Post by jag11 on Feb 26, 2007 12:30:26 GMT -5
From the February 27, 2007 issue of Soap Opera Weekly
Raising Cane
by Deanna Barnert
The 2003 revelation that Katherine and Jill are mother and daughter drastically changed the dynamics of the longest-running rivalry on Y&R: The two women actually started to like each other. What's wrong with that picture? Jeanne Cooper and Jess Walton wondered the same thing, as did new head writer/executive producer Lynn Latham, who reignited the fizzling feud with another shocking revelation: Katherine switched Jill's son, Phillip, with another child.
Now, all bets are off. Sorta like what happens when Cooper and Walton sit down for a one-on-one interview.
Weekly: Should Jill forgive Katherine for switching Phillip?
Jeanne Cooper: No, never! Katherine did such a dastardly thing.
Jess Walton: It wasn't forgivable that Jill slept with Katherine's husband in Katherine's mind, and I don't think her stealing Jill's son away is going to be forgivable in Jill's book. But what we have now is a very complex relationship.
Cooper: It's the essence of love/hate. They're mother and daughter, but there are points where they can't meet.
Weekly: Does the name-calling ever get difficult?
Cooper: I will not tolerate the C-word and I don't like "*itch."
Walton: "You've called me a *itch on the show! It [wasn't ever] hard, but it is now that they've developed this heavy-duty relationship.
Cooper: And we've almost bought it. Actually, Katherine and Jill never changed. She still sees Katherine as selfish and someone who cost her a life.
Walton: She's sanctimonious and Jill is resentful that everyone loves her so much when she's done truly dreadful things.
Cooper: I still justify it by simply saying, "Hey, you were paid a lot to be my companion and wound up boinking my husband and having his child. What kind of friendship is that?"
Weekly: This week, Jill learns the Australian hottie, Cane, is her son, and Amber knew.
Cooper: Amber was a step ahead of them because she went hiding around corners.
Walton: She's never been fond of Jill. She's always sucked up to Katherine.
Cooper: She knows where it's at.
Weekly: Are you looking forward to getting past Amber to create a new family relationship with Cane?
Walton: I am. But it's very much about taking it step by step, as it goes. It's a whole different ball game.
Cooper: Today we got our first taste of working with him.
Walton: It was quite seamless. Daniel (Goddard) is fabulous. He's a very positive person and a terrific actor. He's sensitive, he's serious about acting and his mother loves the show. She's watched it forever, in Australia.
Weekly: So she knows all the drama Jill and Katherine have faced over the years. What's your favorite Katherine/Jill memory?
Cooper: One was when we were trying to find a place to send Tricia Cast (ex-Nina). Jill came up with nutty Guam.
Walton: Both of them did. They were looking at a map, they looked at each other and said, "Guam!" There's a naval base there and they thought she was a little very *friendly* person. They were begrudgingly working together for a common goal and it was the very first time they had a meeting of the minds.
Weekly: How does it feel to have your characters back in the spotlight?
Cooper: It's gratifying to know we are a major part of this show.
Walton: When we're not working, I feel unappreciated and forgotten, and the audience doesn't like it. They like when Jill and Katherine are getting into it. It's also boring and unchallenging for us and dangerous to let the two characters fade into the background.
Cooper: Life is an exercise is living. We're actors playing parts that have a daily life. If you bring those to cease, let us know and we will be happy to carry on somewhere else. But do not use our talents and expertise in what we do and make it a secondary thing.
Weekly: Lynn Latham seems to be on the same page there, but is it disconcerting to play such a historic relationship with a new scribe at the helm?
Walton: Lynn's very open to our phone calls and guidance. She's asked us to tell her anything she might need to know. I appreciate her desire to stay true to the history. That's the greatest gift she can give us.
Cooper: Absolutely. I also love that they've been writing that overlapping dialogue.
Walton: We're always overlapped. I've had that with other actors, like Peter Bergman (Jack). It makes it harder because if you screw up you have to start from the beginning, but it's worth it because it's realistic. That's how people talk. They finish each other's thoughts.
Cooper: We've never waited for one another to finish anything (laughs).
Weekly: Have you ever used real-life issues between the two of you to fuel the Katherine/Jill tension?
Walton: When we have a problem, we deal with it and it's forgotten. We've never, in 22 years, brought it to the set. We understand each other.
Cooper: We know each other's shortcomings.
Walton: And we make allowances between us.
Cooper: We're also protective of each other. That doesn't mean we agree on everything. She'll be going through something and I'm not there. It's, "Okay, what's bothering you now?" That's called friendship.
Weekly: Or family?
Walton: Right. It does feel that way.
Weekly: How often do you see each other outside of work?
Walton: We used to go on public appearances in Canada a lot; we had so much fun doing those. We haven't done that in a while, but we see each other. We have tea. I've been to her house the last few times. Jeanne, you need to come over to my house to see the changes I've made! We're both very family-oriented people and my whole family knows Jeanne.
Cooper: Caren, my daughter, loves her husband.
Walton: And we ran into Corbin (Bernsen) the other day at Bloomingdale's. Did he tell you?
Weekly: After all this time together, can you two still surprise each other?
Walton: She still surprises me onstage, but I hate surprises out there. Most actors say they love it and it keeps them fresh. It throws me for a loop.
Cooper: Like years ago, when Jill said she was going into training for the marathon and Katherine just looked at her and started laughing. I was supposed to laugh just a bit and then she'd ask why...
Walton: But she laughed through the whole scene!
Cooper: It was so strange. I just kept laughing and the guy in the scene started to laugh.
Walton: That was probably my boytoy, Sean.
Weekly: Would you like your characters to find love--or boytoys--again?
Cooper: I definitely would, but it has to come from the past. Maybe Felipe, whom Katherine met years ago when she jumped ship to kill herself, will return as a beautiful, gray-haired man.
Walton: I have no idea what's coming Jill's way. I haven't worked with Ted (Shackelford, Will), the DA, for a while. Now there's this flirtation happening with Ji Min.
Cooper: Jill's a very *friendly* person at heart. But that works. Those two have great chemistry.
Walton: Are you kidding? In that one scene you saw it?
Cooper: Just like with Shark (Fralick, ex-Larry) and it worked. Larry was a good lay. Even Katherine went along with it.
Weekly: Katherine and Jill are progressive, professional women who've survived to tell some outrageous stories, just as you two have. What's the wildest story Jeanne's ever told you, Jess?
Walton: I can't tell you that! I can't tell you most of them.
Cooper: Jess was surprised. I was just as wild and woolly as she was. We were different, though.
Walton: She was more movie-oriented and I was more rock 'n' roll oriented. It was different times. My wildest time was the '60s. I was one of the Ladies of the Canyon and one of the houses on that (Joni Mitchell) album cover was mine. Rock 'n' roll history.
Cooper: And I thought Alabama was a state, not a rock band.
Weekly: Also, like your characters, neither of you is a woman who holds her tongue.
Walton: True. I work things out verbally, where other people might hold it in until they solve it within themselves. Jeanne and I are a bit alike in that way. We're quick to flare, but we're also quick to let it go. I'll let her vent, she'll let me vent and then we'll calm down. After it's over, it's over. Both of us love laughter and joy more than anything. That's what life is about and we find it. We don't carry grudges.
Cooper: Jess gets angry and she's up with the phone, talking heatedly. But if I get too angry, there's nothing left in the dressing room. This morning, I was thisclose over something inane and stupid.
Walton: I heard you and I knew that you just needed that escape valve. I was upset, too.
Cooper: Repetitive, repetitive, repetitive! I tell you, I wouldn't have taken it from my children after....
Walton: Jeanne, calm down. Your body is twisted and off. I'm nervous about your sciatic thing.
Cooper: (Takes a breath and laughs). See, you open yourself up to negativity and suddenly you're limping like me with my sciatica. Jess and I don't allow that. Both of us have always believed in positive energy and we're the first ones to enjoy what we do here. No matter how we fight something at first or whether we ever see the other person's point of view, we'll bring life to it.
Weekly: Is there less to fight about now that your characters are back to bickering?
Walton: It's not about the bickering. That appeals to our sense of humor and of course we enjoy that.
Cooper: It's about the underlying conflict. Katherine and Jill will always have this reserve in their hearts that "I am right and you are wrong!" about Phillip and the Chancellor name.
Walton: Absolutely. They will never come to a meeting of the minds on that.
Raising Cane
by Deanna Barnert
The 2003 revelation that Katherine and Jill are mother and daughter drastically changed the dynamics of the longest-running rivalry on Y&R: The two women actually started to like each other. What's wrong with that picture? Jeanne Cooper and Jess Walton wondered the same thing, as did new head writer/executive producer Lynn Latham, who reignited the fizzling feud with another shocking revelation: Katherine switched Jill's son, Phillip, with another child.
Now, all bets are off. Sorta like what happens when Cooper and Walton sit down for a one-on-one interview.
Weekly: Should Jill forgive Katherine for switching Phillip?
Jeanne Cooper: No, never! Katherine did such a dastardly thing.
Jess Walton: It wasn't forgivable that Jill slept with Katherine's husband in Katherine's mind, and I don't think her stealing Jill's son away is going to be forgivable in Jill's book. But what we have now is a very complex relationship.
Cooper: It's the essence of love/hate. They're mother and daughter, but there are points where they can't meet.
Weekly: Does the name-calling ever get difficult?
Cooper: I will not tolerate the C-word and I don't like "*itch."
Walton: "You've called me a *itch on the show! It [wasn't ever] hard, but it is now that they've developed this heavy-duty relationship.
Cooper: And we've almost bought it. Actually, Katherine and Jill never changed. She still sees Katherine as selfish and someone who cost her a life.
Walton: She's sanctimonious and Jill is resentful that everyone loves her so much when she's done truly dreadful things.
Cooper: I still justify it by simply saying, "Hey, you were paid a lot to be my companion and wound up boinking my husband and having his child. What kind of friendship is that?"
Weekly: This week, Jill learns the Australian hottie, Cane, is her son, and Amber knew.
Cooper: Amber was a step ahead of them because she went hiding around corners.
Walton: She's never been fond of Jill. She's always sucked up to Katherine.
Cooper: She knows where it's at.
Weekly: Are you looking forward to getting past Amber to create a new family relationship with Cane?
Walton: I am. But it's very much about taking it step by step, as it goes. It's a whole different ball game.
Cooper: Today we got our first taste of working with him.
Walton: It was quite seamless. Daniel (Goddard) is fabulous. He's a very positive person and a terrific actor. He's sensitive, he's serious about acting and his mother loves the show. She's watched it forever, in Australia.
Weekly: So she knows all the drama Jill and Katherine have faced over the years. What's your favorite Katherine/Jill memory?
Cooper: One was when we were trying to find a place to send Tricia Cast (ex-Nina). Jill came up with nutty Guam.
Walton: Both of them did. They were looking at a map, they looked at each other and said, "Guam!" There's a naval base there and they thought she was a little very *friendly* person. They were begrudgingly working together for a common goal and it was the very first time they had a meeting of the minds.
Weekly: How does it feel to have your characters back in the spotlight?
Cooper: It's gratifying to know we are a major part of this show.
Walton: When we're not working, I feel unappreciated and forgotten, and the audience doesn't like it. They like when Jill and Katherine are getting into it. It's also boring and unchallenging for us and dangerous to let the two characters fade into the background.
Cooper: Life is an exercise is living. We're actors playing parts that have a daily life. If you bring those to cease, let us know and we will be happy to carry on somewhere else. But do not use our talents and expertise in what we do and make it a secondary thing.
Weekly: Lynn Latham seems to be on the same page there, but is it disconcerting to play such a historic relationship with a new scribe at the helm?
Walton: Lynn's very open to our phone calls and guidance. She's asked us to tell her anything she might need to know. I appreciate her desire to stay true to the history. That's the greatest gift she can give us.
Cooper: Absolutely. I also love that they've been writing that overlapping dialogue.
Walton: We're always overlapped. I've had that with other actors, like Peter Bergman (Jack). It makes it harder because if you screw up you have to start from the beginning, but it's worth it because it's realistic. That's how people talk. They finish each other's thoughts.
Cooper: We've never waited for one another to finish anything (laughs).
Weekly: Have you ever used real-life issues between the two of you to fuel the Katherine/Jill tension?
Walton: When we have a problem, we deal with it and it's forgotten. We've never, in 22 years, brought it to the set. We understand each other.
Cooper: We know each other's shortcomings.
Walton: And we make allowances between us.
Cooper: We're also protective of each other. That doesn't mean we agree on everything. She'll be going through something and I'm not there. It's, "Okay, what's bothering you now?" That's called friendship.
Weekly: Or family?
Walton: Right. It does feel that way.
Weekly: How often do you see each other outside of work?
Walton: We used to go on public appearances in Canada a lot; we had so much fun doing those. We haven't done that in a while, but we see each other. We have tea. I've been to her house the last few times. Jeanne, you need to come over to my house to see the changes I've made! We're both very family-oriented people and my whole family knows Jeanne.
Cooper: Caren, my daughter, loves her husband.
Walton: And we ran into Corbin (Bernsen) the other day at Bloomingdale's. Did he tell you?
Weekly: After all this time together, can you two still surprise each other?
Walton: She still surprises me onstage, but I hate surprises out there. Most actors say they love it and it keeps them fresh. It throws me for a loop.
Cooper: Like years ago, when Jill said she was going into training for the marathon and Katherine just looked at her and started laughing. I was supposed to laugh just a bit and then she'd ask why...
Walton: But she laughed through the whole scene!
Cooper: It was so strange. I just kept laughing and the guy in the scene started to laugh.
Walton: That was probably my boytoy, Sean.
Weekly: Would you like your characters to find love--or boytoys--again?
Cooper: I definitely would, but it has to come from the past. Maybe Felipe, whom Katherine met years ago when she jumped ship to kill herself, will return as a beautiful, gray-haired man.
Walton: I have no idea what's coming Jill's way. I haven't worked with Ted (Shackelford, Will), the DA, for a while. Now there's this flirtation happening with Ji Min.
Cooper: Jill's a very *friendly* person at heart. But that works. Those two have great chemistry.
Walton: Are you kidding? In that one scene you saw it?
Cooper: Just like with Shark (Fralick, ex-Larry) and it worked. Larry was a good lay. Even Katherine went along with it.
Weekly: Katherine and Jill are progressive, professional women who've survived to tell some outrageous stories, just as you two have. What's the wildest story Jeanne's ever told you, Jess?
Walton: I can't tell you that! I can't tell you most of them.
Cooper: Jess was surprised. I was just as wild and woolly as she was. We were different, though.
Walton: She was more movie-oriented and I was more rock 'n' roll oriented. It was different times. My wildest time was the '60s. I was one of the Ladies of the Canyon and one of the houses on that (Joni Mitchell) album cover was mine. Rock 'n' roll history.
Cooper: And I thought Alabama was a state, not a rock band.
Weekly: Also, like your characters, neither of you is a woman who holds her tongue.
Walton: True. I work things out verbally, where other people might hold it in until they solve it within themselves. Jeanne and I are a bit alike in that way. We're quick to flare, but we're also quick to let it go. I'll let her vent, she'll let me vent and then we'll calm down. After it's over, it's over. Both of us love laughter and joy more than anything. That's what life is about and we find it. We don't carry grudges.
Cooper: Jess gets angry and she's up with the phone, talking heatedly. But if I get too angry, there's nothing left in the dressing room. This morning, I was thisclose over something inane and stupid.
Walton: I heard you and I knew that you just needed that escape valve. I was upset, too.
Cooper: Repetitive, repetitive, repetitive! I tell you, I wouldn't have taken it from my children after....
Walton: Jeanne, calm down. Your body is twisted and off. I'm nervous about your sciatic thing.
Cooper: (Takes a breath and laughs). See, you open yourself up to negativity and suddenly you're limping like me with my sciatica. Jess and I don't allow that. Both of us have always believed in positive energy and we're the first ones to enjoy what we do here. No matter how we fight something at first or whether we ever see the other person's point of view, we'll bring life to it.
Weekly: Is there less to fight about now that your characters are back to bickering?
Walton: It's not about the bickering. That appeals to our sense of humor and of course we enjoy that.
Cooper: It's about the underlying conflict. Katherine and Jill will always have this reserve in their hearts that "I am right and you are wrong!" about Phillip and the Chancellor name.
Walton: Absolutely. They will never come to a meeting of the minds on that.