Temple of Vanessa
Room 4
A Cut Above The Rest - SOD fall 95
Vanessa goes that extra mile for her fans...
"My mom answers all of my mail," Vanessa reveals. "She reads every single piece of mail that I get, then brings me the pictures. I sign each picture myself with the person's name on it. Then, she writes them little notes like, 'This is Vanessa's mom and she really loved the poem you wrote her.' She sits with me one day every week, eating or on the set or wherever."
Occasionally, this mother/daughter team gets really creative. "Sometimes, we call people," laughs Vanessa. "It's the funnest thing in the world to do. 'Hi, this is Vanessa. What are you doing?' They'll be like, 'Huh?' 'This is Vanessa Marcil. I'm on GH.' 'You're Vanessa? Nuh-uh.' 'No, really. I'm Vanessa. Dont you recognize my voice?' Then they start screaming and freaking out. It's great!"
Romance Roulette - Soap Opera Weekly (1995)"Brenda and Sonny were headed for some big conflict because she wants to be trusted and wants honesty, and he wants trust - and there's a little bit of difference in his mind and hers as to what that all means," says GH's executive producer Wendy Riche, explaining the break ups of Brenda and Sonny and Miguel and Lily, respectively, and their subsequent recoupling. "And here's Lily, not asking the same questions. Brenda needed to analyze everything. Brenda needed to be needed. Lily understands what it is like to simply know." Although Lily, Sonny, Brenda and Miguel are enjoying their respective new lovers, they also yearn for their trueloves. Is is possible to get past the hurt, betrayal and resentment and find their way back to one another?
Maurice Bernard: "The audience keeps saying: 'Sonny and Brenda, Sonny and Brenda,' but they are two dysfunctional people. It's fun for the audience to watch because you dont know if he's going to kill her or kiss her. In reality, I dont think what they had was love. Of course, he cares about Brenda, but it's an ego thing now. To bring back Sonny and Brenda now would be amazing to me because of the trust issue - how he was brought up as a child, and she wore the wire. Then she screwed him once, then twice. I cant imagine how the writers would get them back together, but you never know."
Vanessa Marcil: "If Sonny forgave her, she would definitely go home, because she is really in love with him. She would be happy to be home for about a week, and then she'd start asking questions again about everything, because that's who she is. I dont know if they'd truly be happy together, because she is not the kind of woman who would sit back and let things go. Lily will kind of not talk about things if he doesnt want to. Brenda would like to be a gangster herself if she could. She doesnt want to sit back and wear little flowery dresses and cook dinner. She wants to put on her jeans and go with him and learn how to fire a gun."
Lilly Melgar: "I dont think she'll ever be over Miguel, not completely. He was the love of her life. How many sacrifices did she make for their love? She rebelled against her father, which cost her her baby. Miguel was the man who taught her how to love, the first man she made love with, and up to this point the only man she made love with. You cant stop loving someone like that. It is not realistic. But I dont think Lily and Miguel will ever get back together. He slept with Brenda. He did it first and he knows that. There's a part of him that feels like ca-ca, him thinking Lily was in Puerto Rico sleeping with Sonny and she wasnt. Basically, he drove Lily into Sonny's arms. So what is more important than the question of Lily and Miguel getting back together is: Will Lily ever be able to forgive him?"
Ricky Martin: "Miguel loves Lily, no matter what. But Miguel holds resentments. It is going to take him a while. I think he has to get his act together. But Lily is the love of his life, and I think eventually they will get back together."
The last word belongs to Wendy Riche: "Do Brenda and Sonny have a future together? I think that they have a present together, even though they are apart. It's a little different with Lily and Miguel because they were children when they fell in love, and they really have to acknowledge or look at what that was about at a certain point and probably move on. They would have to fall in love all over again, as adults. That's what Miguel was asking for, and Lily couldnt; she took it as rejection. For people to be together and stay together, they have to see the other side. So I think that this is just one bump in the relationship road for all of them. Unlike When Harry Met Sally..., they are relying on friendship to help get them through."
Brenda & Sonny Relationship Report Card Soap Opera Digest - 1995
Romance: 3 hearts
When they first started dating, these two were magic. They couldnt keep their eyes - or hands - off each other, which makes the distance that's now between them seem all the more vast. Still, they get high marks for all the days they steamed up our tv screens.
Fidelity: 2 hearts
Well, if you're going to quibble, neither one of them has been faithful to the other. The day after Brenda and Sonny broke up, Brenda let Miguel comfort her with his lips. Sonny was a little more circumspect - he waited a few weeks to have sex with Lily.
Problem Management: 1 heart
Um, not so good. Sonny's shady dealings dont sit well with Brenda, who wore a wiretap when the going got illegal. Unfortunately, trust means everything to Sonny, so when he busted Brenda, all bets were off. Stubborn pride threw Brenda and Sonny into new relationships, when they should have thrown themselves into peace talks.
Communciation: 2 hearts
It's been better. Just before they made love the first time, Sonny melted Brenda with these words: "Tomorrow we'll still be who we are. Except without the loneliness." What can we say? The loneliness is worse than ever these days.
Prognosis For The Future: 3 hearts
Now that Lily is Mrs. Sonny Corinthos, it's going to be tough for Brenda to get him back. But our money is on Miss Barrett.
To Tell The Truth (SOD Dec 1995)The drama of Vanessa Marcil's Life is played out every day through General Hospital's Brenda...
By Carolyn Hinsey
Every time Vanessa Marcil does an interview, something new emerges about this talented actress. She reinvents herself every time she sits down and starts talking.
For example: Despite star status as vampy Brenda Barrett on General Hospital -- and her selection as one of "People's" most beautiful -- Marcil says she is literally petrified when she walks on the set. "It's the way I am," she shrugs. "Getting scared is part of being, and I think it makes you a better actress. Whatever emotion comes up, I go with it. That's the biggest lesson I have learned about how to be an actress. When I first started here, I had a fear that I wasn't going to be able to do it. So the biggest surprise is that I'm doing it."
Not just doing it -- doing it well. Obviously, there are some serious demons lurking around this young woman, or she would be far more comfortable with the work she is turning out. "I think it's a fear of expressing myself," she theorizes. "A lot of people would find that surprising, because I'm very outgoing and obnoxious at times -- which feels great for me, because I was not allowed to express myself when I was a kid. When I watch people doing that with their kids, it makes me furious: When they start crying, 'Dont cry!' If they get sad about something, 'Dont be sad.' Kids aren't allowed to feel."
Marcil's own childhood was spent in Southern California with three siblings. "My mother has been supportive of every decision I've made my whole life," states the actress. "She's never negative, never questions, just supports it. She'll fly all over the place and do whatever it takes for me. My father... I dont really talk to my father that much. We're not close. They're seperated."
While still a teenager, Marcil married actor Corey Feldman of "Stand By Me" and "The Lost Boys" fame. "Corey is actually a very sweet person," she says carefully. "Our dating consisted of going to premieres and drinking. We got really drunk one night and said we were going to get married in Las Vegas. It was kind of a joke." Marcil watched helplessly as Feldman battled drugs and money woes (a 1992 'People' magazine article said he "drenched his teen years in alchol, cocaine and herion") and then cut her losses. "This thing went so far that people would call me years later -- when I wasnt even talking to him -- and try to get money from me for his bills," she marvels. Feldman, reports Marcil, "is doing really well now. He's clean and he has his show (Dweebs, now cancelled)." And that's that.
Post-Feldman, Marcil grabbed hold of her life with both fists. She focused on her own health, and learned
to use her anguish in her work. "My scenes are all about me," she affirms. "Every scene that I'm in is about Vanessa. If Brenda is talking to Sonny, it's about Vanessa talking to her boyfriend. Or ex-boyfriend. Or it might be Vanessa talking to her father. That's how I do my homework. It's all about the real stuff for Vanessa." She credits her "unbelievable" acting coach, John Homa, for helping her access that "stuff."
Marcil downplays the effort it takes for a person to routinely summon that kind of raw emotion. "Some people can pretend -- and I think thats great -- but I personally cant do it. I have a friend who can cry on
cue and it really bugs me. I still haven't figured out why. It just really bothers me that someone can pretend to cry." When you saw the pain flash in Brenda's eyes after Sonny threw her out, you were watching Vanessa relive something really awful. "I was so upset, I was actually hiding my face at the end of that scene," she says quietly. "It would have been great for the camera to see how upset Brenda was, but Vanessa was so genuinely upset that I couldn't. This feeling comes up in me when I want to express
myself. 'Oh, God, maybe I should calm down.' Or if I start to cry, 'Oh, God, they're thinking I'm an idiot.' It's embarrassing to get that upset in front of so many people. The cast and crew are like, 'Is she okay?'"
She's fine. Besides knockin' em dead on daytime, Marcil is also hosting ABC IN CONCERT by night and
flying 6,000 miles (roundtrip) on weekends. "I just got a place in New York with my best friend, Melissa Wright," enthuses the actress. "I want to sing in a show on Broadway. I'd love to play Rizzo in GREASE." Is she leaving GH? "My contract's up next summer," she replies. "Right now, I have never been happier on the show, so it's not even a thought in my mind. But the place in New York was such a great deal. I've always loved New York. A lot of my friends live there."
Those friends include Nathan Fillion, who plays Joey Buchanan on ONE LIFE TO LIVE. They met at the Daytime Emmys last May, and have been flying back and forth to see each other ever since. But on this particular day -- despite the fact that Fillion phones three times during the interview -- Marcil is insisting that they are 'very good friends'. "Nathan is authentic," she offers. "One day, when I was waiting for my show to come on, I saw Nathan in a scene with Robin Strasser (Dorian). The sincerity in his face was unbelievable! I thought, 'This guy is either an amazing actor or he's really sincere.' I ended up
meeting him a few months after that and we became friends." End of discussion.
The one constant in Marcil's life is her trust that no matter what happens to her, things will work out in
the end. "I do whatever God puts in front of me," she states simply. "It's funny, because I never decide exactly what I want to do. I just decide in the area of what I want to do, and I hand it all over to God. He always sets it up."
To see more articles on Vanessa Marcil, please go to:
Temple of Vanessa, Room 5
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