PAS and JL Soap Opera Digest Interview

**From the September 7, 1999 issue of Soap Opera Digest

"The Newlywed Game"
--Rebecca Detken

For GUIDING LIGHT'S Popular Young Lovers, The Honeymoon Isn't Over...Yet

Paul Anthony Stewart and Joie Lenz zoomed to soap supercoupledom as GUIDING LIGHT'S Danny and Michelle. Over a casual take-out lunch in GL's rehearsal hall, it becomes clear that the actors' off-screen relationship is worlds away from the passionate, intense bond between Danny and Michelle. Stewart is in rare form--or maybe not--keeping Lenz in stitches (and the GL publicist panicking at what he'll say next). "I hope you don't make us seem calm and normal," Stewart tells Digest. Not to worry...

Digest: How do you feel about the fan response that Danny and Michelle have received?
PAS: I'm very impressed by the fans' creativity. They spend more time thinking about us than we do. [Laughs]
Digest: Does that scare you?
PAS: No, I don't really think about it. I don't go on the Internet. I'm a crazy Pisces and everything people say about me--good or bad--affects me. It enters my brain and stays there, making me a little too kooky when I'm at work.
JL: We don't want him anymore kooky than he already is.
PAS: I think it's great that the fans have a place to go and express their interests. And I'm flattered, but when I punch the clock at the end of the day, I seriously punch the clock and do my own thing.
JL: I'm okay with it. A bunch of fans got together and sent me this cute little puzzle for my graduation. They put so much work into it. It was sweet.
PAS: (Joking.) That's what I want--puzzles. As many different kinds of puzzles as you can possibly send me--send them! I was looking for something to do in my free time! [To Lenz] Did you DO the puzzle?
JL: I didn't do the puzzle. I think my mom did. It was so cool because every person got a puzzle piece and they wrote something on the back of it.
Digest: Have you been surprised by Danny and Michelle's popularity?
JL: Uh-huh. [Munching on lunch.] I'm like the only person eating...
PAS: Joie's always eating.
Digest: You wouldn't know it.
PAS: Oh, to have the metabolism of an 18 year old. Just wait till you're my age.
JL: Well...I forgot the question.
Digest: Were you surpised?
JL: I was absolutely surprised.
PAS: I wasn't surprised at all.
JL: Really?
PAS: (Sarcastically.) Yes, because we are just so awesome that it didn't surprise me in the least.
JL: Well, he's done this before. He knows how it works.
PAS: [To Lenz] Do you think I'm surprised or not surprised? Am I telling the truth? Am I pulling your leg?
JL: (Laughing.) I have no idea!
PAS: My goal is to always keep you guessing, Joie. That's what makes it fun to work together.
Digest: Is Paul difficult to work with?
JL: Not at all.
PAS: I am notoriously easy to work with--except before 9 a.m.
JL: Oh, my God. You do not want to talk to him in the morning before he has his coffee.
PAS: If I have time to get my ass to Starbucks before dry-blocking, then I'm a very good person in the morning. If I haven't had a chance to get caffeine into my system then I can be a bit cranky, a bit sarcastic...
JL: (Mocking Stewart.) Shut up, don't touch me.
PAS: That's a big thing. I don't like people touching me when I haven't had my coffee. Saundra [Santiago, Carmen] will come up to me, "Good morning, baby..." Get away from me until I've had my coffee! Then I have to apologise to everyone for my brusque behavior.
Digest: Are you a morning person, Joie?
JL: I'm not a morning person. But I'm not really much of a night person, either. I'm just kind of there.
PAS: Joie's not a person.
JL: I go to bed at 9:30. I'm such an old fart. But I wake up at like 5:30 a.m.
PAS: We're like an old couple. I walk around in my white socks and my old man shorts. And Joie and I, immediately after blocking, we both say "See you later," and shut our doors. [Our dressing rooms are] right next to each other. We turn off our lights and go back to bed. Do you have earplugs yet?
JL: No.
PAS: Earplugs, baby. That's where it's at.
JL: I put a towel under my dressing room door where the light comes in, and it blocks out a ton of sound, too.
PAS: This is the glamorous life of soap actors.
Digest: It's more glamorous than my life.
PAS: Hey, who else gets to sleep on the job, I ask you?
JL: And go to Puerto Rico.
PAS: It's crazy that we get paid to do this. Sometimes I have to pinch myself.
Digest: Did you click immediately?
PAS: It's funny because Joie and I disagree on a lot of things, but we just have chemistry, and chemistry is a mysterious...maybe it's the fact that we don't agree on a lot of things.
Digest: For example?
PAS: We never agree on movies.
JL: I really didn't like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and he thought it was great. [To Stewart] Did you watch THE SAINT yet?
PAS: No. I'm having trouble working myself up for it.
JL: I gave him the movie to borrow.
PAS: She did. And it's sitting on top of my TV. I'm like "I've really got to watch that," but then something better always comes along.
JL: Uh-huh. Sure.
Digest: Well, Danny and Michelle don't agree on everything.
PAS: I think that carries over into what we do. I love working with Joie.
JL: We totally have fun. [To Stewart] I was so intimidated by you the first six months. I was like, "Oh my gosh. He's so good." I've learned a lot from just watching him work.
PAS: I think we're all learning from each other. My first impression of Joie was, "Damn, she's 17." [To Lenz] I know you get that thrown in you face a lot, but it's very impressive what you're doing at your age. Those first few months were intense, but I think the reward is that they laid the groundwork for something really solid that we can stand on now.
Digest: So when you started working together, Joie was 17...
PAS: We're not going to say how old I was at the time.
Digest: The fans speculate a lot about that.
PAS: A lot of speculation. We should just tell them and get it over with.
Digest: Okay, tell us.
PAS: It's part of my mystery. The thing that's backfiring is because I'm being so mysterious about it, people are actually making me older than I am. Alright, folks. I'm 50. There is a portrait of me hanging in my attic that is aging, but I am not. I drink special potions. I'm a warlock. I have made a pact with the devil.
Digest: What's your beauty secret?
PAS: I'll tell you my beauty secret: moisturise, moisturise, moisturise!
JL: You've got alot of funky scents coming from your room, too.
PAS: Moisturise and meditation. (Laughing.) My fear is that one day, I'll instantly look my age. It will all happen in one night. I'll go out and get really screwed up, wake up in the morning and look my true age of 45. I mean, 50. [To Lenz] The other day, someone actually told me that I look younger than you, so, haha! In your face.
JL: That's weird. Who told you that?
PAS: The source shall remain nameless.
Digest: Would either of you hang out with Danny or Michelle?
JL: I wouldn't hang out with Michelle.
PAS: I'd hang out with Danny in his single days. I'd go to all the stripper bars.
JL: I hope that Danny has a former wife.
PAS: I was trying to play that. That's how I keep myself entertained. I have all sorts of mysterious plots that no one ever knows about. At one point when we were officially married, I cooked up this whole idea that Danny had this romance going on and basically, let that go to save Michelle. I always like to have more stuff going on than what...
JL: I remember you telling me once in the church. You were like, "Just pretend we know what we're doing."
PAS: Wasn't that fun?
JL: (Giggling.) Yes, then I got the note: "Don't do that."
PAS: And I'm like, "Joie, ignore the note." It's like life--the tip of the iceberg is all that's showing. Then there's 90 percent of the iceberg that is actually under the water and that's the part that sinks ships. That is my deep thought of the day. That's all you're getting out of me! The rest is going to be lies and jokes.
Digest: Do the two of you have a special rehearsing technique?
PAS: First, we take a shower together, then we rub lotion on each other's backs. Rehearsal changes on a daily basis depending on the needs...
JL: I've gotten to the point where I can read my scripts, dry run, camera blocking, rehearse it twice, and I know it.
PAS: I don't like to over-rehearse.
JL: It's like a dog bone. You chew on it for awhile, you bury it, pick it back up...
PAS: Good one. Joie gave an analogy. Icebergs and bones, we're set. [To Digest] You got an analogy out of each of us. Time's up.

images transcripts bios news speeches links miscellaneous