What's all that potion commotion about? If you have to ask, you're obviously not a fan of Sunset Beach, one of the hippest (and most hilarious!) shows on TV. Those of you who do hit the Beach on a regular basis will recognize actress Joyce Guy as masterful Mrs. Moreau, a kind of free-lance beverage artist from South Central L.A. (Think of her as the Martha Stewart of knock-out nectars.) At a moment's notice, she can whip up a mind-blowing potion guaranteed to make you fall off the wagon (like Olivia) or at least stumble into sin (like Sean).
We caught up with the delightful, high-spirited actress by phone... for a memorable chat.
Digest Online: Hello, Joyce, this is Jason Bonderoff from Soapdigest.com.
Joyce Guy: Oh hi, Jason.
Digest Online: That's a relief. I was afraid you were going to call me "the voice of trouble," which is how you usually greet Amy or Annie when they phone to pester you.
Joyce Guy (laughs): Omigod, you've been watching the show!
Digest Online: Faithfully, as a matter of fact... your storyline is hysterical.
Joyce Guy: I love doing Mrs. Moreau; it's a blast.
Digest Online: In that scene where you answered the phone and barked, "Is this the voice of trouble?" they had you sitting in this big rattan chair, enthroned like a queen...
Joyce Guy: And reading Essence magazine!
Digest Online: You know that would make a great trivia question for our synopsis section: what is Mrs. Moreau's favorite reading matter?... By the way, does Mrs. Moreau have a first name?
Joyce Guy: If she does, I don't know it, but she has a bird named Beelzebub.
Digest Online: And a next-door neighbor named Jada...
Joyce Guy: Who brings me messages like "The landlord says, 'Pay the rent.' " J. Karen Thomas [who's been on Ally McBeal and NYPD Blue] plays her. She just cracks me up; she's too damn funny.
Digest Online: Okay, let's start with the basics. Where are you from originally?
Joyce Guy: My father was in the Air Force, so we traveled a lot. I was born in Montgomery, Alabama, but I didn't grow up there. We lived all over the place -- Japan, Taiwan, Florida, Kansas and then Delaware. We were basically moving every three years. I loved it.
Digest Online: How did you get into acting?
Joyce Guy: I took dance classes when I was about 13 or 14, but I was really shy. It took me forever just to open my mouth and say something. So I really didn't start acting till I was in high school. When I went to college and declared a major, I said "drama," which surprised everyone. They said, "Acting? -- you?" But once I decided I was going to be a drama major, then it was full speed ahead.
Digest Online: What college did you attend?
Joyce Guy: Hampton College. It was still called Hampton Institute of Virginia back then. It's an historic black college.
Digest Online: Do you remember your first professional acting job?
Joyce Guy: Yes. I got my union card when I was living in Washington D.C. I did an industrial film for the FBI. It was a training film on how to prevent child abduction. That was my first professional acting credit.
Digest Online: Tell us about your Fox TV sitcom Monty with Henry Winkler. That show had a brief run, but a pretty impressive cast. I think Kate Burton and David Schwimmer were also regulars.
Joyce Guy: That's right. We did 13 episodes, but they only showed six. My character, Rita Simon, wasn't anything like Mrs. Moreau.
Digest Online: Well, nobody could be like Mrs Moreau! :) What was the premise of the show?
Joyce Guy: Henry Winkler's character was a Rush Limbaugh type talk show host, politically speaking, and I was his producer. My character was this independent, Afro-centric woman. She always wore an African head wrap. She and Henry Winkler's character were always butting heads because their viewpoints were totally opposite. Of course, if you thought about it, why was she his producer anyway? Nevertheless, it was a very interesting premise [if you could make that leap]. I was so sad when the show went off the air. First of all, it was a great group of people to work with. Also, I think in a sense the show was a little bit ahead of its time. It was originally supposed to air on NBC, [but NBC passed on it] because the premise at that time was [a little controversial for mainstream TV]. In the script, Henry's character has a daughter and she brings home this friend who's gay...
Digest Online: By today's standards, that hardly seems eyebrow-raising. Look at Ellen, Will and Grace or some of the episodes on Ally McBeal.
Joyce Guy: I know, but back then this whole question of sexuality [was more of an issue] and NBC didn't want to put Monty on the air, which is why the show went to Fox.
Digest Online: What was it like working with Henry Winkler on a daily basis?
Joyce Guy: The nice thing about Henry is that he always kept the set relaxed, so there wasn't a lot of tension. It was just fun coming to work. Henry had a way of just keeping things nice and easygoing.
Digest Online: Around the same time as Monty, you did The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. What was that experience like?
Joyce Guy: It was fun -- I played his son's school principal and I had one day of shooting in Canada. You can imagine what it was like being in a room with Tim Allen for a whole day. It was crazy! He's a very nice person, but it was hard just keeping him focused, saying, "Okay, Tim, no more fart jokes, no more fooling around. Come on, focus now, we've got to get through this scene, please." Because we were laughing the whole time, that man is just so crazy!
Digest Online: What did you think of Mrs. Moreau when you first heard about the part?
Joyce Guy: My first thought was thank you, thank you! I was so tired of playing nurses all the time -- on Chicago Hope, Mad About You, Roseanne. In the movie Mr. Jones -- the one where Richard Gere's character lost his memory -- I was the head nurse in the psychiatric ward. And my God, there have been so many TV shows that I've worn that nurse's uniform on. So I liked the idea that Mrs. Moreau was different, a character I could really have fun with and create something of my own.
Digest Online: Wasn't Mrs. Moreau originally supposed to have a Jamaican accent?
Joyce Guy: Yes, when my agent called about the audition, he said, the storyline is about "voodoo, and they want a Jamaican accent." I said, "No, no, no," because I've studied the different cultures -- African, Brazilian, Haitian -- and I knew she couldn't be Jamaican. When I went to meet the casting director, I told her that. I pointed out that, because of her [French-sounding] name, Mrs. Moreau, she was more likely to be Haitian.
Digest Online: Is voodoo the correct term for what Mrs. Moreau practices?
Joyce Guy: The religion should really be called vodoun; that's the real name for it. Hollywood has made it voodoo, but it's a religion. People have this view that vodoun is the practice of black magic and all that, but it's a religious [belief system] as opposed to let's stick pins in somebody and make their life crazy. The root of it is African, but when it came across the water, other elements got mixed in, including Catholicism. So it's really a religious practice.
Digest Online: It sounds like you're trying to handle the subject matter as responsibly as possible ... within the limits of soap opera.
Joyce Guy: Of course, it's TV, but I really it take it seriously. In a sense, I try to take whatever the writers [create] and make it serious, instead of just playing it for fun. A couple of times, I've said let's do it this way [instead of that way] because Mrs. Moreau wouldn't do that; they just wouldn't do that in her religion. You don't want to make fun of that, because you don't know what you could be messing with or what you could be invoking for real. There's that fine line. You want to respect the practice of what this religion is all about. I applaud the writers, because they've done some good research. It doesn't seem like it's let's-just-make-up-stuff. They've done their homework, even [incorporating] some of the terminology from the religion, from the practice of vodoun [into the scripts].
Digest Online: And Mrs. Moreau can sometimes be a moralist. She's always warning her customers of the risks involved in selling their souls to the devil.
Joyce Guy: Yes, I'm always saying that there are consequences to everything. There's usually some old school or karmic wisdom in my warnings.
Digest Online: Nevertheless, she is mixing up these powerful potions that change people's lives and she's doing it for money.
Joyce Guy: It's a really interesting point. When I got the script where Mrs. Moreau started blackmailing Amy to get the $5,000 she needed, at first I was pissed off. I was going, like wait a second. Up until now, Mrs. Moreau has helped with these potions, maybe they haven't been such nice potions, but it was just business. Now it's taking on another slant, so at first I was kind of angry about it. It seemed to me that Mrs. Moreau wasn't the type of person who'd extort money from people, so I had to really think about it. Finally, I told myself, "Well, this could be the other side to her personality -- the negative side -- because we all have other sides to us." And she was going to the wall at that point. She's thinking, "Okay, what I am I going to do? My clients are dwindling. I have to pay the rent. I'm living in real poverty, and these rich people who've come to me, I've helped them tremendously. So why can't they spare a couple of bucks? Because I'm not getting my just reward for what I've done."
Digest Online: What's it like working with Krissy Carlson (Amy)?
Joyce Guy: It's interesting. When I first joined Sunset Beach, I started working with Krissy Carlson and Michael Strickland [Brad]. At the same time, I was just finishing up Much Ado About Nothing here in L.A. and my mind was fried, because I'd been understudying this woman and a week before the show was supposed to open, she took a movie of the week and didn't come back. So I was forced to go on for the whole run at the same time that I was starting Sunset Beach. Well, I was coming into Sunset Beach and having a hard time remembering my lines, while Krissy and Michael were just like tap dancing through the scenes. But they were terrific with me. I said, "God, how do you remember all this stuff?" They were so patient. They said, "Hang in there," and of course once I got my rest, the whole picture changed. Now I'm up to par with them and everyone else. But I remember saying, "Okay, kids, help me out here because I'm having a hard retaining stuff. I have Shakespeare on one brain and Sunset Beach on the other." And they did help. Krissy is so funny, she's always dancing or singing a song [which relaxes everybody] while we're waiting to go on set and do our scene. She's a lot of fun.
Digest Online: What about Sarah Buxton (Annie)?
Joyce Guy: At first, Sarah and I really didn't work together, so I'd just see her in passing. We have a [scene] coach on the set, and I remember she said, "You know you're going to start working with Sarah soon, and she's incredibly talented, but sometimes she gets a little frustrated, so she might be a little volatile." Well, that wasn't the case at all. For some reason, we just clicked and its just so much fun working with her. Before we go on the set, we'll hang out in my dressing room or her dressing room running lines or just talking. Sarah is a complete joy to work with.
Digest Online: You must get tired of being asked this question, but are you related to Jasmine Guy?
Joyce Guy: No, I'm used to getting asked that. I even used to get her phone calls when I first moved to L.A.and she was on A Different World. I'd check my messages and it was like, "Jazzie, come pick me up at the airport; I'm at gate so-and-so." I'd think, "Sorry, but I don't think Jasmine will there today and I'm not picking up your sorry you-know-what at the airport!"
Digest Online: Are you sorry to see Sunset Beach end so abruptly, just when Mrs. Moreau is really starting to stir things up?
Joyce Guy: I thought they would have given it at least another year to build. Of the soap operas I've watched over the years, this is the one show that definitely has a sense of humor. There's one director who just floors me. Whenever he directs an episode that I'm in, he always comes up with some bit of business that's hysterical. In one scene, he had me sticking pins into a doll... but it turned out I was only sewing. In another scene, I was furiously stirring this pot and you thought I was stirring up some voodoo, but actually I was just making a pot of soup. And you don't see that kind of humor on other shows.
Digest Online: Will you pursue primetime work again after Sunset Beach fades out?
Joyce Guy: This has been an interesting season for me. Usually, by this time of the year, I'd have done several guest spots, but because all the primetime shows are for 15 year olds right now, there's very little work, so it's been a lean season. But I'm optimistic that by next season the whole teen thing will kind of level off and they'll be looking for adults again.
JUST THE FACTS:
Role: Mrs. Moreau, Sunset Beach
Birthday: August 18
Personal Status: Single ("I did have a kitty for 16 years.")
Millennium Resolution: "To finish whatever I start"
Something To Talk About: Her co-starring role opposite Henry Winkler in the 1994 Fox TV series Monty. Winkler was cast as Monty Richardson, a Rush Limbaugh style talk host, and Guy played Rita Simon, his feisty, feminist producer.
Favorite Film Gig: Cavorting with Tim Allen in The Santa Clause
Nightingale Warning: She's played a nurse on Dharma & Greg, Roseanne, Mad About You and at least 6 episodes of Chicago Hope. "If I have to be a nurse one more time, I think I'll commit suicide!" she laughs.
Best Advice She's Had About The Future: "One of our directors made a joke and said, 'Well, maybe they need a voodoo priestess on Passions'."
Storyline She Wishes They'd Done: A Mrs. Moreau makeover. In an attempt to model herself after a certain rambunctious redhead, "Mrs. Moreau starts wearing short skirts and dressing like Annie!"
