When you were a kid growing up, did you have any idea that you would be doing this today? What did you see yourself doing?I saw myself probably going into medicine and after that, writing on some level. I saw myself as a storyteller. How is it to see your idea for Passions, once a seed in your mind, become an actual show? It's scary, but at the same time, it's really exciting and thrilling. It's scary that I'm finally getting ready to see two years worth of work on the air and thrilling because I'm so into these characters and stories that I can't wait to see it come to life. From everything I've seen, it's really beginning to gel, and that's what's very exciting. How true is Passions to your original concept? The show is wonderful. I had a vision for Harmony and the characters, and really it's come true more than I thought it would. What is your day to day involvement with Passions in comparison to when you were the head-writer of Days of our Lives? In terms of writing, it's ninety percent similar to Days, because you get to know the characters very well and know what they would or would not do in situations. But, on Days, there still was that ten percent of someone telling you that a character wouldn't act a certain way because of something that happened five years ago. Right now, with Passions, I'm the one who knows what a character would or wouldn't do, because the character has lived in my mind for almost two years. I'm kind of the Supreme Court in determining the character motivation! I have more of a say than I ever had before in terms of the look of the show, and consulting in certain production issues. There must be an incredible amount of freedom that you are creating the "history" as you go along. How does that feel? Sometimes in the past I've done shows that between radio and television have been on the air for 65 years, so it's often the viewers who know the show's history better than people involved with the show. Then you feel badly about writing something the viewers will tell you wouldn't have happened because of a story that occurred twenty years earlier. The viewers are very smart, and you love their involvement, and you hate disappointing them by not remaining true to who the characters are. That's what's so exciting about a new show - because you start off from day one and they learn the show from the very beginning. Are there any characters on Passions that you particularly identify with? As a true parent, you're not supposed to have favorites but, maybe it's the villain in me, but I understand the characters that people might see as evil, or mean, or villainous. I find them wonderful to write for. All the people who have lots of levels and do things the other people are always warning them against. Do you make a conscious effort to push the envelope? My primary drive for all of my stories is what will entertain the audience. They're my boss. The audience determines what the story should be. I have to guess what they're going to like. I write things that I like-that I get a laugh or a chuckle from. And so far, in twenty years, it's proven that if I like it, I'm on the same wavelength. I see myself as a member of the audience and I give them what evokes an emotional response in me, whether it's laughter, or tears in my eyes, or being afraid. I've had to fight for certain stories which always prove to be the stories the audience wants to see most. What is your writing process? My ideas come to me when I'm reading a book or just sitting in a chair and I hear something on TV or I hear a word in a conversation. That will trigger a whole series of events that makes me think of a certain character and what I can do with them. It's an ongoing process everyday. I have writers on the east coast who will call with questions sometimes as early as eight in the morning, and I have writers on the west coast, so I can get phone calls at eleven at night. The weekends are a busy time, because without production I'm able to concentrate on the next week's stories and lay that out. How far ahead is the story, both in your mind and on paper? In my mind, some of the stories are up to three years from now. With all the characters, I know where they're going to be at least a year in advance. On paper, we have outlines through Thanksgiving and scripts through about October. What can we look forward to? There's something for everyone. There's every age group, stories focusing on women, stories focusing on men, there's bizarre storylines, traditional storylines, characters you've never seen before. But at the same time there are characters that are very familiar to you because they're wonderful characters-like the ingenue, or the bitch. It really is a show meant to entertain people-to get away for an hour and just sit back and have fun. It's a unique show. James Reilly's Interviews: Jim Reilly #1 Jim Reilly #2 Jim Reilly #3 |
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