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Krista Tesreau
Making Her Own Fairytale
by Andrea Payne
Soap Opera Digest
April 10, 1984

"I'm sorry," Krista Tesreau apologizes laughing. "There's no dirt, no hard-luck stories, no laundry to air. I wish I had something juicy to tell you, but what can I say? When I found out I was going to do this interview I thought to myself that is going to be the most boring story ever. I wish I had something to tell you," she offers again, and then jams as many fingernails in her mouth as she can handle.

Trying to dig up something that doesn't sound like it came straight out of Rogers and Hammerstein, Krista says, "Oh, there is one thing." Pen poised on pad, mouth salivating, I wait anxiously. Sticking out her hands, Krista says meekly, "I bite my fingernails." Inwardly, I groan. "I don't want to make my life sound like a fairytale, but in a sense it is," Tesreau adds. In a sense, yes.

Let's start with the fact that at age 20, Krista has a major role on a popular soap, is an accomplished pianist, has perfect pitch, sings, dances, and is a beauty contest winner. When the waiter in the Manhattan restaurant we're dining in yells into the tape recorder (we had been acting somewhat silly) that we are devouring rich gooey deserts, he is politely informed that he's tattling on the wrong people. Krista can eat calorie-laden food without giving it a second thought. She is slim and trim, with a perfect set of gleaming whites and looks tanned in the middle of a very frigid northeastern winter. Enough? Krista is also a gymnast (among her over 75 awards there's one for the trampoline), and was offered a recording contract by Screen Gems Records the day after the very first episode in which she sang on "Guiding Light" aired. And guess what? Despite all of this, Tesreau even has friends.

Looking at Krista, one thinks of a Golden Girl. She is very pretty with long blonde hair, big green eyes and a complexion an Ivory Girl would kill for. She's wearing well-worn sneakers, striped blue jeans, and a black and beige knit top. A Miss Teen Missouri, her achievements are impressive for someone who just celebrated her 20th birthday during a surprise party at New York's famous Studio 54. This petite young woman, with a jaunty walk and a voice that sounds like a twelve-year-old's, radiates good health. She's one of those people you'd probably want to strangle, except for the fact that she has an infectious giggle, is good company and has worked hard to get where she is.

"I was career oriented when I was three years old. I knew what I wanted early in life," Tesreau laughs, clapping her hands together. '"I started dance lessons when I was three, and when I turned four, I took piano lessons." Although Krista's parents have been very supportive of her, Tesreau states firmly that they were not pushy show biz types, living vicariously through their child's success. "As a matter of fact, they would tell me things just like they were. I mean like when I wouldn't practice for a couple of days, they would just say, 'Hey look, we are paying the bills and we are paying for your lessons and we'll tell you how much your lessons are costing. If you are not going to practice then it's foolish to fork out the money for the lessons and the books and the dance shoes.' Which is true," she interjects. "They would say, 'If you don't want to practice, quit.'"

While Tesreau spent her childhood going from one lesson to another, appearing in pageants and contests, she also found time for kickball in the street. "I would say my life was a little more exciting than most children's," Krista remarks. "But it was normal." Looking through Krista's scrapbook, one sees pictures of her with Harry Truman, Krista with Jimmy Carter, Krista with other dignitaries and well-known entertainment people. Because of her interests, she's met quite a few V.I.P.'s and has learned to handle herself in tough situations. It's given her the poise needed to play opposite soap veterans like Maeve Kinkead (Vanessa Chamberlain) and hold her own. "Everything I was involved in, I was usually the youngest one. But I learned a lot. I've performed in a variety of piano concerts where I memorized 50-page concertos. ... I drove to Jefferson City once for a big competition and I'd never done anything like that before. But you have to be that way. I was in a lot of beauty pageants and just getting up on stage at the very last minute when they say, 'And the second runner-up is...' -- you stand there kind of shaking a little, but it's exciting."

The youngest of three girls, Tesreau grew up in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri and attended public high school there until her junior year. A prankster, she recalls the practical jokes her public school classmates pulled on an algebra teacher, who, she says, was just "too strict. She wouldn't let up for a minute. We had 100 percent participation in everything we did -- you know how someone always backs out -- so at exactly 2:30, we'd all get up and form a line at the pencil sharpener or drop our books. It was great," she giggles. But at the private Catholic high school she transferred to, things were different.

Like Krista, the school was career oriented. Tesreau took advantage of the professional theater productions the school put on, the dance lessons it offered and its proximity to the University of Missouri, where she earned college credits. After graduation in '82, "I thought if there was any time to go to the West Coast, this was it. And so we went (Krista's mother accompanied her) with a lot of names and contacts and things just kind of snowballed." She took classes from acting teacher Sal Dano (his students include Tom Selleck), who Tesreau lists with the geniuses. "Sal is so intelligent and so helpful. He guided me and helped me with my career. Not everything he taught in class only applied to acting, but also to life in general."

Within a month, Krista found an agent (which is not always easy) and was happily ensconced in Los Angeles. A friend told her about the part on "Guiding Light" and Tesreau had her agent submit her for the role. "I went on the audition and if there was one part that I felt I could most identify with, it was the role of Mindy. Right away." After a series of callbacks, Krista was eventually flown to New York to test against Grant Aleksander (Phillip Spaulding). There, Krista got a taste of the star treatment and found that she liked it.

"As soon as I got in the limo, I felt like such a big shot. I was sitting in the back seat and I rolled the windows down, thinking when people pass they'd look in and want to see who is in there. So, I'm looking straight ahead and when cars pass," Krista peeks out of the corner of her eye, "I'd just kind of look out with one eye to see if they were going to look in." Clasping her hands, Krista leans forward against the white tablecloth and laughs. "Nobody looked in, but it was still fun."

Tesreau was told she wouldn't get the final decision for ten days, so she made her agent repeat the good news three times when he called several days later to tell her she had landed the part. "They wanted me to start on the show within a week-and-a-half. I left Los Angeles, made a stop in St. Louis and picked up my mom. Good ole mom," Krista says appreciatively. "She's there all the time." Bernice Tesreau stayed with her daughter until she was settled and then returned home.

Tesreau was nineteen and on her own. In Los Angeles, she had friends and relatives, but in New York, Krista didn't know anyone. The people at "Guiding Light" took care of that. "I'd say half the cast invited me to their homes for dinner. They took me out and showed me the town, took me shopping and to all the hot spots. They were so nice and the immediate acceptance I felt at the studio was another big shock." Krista takes that back. "Not a big shock, but something that was really nice.

"Who is Mindy?" Krista asks in response to my question about her character. "Most people would say a little meany. But there is a lot of good in Mindy, I think -- even though she is a little conniving and manipulative and very spoiled. ... I think out of the four of us college kids: Phillip Beth, Rick and Mindy, Mindy is the most insecure one, even though she comes across as determined. A lot of it is a front that she puts up. Underneath it all she needs to hear that she is loved and needed. ... I just took on one of her qualities, not too long ago, which I think is to my benefit. Mindy knows what she wants and she'll go after it; she won't let anything stand in her way. She is a very decisive person, which I myself, half the time, am not. You saw the way I was about the menu. I was kind of wishy-washy, but I've come to make clear cut decisions and that's good." Someone who started planning her career at three seems pretty directed to me, I offer. "Well, now I'm more so," Krista answers.

Krista's year in New York has brought her exposure, which she loves. Another day in another restaurant, a woman taps on the window Krista is facing and mouths her admiration of her. Gracious, Krista smiles and says thanks. "I like the publicity. I am a ham and I think I always will be." Then after a pause, "I can't believe I said that." Beyond the more visible profile, Tesreau doesn't think her life has changed. "If anything, friends and people around me have changed. People have called who I haven't talked to in a long time, but I don't mind that."

While externally, at least, Krista's life is different, the strength of her family ties remains constant. "The one thing that my parents have given me that I would like to give them is time. I mean my mom was there every day, driving me from school to my piano lesson and from piano lessons to dancing school. I'd get home at around ten at night and she would be with me." As part of Krista's birthday surprise, her parents and sisters flew to New York. "My sisters were both telling me how proud they are, and that's nice to hear. Kim was saying that people come up to her and ask if there is any jealousy amongst the three of us. And, to be quite honest, outside of the fact that in high school we wanted to borrow each other's top, there was never any jealousy. It's not like they wanted to be in the business, they never did."

Both Krista's sisters are married, something Tesreau hopes to be in about five years. But romance, she giggles, is one of two things she lacks in her life. The other is sleep. Energetic ("If there's one thing that at the end of the day I like to be able to say is that I did not waste a minute of the day"), Krista gets by very well on five hours. "Now romance?" she ponders. "I don't know. I'd like to find the man of my dreams but I'm not rushing it. There are plenty of good looking guys that I've met and dated, but I'll know when the right one comes along." Krista wants an understanding, sensitive man. "Oh, what else? He doesn't have to be tall and dark, but I would love for him to be handsome, I will say that," she laughs unabashedly. "Another thing. He must have a good personality and a good sense of humor."

Despite Krista's five-year ballpark figure, she's not making plans for marriage or anything else. Although she hopes to explore all aspects of her profession, Krista's not setting her goals in concrete. She believes, as John Lennon once wrote in a song, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." "I was never one to plan. I feel that if I keep practicing and become as good as I can in my craft, it'll be there. ... Although I've always known what I've wanted to do, to actually sit down and plan and hope to accomplish things on a certain day -- life just doesn't work that way, especially show business. It's the most unpredictable career." Later she adds thoughtfully, "I'm not the type of person to speak freely on religion or God, but that is a large part of my life even though I don't make it known. He gives you the gifts and it's up to you to develop them." Krista has certainly honed her talents and she's been rewarded for her diligence. Of her life she says wistfully, "I couldn't be happier anywhere else, doing anything else." #