on her first try.

Impressively, Haskell outshined respected veterans Sharon Wyatt (ex-Tiffany, GH), GL’s Maureen Garrett (ex-Holly) and Hilary Edson (ex-Eve), and Signy Coleman (ex-Hope, Y&R) for Emmy supremacy. And she deserved it. Three years later, Haskell left the series for what appeared to be an eternity. However, Haskell would grace our presence once more during a brief soap cameo as one of Marty’s in-laws, Granya Thornhart. Thorsten Kaye, Haskell’s long-time love and former One Life co-star, was headlining General Hospital spinoff, Port Charles as Ian Thornhart, the twin brother of Marty’s true love, Patrick.

After two brief visits in 2004 and 2005 — and an unsuccessful 2007 recast in the form of former Sunset Beach hair model Christina Chambers — the Tufts University child studies graduate finally signed a long-term contract with One Life this past July.

To say Haskell returned with a bang would be an understatement.

Ironically, the mother of two (McKenna, 6, and Marlowe, 2, with Kaye) was asked to play out the one storyline she had infamously refused to act out in the past: a suicidal love story between Marty and her rapist, Todd Manning.

Immediately, fans and critics — including this one — were up in arms over the “rapemance” that almost destroyed One Life.

Dubbed by many as one of the most controversial and obscene stories in daytime history, our favourite presumed-dead psychiatrist was kidnapped by her rapist Todd Manning after she accidentally fell into his lap, thanks to a few contrived plot twists.

As Todd nursed an amnesiac Marty back to health, the monster neglected to tell Marty he had raped her and claimed he was her best friend.

Later, Todd romanced his victim in secret without telling Marty’s son, Cole, family and friends she was alive. In a shocking episode, Marty “made love” to her rapist before learning the shocking truth. After the reveal, all hell broke loose.

Largely due to the simply unbelievable visceral performances delivered by unrivaled acting gods, Haskell and Trevor St. John (Todd), critics and fans briefly forgot how offensive the storyline was by embracing the orgasmic pay-off. According to One Life, the destination is the journey — and not the other way around.

However, now that the sensational climax has played out, both Marty and Todd are left seemingly paralyzed. The question now remains: are viewers interested in seeing Marty forgive Todd, and/or Todd redeem himself once again? To paraphrase Madonna’s hit single, “Sorry… I’ve [seen] it all before…”

TVGuide.ca sat down with the Canadian Emmy winner recently to discuss what it was like to play Marty’s second rape, whether or not she’d like Kaye to reprise the role of Marty’s true love, poet Patrick Thornhart, and when she’ll visit Toronto next.

TVGuide.ca: So what kick-ass episode did you submit for Emmy consideration?

Susan Haskell: [cringes] I’m not saying!

TVG: Seriously? NATAS is sending me the Emmy reels any day now, so I’ll find out either way!

SH: [Laughs] I don’t care! It’s so hard and nerve-wracking to pick out reels, so I don’t want to jinx anything. Sorry!

TVG: [Jokes] Damn you! [Laughs] OK, then — did anyone help you pick out your reel submission? Let’s face it: considering the myriad of Emmy performances you delivered, choosing one episode must have been one unenviable task. Especially post-rapemance, because you killed it every single time.

SH: Thank you. Hillary B. Smith [Nora] helped, as did one of our producers.

TVG: Are you nervous about graduating from the supporting category to the lead race?

SH: I don’t think so. I am older now. Supporting actors usually tend to be younger than lead actors. I like to think it all comes to down to the work.

TVG: Where do you keep your Emmy?

SH: We have a children’s playroom and we keep it in there…

TVG: [feigning shock] … you keep those life-threatening Emmy wings in the children’s playroom?! Are you mad?

SH: [Laughs] Yes! Don’t worry, the Emmy Award is situated very high up on a shelf. It’s right up near our rocking horse and a bunch of family pictures.

TVG: Let’s hope a Pine Valley tornado isn’t headed your way… OK, so what was it like acting out the controversial rapemance? Was it as challenging as it looked?

SH: Yes, as an actor it was. It was challenging because Susan knew that Todd raped her, but not Marty. As an actress and as a woman, I had to work hard at ensuring Susan and Marty were separate entities during those scenes. Of course, that’s what I always do when I act, but this storyline required a lot more discipline in that regard. There could be no mistakes. [Pauses] I don’t know… It’s nice to be able to work with other people now. I love that Marty regained her memories of her son, Cole.

TVG: Thank God. “Party Marty” was beginning to irritate me until she recovered some of her memories.

SH: Yeah, I agree. In the beginning, it was fun playing Party Marty [again], but there’s only so far you can take that with Marty who is now [an adult, a woman, and mother]. Marty remembering Cole has made things a lot more interesting.

TVG: In your mind, would the storyline have played out any differently had Roger Howarth [ex-Todd, Paul, ATWT] been playing the role?

SH: Oh, of course! Having Roger as Todd would have changed the whole dynamic.

TVG: Do you miss Roger?

SH: Yes. Roger was great to work with and we had great chemistry.

TVG: As do you and Trevor St. John [Todd], for that matter.

SH: [smiles] We are good together, aren’t we? We were shocked at how many fans Todd and Marty had [during the romance]. To be honest, I was a little worried about fans supporting a Todd and Marty “romance.” In the beginning, I spent a lot of time conveying my reservations and concerns to our executive producer Frank Valentini and head writer Ron Carlivati. I said, “please, don’t destroy this character.” I understood they wanted to do something different and interesting with Marty, but I was worried. However, both Ron and Frank were very good at listening to me whenever there was any dialogue that needed to be changed or history that needed to be addressed.

TVG: Did you develop any bedsores after laying in bed for months during Marty’s endless recovery?

SH: [Laughs] It was great! Are you kidding? With my kids running around our home, I never get a chance to sit down, so I was very happy to come into work those days!

TVG: [Former head writer] Michael Malone told me he was a tad surprised One Life decided to go where no other head writer had dared go before by pairing Todd and Marty romantically.

SH: [Nods] As you know, Marty forgave Todd for gang-raping her the last time I was on the show. Now, we’re back to square one.

TVG: As an actor, why did you decide not to play any subconscious reaction to Todd touching Marty or their kissing scenes? With all due respect, I never understood your acting choice in that matter. Victims of horrific violence maintain their body memory despite amnesia…

SH: Right; right… I’ll explain it this way: Marty had so many things going on at the time. She was still recovering from life-threatening wounds from the van explosion, and her memory loss. So, due to her head injury, her senses were off — big time. As far as my acting choice, I felt Marty was very unaware of things going on both physically and mentally because she was still reeling from the van explosion. Sorry, I’m not sure if I answered your question…

TVG: No, that makes sense. Good to know. Let’s lighten it up here for a moment: do you ever visit your home turf, Toronto?

SH: My family visits me in New York because I have little girls. It’s easier for them to visit us than us taking the entire brood on a plane. But I’m taking the girls to Toronto to visit this summer.

TVG: Nice! Finally, would you welcome Thorsten back to One Life as Patrick or Ian? Or a new character?

SH: Of course! He’d be awesome on One Life. We’re not one of those real-life couples who avoid working with each other. We met on the set. It’d be fun. I would love to work with Thorsten again because our on-screen chemistry would [still resonate, I think]. Hey, if [Thorsten's AMC character] Zach Slater ever wanted to visit Llanview, I’d say, “come on down!” For some reason, ABC doesn’t want Zach to cross over to One Life — I don’t know why.

TVG: Todd Manning would be dead meat — that’s why!

http://tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca/Soaps/Feat...usan_haskell_NB

[brimike]

That was actually a pretty good interview. Branco asked some bold questions, particularly about her acting choices.

That guy knows how to bring it when he wants to. I wish he did it more.