What Your Faves Are Talking About

Y&R’s Christel Khalil (Lily) admits she’s sad that Billy and Lily’s breakup means sharing fewer scenes with his portrayer, Jason Thompson. “I already miss Jason!” the actress declares. “He’s such an amazing actor and we got along really well. We had so much fun working together and I definitely miss that. I hope they bring those characters back together. That’s the fun part for fans, right? So I hope we’re able to go down that road again.” However, Khalil is thrilled to be reconnecting on screen with Michael Graziadei (Daniel), especially since there’s still that old spark between Lily and her ex-husband. “I love Graz,” she enthuses. “I’m looking forward to these characters reconnecting and maybe finding their way back to each other — if that’s what the writers are planning. Lily and Daniel got married when they were really young, so it’ll be interesting to watch them interact as adults. They now have kids, just like Graz and I do, so they’re not this young romantic team.

Sean Kanan (Deacon) says he is still in awe of B&B’s ongoing international popularity. “B&B is still wildly successful in dozens of other countries,” he points out. “[Wife] Michele and I just got back from Italy, France, the UK and Dubai, and the show is still wildly popular in all of those other countries. I first realized how big it was when I was with my parents. I think we were in Arizona, and somebody came up to me and in what I later learned was Polish, they were exclaiming that they watched B&B, so I really got a feel for the international reach that B&B had — and still has! It’s an amazing thing for an actor to be a part of something that big. You do so many things as an actor that sometimes never get seen, so to be a part of something that is so widely known around the world, it is a really big deal. I couldn’t be more excited and thrilled.”

When Heather Mazur joined GH as Laura’s deputy mayor, Eileen Ashby, she didn’t realize that Laura was the Laura, of Luke and Laura fame, and that her co-star Genie Francis was such an icon in the annals of daytime history. “I had literally no idea,” she marvels. “I think it was a friend who said, ‘What are you working on these days?’ And I said, ‘GENERAL HOSPITAL,’ and she said, ‘Oh, Luke and Laura.’ And I said, ‘Oh, yeah. Wait. I work with Laura! And I was talking with her and she said she’s been on the show since she was a teenager. Wait, I think I work with the Laura!’ I really didn’t know it until after the fact, but that’s kind of how I roll these days — I have a 5five-year-old and an 8eight-year-old and I can barely keep up with their homework and their activities!” Mazur says that sharing the stage with Francis has been a joy. “It is so lovely to show up, to enter this well-oiled machine that has been going for almost 60 years, and to work with Miss Genie Francis, who has been so kind and shown me the ropes. It’s a nice gift.”

Zach Tinker (ex-Sonny) has some DAYS scenes that he’ll never forget. “I really liked the stuff that I did before I left with Sonny and Will fighting and Sonny and Leo fighting,” Tinker recalls. “Also, there was a scene after Sonny got stabbed, where he and Alex [Robert Scott Wilson] had a fight in the hospital. Alex gave Sonny jelly beans and a stuffed animal. Before the take I asked one of the crew members, ‘Hey, can I throw the jelly beans?’ He said, ‘No. Don’t throw the jelly beans.’ In the take, I was like, ‘I’m going to throw the jelly beans.’ So I threw them, and the bag exploded everywhere. I immediately felt terrible, but I was like, ‘I think this is the right choice to make in the moment.’’. And that’s the take they used. So I’m glad I did that, although in the moment I felt like a massive [jerk].”