| MY BONNIE |
 How Judi Evans went from stay-at-home mom to trailer-trash floozy in a few DAYSby Janet Di Lauro Soap Opera Weekly November 11, 2003 Bonnie Lockhart's bold, bawdy behavior and let-it-all-hang-out fashion style doesn't rattle daytime veteran Judi Evans. It's all part of her plum new Days of our Lives role, and she welcomes every outrageous second of it. "Bring it on, baby!" Evans says over lunch on the patio of the NBC commissary. "(Costume designer) Richard Bloore takes good care of me. He comes up with the most amazing shoes, outfits, and jewelry. I get so excited when I see it all. He'll ask, 'Are you sure you're OK with this?' " -- like a particularly racy red, see-through blouse and plunging black bra -- "I'll be like, 'Let's go for it!' Its all about the [chest]." Bursting into raucous laughter, Evans confides that her husband, CNBC field cameraman Michael Luciano, loves her sexed-up Bonnie look. "He came to pick me up after work the other day, and I was in this little black jumpsuit with bulging cleavage," remembers Evans. "He said, 'Why don't you dress like that at home?' " Perhaps because she has a young son. "Austin is 7 -- pretty bright and very impressionable," she says, noting that she edits the few scenes she lets him watch, "because he'll ask me too many questions. I was telling my husband about the fantasy scene where I made out with Eric Winter (Rex) and didn't realize that my son was there. Austin said, 'You kissed somebody else? You can't kiss anybody else.' He was livid. I had to lie to his face -- like any good mom -- and say, 'I won't do it again.' " Its a small price to pay, considering that Evans was starting to wonder if she'd ever work again. After her role as Paulina Cory Carlino came to an end with Another World's cancellation in 1999, Evans and family relocated to Los Angeles to be closer to her parents. She promptly landed the role of Patsy Ramsey in the TV-movie, Getting Away with Murder: The JonBenet Ramsey Story, then opted to devote her time to raising Austin and volunteering at his school. "I didn't miss acting at first," says Evans, but she admits there was always "a yearning in the back of my mind." When she finally attempted to reactivate her career, "I kept hearing, 'There's not a lot of work for women your age.' I was starting to feel like that was a sin [being a woman her age], and I didn't like the way I felt about it." Evans, 37, began to weigh her options. "I started to think maybe I should have plastic surgery, which I'm not opposed to but I just never thought about." Then, her son's school offered her a permanent position as a teacher's aide -- and two weeks later, her agent called about Bonnie. As soon as she read the description of the chain-smoking, trailer-trash broad, "I was like, Oh, my God! I so want this," stresses Evans, who was pleasantly surprised that the Days brass wasn't concerned that she'd already starred on the show as Adrienne Johnson Kiriakis from 1986 to 1991. "Roles like this only come around once in a lifetime, and, at my age, if that." Evans' husband, Michael, wanted her to land the gig, too, since she would be working directly across the street from his CNBC offices. "The whole four years we've lived out here, Michael has always fantasized about that," smiles Evans. Hence, the transition from stay-at-home wife and mother to working actress went smoothly. "Michael and I meet for lunch occasionally," she beams. And Evans' parents, who live a mile from her Orange County home, have eagerly pitched in to help with Austin."'They're a godsend," she praises. Most importantly, Austin has adjusted to sharing his mom with Salem. "'He's OK with it, but he wasn't at first. He said, 'Mommy, your only important job is taking care of me,' " remembers Evans. "I told him, 'Of course, honey, but Mommy is going to go act, too.' He said, 'Oh, no! Not without me you're not.' " Austin changed his tune once Evans brought him to the Days set and he got to check out her cool, new workplace. "Austin was like, 'OK. You can work here," chuckles Evans, confessing that her son was immediately taken with her TV daughter, Farah Fath (Mimi). "After he met Farah, he got really quiet. Then he said, 'Oh, Mommy,' she's beautiful and nice, too.' Now he's in love. He asks me about her all the time. Then, Austin found out that Eric went to the same school that he's going to. Now he wants to hang out with Eric and get to know him better. He loves Eric." Almost as much as Evans loves being back on daytime. Having spent her teen years on Guiding Light (as Beth Raines from 1983-86), early 20s on Days and 30s on Another World (1991-'99), Evans looks forward to enjoying her impending 40s on Days, take two. Besides, with a character like Bonnie, Evans isn't worried about falling into middle-age doldrums on camera -- particularly if Bonnie continues her shocking antics like that seduction scene with Rex. Evans notes that before taping the crew warned her that Winter was afraid of her. "I'm sure he heard all the rumors that I was wild-talking, because part of my job is to entertain the crew with my horrible, nasty, dirty humor. I said, 'Oh, OK. I'll take it easy with him.' I made all sorts of jokes [before the scene], and Eric was blushing, but he was laughing, too. He held his own. I felt guilty, because he's so young. I thought, I'm robbing the cradle here!' " Evans actually taped the scene for her husband to watch, knowing he'd get as big a charge out of it as she did. "At one point, when Eric put his hand on my butt, Michael said, 'I'm going to kick his ass,' as a joke," recounts Evans. "My husband isn't your typical husband or your typical Italian husband, either. He pulls out your chair, lights your cigarette, opens your door, and treats you like a lady.' But hey -- you're your own person. He's proud of what I do. "My parents are, too. They keep telling me, 'This is such a great character for you,' " adds Evans, who appreciates their support. "I'm loving it. I am so over the moon with this role and being back to work at such a fabulous place like Days. I have to keep pinching myself." # |
