One Life to Live's Cramer Women

Interviews

SOD's Most Beautiful Women in Daytime: Kassie De Paiva 08/18/98.

My First Role From the Grand Ol' Opry to a horror flick to daytime television, Kassie DePaiva's career has run the gamut. Before she became ONE LIFE TO LIVE'S bad girl, Blair Daimler Manning, DePaiva got her start as GUIDING LIGHT sweetheart Chelsea Reardon, a part she played from 1986-1991. Written by Sara Ford for Soap Opera Digest 06/23/98.

The Wind Beneath Her Wings OLTL's Gina Tognoni has discovered that the secret to flying high is self acceptance. An article from Soap Opera Weekly 02/17/98.

Llanview's Leading Ladies Let Loose! An article from Soap Opera Digeset 8/27/96.

An excerpt from A Jealous Lover An article about how soap stars really feel about love scenes from Soap Opera Digeset 8/10/90 during Kassie DePaiva's days on GL.

Country Chic The Laura Bonarrigo (now Koffman) Interview from Soap Opera Digest 11/26/91.

SOD's Most Beautiful Women in Daytime: Kassie De Paiva
08/18/98

Courtesy of Laura

When do you feel the most beautiful?
"When I'm dancing with my husband, Jimmy."

What's your best feature?
"My spirit."

Your worst?
"My hairy arms."

What's the nicest compliment you've ever been given?
"My goodness, you sure don't look your age."

Do you have a favorite outfit?
"I like blue jeans, T-shirts and cowboy boots. That's when I feel the most comfortable."

What's your biggest beauty blunder?
"Wearing too much makeup on days when you don't feel quite attractive enough. You put on too much makeup and then you really feel unattractive."

Do you have any beauty secrets?
"I was blessed with a beautiful grandmother and a beautiful mother. My mom is 5 foot 10, naturally thin and has a beautiful smile. Any of my nice qualities, I got from her. I don't have to exercise, I don't eat properly, I don't drink enough water--I'm probably the worst case scenario for beauty."

If you could be a spokesperson for any beauty product, what would it be?
"Jolene facial bleach. That's how I have always sun-lightened my hair."

Are there any perfumes that make you feel sensational?
"When you're young, you wear a lot of makeup, a lot of jewelry and a lot of perfume--at least I used to. Now, less is more for me. When I do wear perfume, it's Chanel No. 5."

What's the best beauty advice your mother ever gave you?
"Pretty is as pretty does--I grew up with that slogan!"

SOD Article 06/23/98:
My First Role

Courtesy of Laura

"Chelsea was a pull-you-up-by-your-bootstraps kind of girl," recalls DePaiva. "She was a very strong character. Chelsea came on married to a famous race car driver. He had been in a car accident, and I tried to sue [Dr.] Rick Bauer for manslaughter. My husband was a diabetic, or something like that, and Rick gave him the wrong combination of medicines. So for my first day at GL, we were out doing a remote for the car accident. Since it was a nighttime shoot, we started at 2 in the afternoon and didn't finish until something like 8 the next morning. It was really crazy-and really cold. Then, for my first day at the studio, I had to sing three songs. They were auditioning singers at ;the restaurant] Company, so I sang, got the job, and Chelsea was back in Springfield. I was comfortable singing, but I was very nervous. It was like, 'Oh, gosh, now that I've got the job, they're going to think I am a fake.' And I didn't know anything about working with cameras. I had done a film in the summer, Evil Dead II, but I had never worked three-camera television. Well, I kept my job. Every day, you think, 'Okay, they're going to call me to the office now.' And every day, I would heave a sigh of relief, and say, 'Well I made it through one more.'

"Phillip was Chelsea's first sweetheart. Actually, John Bolger was the first Phillip that I worked with-for four or five months. And then they brought back Grant Aleksander, who had originated the role. It was wonderful working with both of them. I was just overwhelmed by the fact that I had actually gotten the job and moved to New York. I knew absolutely no one. I also worked with Jamie Goodwin [Johnny]. I love Jamie-he's a very gracious, giving actor. And he's such a great guy. There was a time when I was struggling, trying to find an identity within the show. Jamie was my touchstone throughout all of that. As friends, we would commiserate with one another. We felt like the red-headed stepchildren of GUIDING LIGHT.

SPW Article 02/17/98:
The Wind Beneath Her Wings: OLTL's Gina Tognoni discovered that the secret to flying high is self-acceptance.

Midway through lunch at a bistro on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Gina Tognoni (Kelly Cramer, OLTL) hits on the perfect metaphor for her recent life changes. "I see myself as a little sparrow," she muses. "One who is ready to take flight. I have this wonderful job, and it looks like as an actress I have taken flight, but in many areas in my life I have not. So what I am doing for myself is making sure that I got my wings up and I'm ready to fly, but the air underneath my wings is going to be given to me by God. If I do my work, he will do his, and everything else will fall into place."

Things do seem to be falling nicely into place - thanks in no small part to the effort Tognoni has made to ensure that those pieces find their perfect fit. The 24-year-old joined OLTL in February 1995 (she recently re-signed for an additional two years) and has used the opportunity not only to grow as an actress but as an exercise in self-exploration.

"I have gone through a lot of changes in the last three years," she says with a smile, her hazel eyes sparkling against her flawless complexion. "I have gained more confidence, and my outlook has done an aobut-face. This job gave me a lot of confidence, losing 20 pounds gave me confidence, saying publicly that my faith is important to me gives me confidence. So it wasn't just one thing that has helped me grow. Also, I've gone through a journey in my short time on this earth that I saw some of the choices I was making in my career, relationships and just my own well being were not the right ones. The choices I make now, and the things I say now, I say in stone. Being able to do that has been a definite confidence builder."

But don't let her calm, cool exterior fool you; she admits she's just as scared and neurotic as the next person. "My whole life is ahead of me, and I have big decisions to make," she says. "And one thing that I do that is not helpful, but I am working on, is that I put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself. So I'm really trying to relax and accept that I'm not perfect - that I'm confused, that I get scared and that I don't always make the best decisions. Before, I thought you only had confidence when you were perfect. When you could walk down the street and say, 'I did this and this, and I did it perfectly.' But no. It really starts from teh concept that you're not perfect, and being confident in that fact. A lot of it is making mistakes, learning from the mistakes and then kicking butt the next time you go back out there."

Focusing on one's imperfection isn't the key to happiness, so Tognoni is trying to focus on the good in everything she does. "I know a lot of people who have a heck of a lot and have no joy," she says, choosing her words carefully. "There have been times in my life that everything looked perfect, but I had no joy. For example, several years ago I was at an event where numerous actors were being showcased. This was my first fan event, and it was ego-boosting. They drove us down a parade route, did all these wonderful things for us, lots of fanfare - what every actor would ever want. This was success for me; I had gotten to the point where people knew my name and liked me. But as we were riding down the street I looked around and thought: Am I really happy about this? And I wasn't. Sometimes it is your vessel meaning who you are, if you can handle what is being thrown at you and appreciate it. I couldn't appreciate where I was. I felt guilty for that, because with all that God has given me, not to be happy was a sin. It put an indelible makr on my brain, and from that moment on I went on a crusade to find joy in the smallest things. Even just walking down the street and feeling the sun on my face. I also am learning how to ask for joy, because I know I am entitled to it. That has been difficult for me, but it is worth it, because I am a happier person - and people want to be around you when you're happy."

She also finds joy in portraying Kelly - even during Kelly's darkest hours, which in the last year have been many. Kelly was jilted by her boyfriend; her reaction to the news resulted in an accident that killed her cousin Blair's unborn baby. Now she's torn between two loves.

"It was wonderful to sink my teeth into a good story, but coughing up all those emotions Kelly was dealing with over the death of Blair's baby wasn't easy," Togononi says. "God, though, has blessed me with some difficult real-life issues - or things I have interpreted deeper than others - which I call up when I need them."

Not unlike her portrayer, there is a quiet strength to Kelly, underscored by vulnerability. "Kelly is a work in progress," Tognoni notes. "She's a survivor - and surviving has made her who she is. She has also come to a point in her life where she doesn't want to be punched. That's how I feel. I am not perfect, but I am not going to let life punch me around because of it. That's empowering, and that's exactly what's helping Kelly. I can relate to her with that. That's why the scenes with Blair have been so real; you believe it, because there's real fire behind it. That's Gina's fire. I find it funny how your character mirrors your real life," she adds. "A lot of times what Kelly was going through Gina was going through or had gone through. It was too weird. Maybe the writers sense that I'm growing, then write about it."

Even though Kelly has shed more tears of pain than of laughter, Tognoni is thrilled with the direction head writers Claire and Matt Labine are taking her character. "I have never felt so appreciated as an actor," she says. "Claire came up to me the other day and said, 'I want you to know that you are a joy to write for and you make us so happy.' She said it with such genuine spirit, and that meant the world to me. I'll always remember."

Praise from a head writer - not too shabby for a girl who fell into acting after representing Rhode Island in a few beauty pageants. (She was a finalist for Miss Teen USA and first runner-up for Miss Teen All-America in 1993.) "I don't consider myself a serious actor - I never have," she says. "I consider myself someone with talent who excels if given the right material. If it isn't the right material, then I certainly try my best. I am just someone who enjoys experiencing the emotions needed to play out a specific moment or scene. It's a challenge."

While Kelly's relationships usually seem destined for disaster, Tognoni's "are very fulfilling," she says. Pushed to elaborate, she adds: "I have been dating a really nice guy for a year and a half. He's a good person, very grounded, he has a healthy outlook, and I love being around him."

Tognoni looks forward to seeing what the future holds for both Kelly and herself. "More tears no doubt for Kelly," she says with a laugh. "But I don't mind those scenes, because they are cathartic. For myself, I would like to get into modeling again. I love expressing myself through the clothes and the concept of the thought. I feel free in front of the camera. Quite honestly, if I were tall enough, I'd make that my career."

"There is also a part of me taht would like to have a creative but normal job," she adds. "An actor's life is stressful, because you don't know where you are going to be. You can't have a home base unless you are making enough money and are at a certain level that you can pick your projects. It would be great if I reaached that level. But part of me wants to have a family and teach Sunday school. I'm very traditional, and I truly believe that one day I'll have a a husband and children, and I'll drive my kids to soccer practice and sit on the bench and watch them play. That is a dream I hold dear."

Whatever path is chosen, Tognoni believes "that God has laid out a beautiful plan for me - I just have to show up for it."

No doubt she'll be there with wings spread..

SOD Article 8/27/96:
Llanview's Leading Ladies Let Loose!

Courtesy of Jenn from The Laura Koffman Page

"We are family" might be the new motto for One Life to Live's Cramer women. United in the pursuit of fame, fortune, and a fabulous wardrobe, these ladies have decided that they can get what they want without the help of the opposite sex. Kassie DePaiva (Blair), Gina Tognoni (Kelly), Robin Strasser (Dorian), and Laura Koffman (Cassie) sat down with Soap Opera Digest for a no-holds barred chat at the chi chi Cafe des Artistes restaurant in New York City. --by Karen Swanson

Strasser: It's a little self-serving, but winning the Soap Opera Digest award has to be right up there. That was a big thrill.

Strasser: And I'm a little superstitious, too. After dress rehearsal, they'll say, "Oh, that was so good." I'm like, "Don't tell me."

DePaiva: She thinks we're complimenting her, but we're not. I'm trying to tell her she sucks.

DePaiva: Actually, her wardrobe is what's working [smiles]. There have been some dresses she's worn that I'll say, "I'm sorry, I cannot work with this. She has those big boobies; I can't work with her."

Strasser: [Ray, the stage manager] always says, "We're just trying to make the material more uplifting."

DePaiva: It's like, never work with babies, animals, or Robin's breasts. You just can't compete.

Strasser: All right, was that dress too low-cut for the Soap Opera Digest Awards? Yes, it was, but I had never worn anything like that. Even my mother was astonished.

Strasser: I got nailed by the New York Daily News for wearing too low-cut a dress and they said Gina's was...

Strasser: Patricia Mauceri [Carlotta] and I once made "Worst Dressed" in the Enquirer. We didn't deserve it. It was the hottest day, 104 degrees, and we were at a blood drive. We were giving up our time for a fund-raiser and we got nailed for wearing flowered dresses.

DePaiva: They don't cover my rear end, they don't cover my boobs. I love Susan Gammie [OLTL costume designer] but she...

Tognoni: I was nominated for a Soap Opera Digest Award--that was fantastic. It was the first time I'd ever been nominated for anything.

Strasser: She's the best young actress I've ever worked with--and I've worked with plenty.

DePaiva: I think Laura [as Cassie] should have a fantasy sequence. In each scene a [different] actor comes in and takes his clothes off and she sleeps with him. The first scene should be with Kevin Stapleton [Kevin].

DePaiva: There was this scene where Cassie is supposed to be speechless when she sees Kevin without his shirt on. [In real life] Laura said, "Oh, my God."

Koffman: I was so mortified, he opens up the door and I was like [shows a stunned look]. I blew all my lines.

Koffman: And Robyn Goodman [supervising producer] said, "Nice chest, huh Laura?"

Tognoni: Susan Haskell [Marty]. I think she's awesome. And Thorsten [Kaye, Patrick]. I had a few scenes with him. Man, he's so there. He's sooo there.

Strasser: I would love to work with Bob Woods [Bo]. Years and years ago, Dorian and Bo went on a date. He took off his cowboy hat and planted one on me. It was enjoyable. They never let me do a scene with him again. Broke my heart.

Digest: Let's do male word association. I'll name a co-star and you tell me the first word that pops into your head. We'll start with Thorsten Kaye.

Strasser: Look how much he's changed in just the last year and a half. He's a major player and we'll all be very proud to have known him.

DePaiva: Laura and I share a room. She is clean. When I moved in with her, she told me where I could hang my pictures.

Strasser: My mom thanks you. Actually, if there's anybody who needs to be taken shopping, it's Cassie.

DePaiva: I see that coming around the corner. Of course, last week, Dorian says, "Come on Cassie, aren't you tired of that reverand?" I thought I would...

DePaiva: He's over at my gym all the time. I would love to work with John Travola. I think my energy could work off him. That'd be fun.

Strasser: Robert DeNiro and Liam Neeson. In separate scenes. And Tommy Lee Jones. Yep, darn it, I didn't play the part then, but Dorian apparently had an affair with Tommy Lee Jones's character [Dr. Mark Toland, 1971-75].

Koffman: I love Harrison Ford. I saw him once in Sloan's [supermarket] at 10 o'clock at night. I said to him, "I love your work, forever." Forever? S--t! He looked at me and said, "Thanks." For three days, I kept thinking, "What a jerk I am. What a jerk!"

Digest: Is there an initiation ritual you go through when you do your first love scene on the show?

Strasser: You wouldn't want to do a love scene with somebody who you didn't like the taste, smell or feel of--that's a lot like life.

DePaiva: I worked with an actor for a year and a half who didn't want to do love scenes with me. He was very uncomfortable with sexual scenes. That's very difficult, but you have to do the best you can and try not to take it personally.

DePaiva: I had to strip down to a bra and panties. You feel extremely naked. I've also done love scenes where I just had pasties on.

Strasser: If something showed, I would rather they have cut the tape than have that Band-Aid shot.

DePaiva: I think women's issues can be dealt with. And we could talk about self-esteem.

DePaiva: See, that's something. Neither does Blair. I think the Cramer women can put the "fun" is dysfunction.

Guiding Light's Kassie Wesley (Chelsea) is married to Richard Hankins,the show's Emmy winning art director,and they'll celebrate their second anniversary in September."Richard get's to see all my love scenes from beginning to end",Kassie explains,"because he watches rehearsals on a TV monitor in his office.He never has a problem with my doing romantic stuff because he certainly knows it's work.Besides,since he's part of the show himself,he knows firsthand how unsexy the whole thing really is.Getting all hot and bothered on camera is a lot different then getting all hot and bothered in real life.On TV,you have to lie there in these awkward,uncomfortable positions,so the director can frame the shot right.Plus you have all these crew and camera people hovering over you and watching the whole thing.It only looks romantic on screen".

Still,Kassie admits,every now and then Richard has teased her after a show by demanding,"Did you have to kiss that guy so hard?"However, he wasn't at all concerned when Kassie had to do a semi-nude bedroom scene with TV mate James Goodwin (Johnny)."They cut the straps off my bra,so they wouldn't show on camera",Kassie recalls."They were only shooting my back,and to keep my bra from falling down,they taped the front of it to my chest.I felt ridiculous and not the least bit sexy.When Richard saw me just before taping,he had this big grin.I said to him,"If you laugh,I'll clobber you.Don't even think about!"

Just The Facts
BIRTHPLACE: Brookline, MA HEIGHT: 5' 5'
BIRTHDAY: October 29 ("I'm a Scorpio, so I can get really intense.")
MARITAL STATUS: Single
FAVORITE ACTRESSES: Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon
PEOPLE COMPARE HER TO: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
LAST BOOK READ: How to Meditate.
FAVORITE MUSIC: Jazz and New Age
PET PEEVES: People who are always late; movies that don't start on time.
FAVORITE DAYDREAM: "Jumping on a sailboat with my husband and doing a world tour for two years."
WORST THING THAT HAPPENED TO HER AS A CONTESTANT IN THE NATIONAL TEENAGER PAGEANT: "My clothes were stolen!"

She's a genuine Maine farm girl who raised steers, milked goats, and raised lambs, then took a mother's helper job when she moved to New York to launch an acting career. But Laura Bonarrigo is definitely not a naive bumpkin who needs to have her hand held as she makes the rounds in Manhattan. Now playing journalist Cassie Callison on ONE LIFE TO LIVE, the twenty-seven-year-old-actress says, "I hope this doesn't sound egotistical, but I have a strong personality, and I usually accomplish what I set out to do. When I meet people for the first time, I have to pull my energy in to get them to talk. I can come across as threatening."

Self-assured is more like it, but not in an off-putting way. Bonarrigo balances her beauty and sophistication with a nervous laugh and an appealing openness about her life. Commenting on Cassie's relationship with older man Bo Buchanan (Robert S. Woods), for example, she confesses, "It's not uncomfortable for me, because I date older men. I'm actually trying to get down the mean age of the men I date. My new rules are: no one over thirty-five, no one with kids, and no actors. But I'm terribly attracted to older men."

Apparently, the feeling is mutual. Contrary to the experience of many New York single women, Bonarrigo has found herself resisting the marital overtures of several fortyish fellows in the past few years. "They look at me and think, 'She'd be a great mom,' and they want to plant me down and marry me," she says with a touch of bewilderment. "I fall for it until the moment we're ready to plant and then I panic. It gets really confusing when you fall in love with a [divorced man's] child, and the dad and the kid fall in love with you as new mommy, and then you try to break it off with dad. Oh boy! So my last few dates have all been under thirty-five."

Though Bonarrigo praises the strength and confidence of older men, the real explanation for her attraction to them may lie closer to home. When Laura was in the fourth grade, her mother married a man twenty-five years older who, ironically, had once been her father's teacher at a boy's prep school in Massachusetts. Laura calls her stepfather "Daddy" and speaks warmly of his willingness to take on a large second family. "He had raised five kids of his own and lost his wife, then he married my mother, who had six kids ranging in age from two to thirteen," she says. "I have a lot of respect and love for him. He's a stern and very appropriate WASP [Bonarrigo's heritage is Italian and Russian], but he's a wonderful man. He really raised us."

Bonarrigo's real father eventually moved from Massachusetts to Maine with his second wife and their child to make weekend visits easier. Now, she says, "It's refreshing to go from one family to the other, because they're totally different. It took me years to feel close to my dad and his wife, but things have all worked out. A lot of kids who go through divorce aren't as fortunate as we are."

Life was simple on the family farm in Thomaston, Maine, where Bonarrigo--an honor student--alternated barnyard chores with appearances in local plays. Amazingly, the budding actress seldom went to movies or watched television because the family didn't own a set. "Sometimes I'd watch GENERAL HOSPITAL's Luke and Laura while I was babysitting, but if my mother had found out, I'd have been in so much trouble! My parents were both teachers, so we had to read and go to bed early because of the chores. They felt that if their kids were mucking stalls, they couldn't be on the street getting into trouble, and it's very true. My brothers and sisters are extremely responsible, and I've come to realize that I'm a workaholic." Though Bonarrigo still doesn't own a TV or VCR, her parents have mellowed with age. They've joined a movie rental club and watch ONE LIFE TO LIVE "religously." After high school graduation, Bonarrigo applied to the fine arts program at New Jersey's Rutgers University. She spent two years as an acting student before switching to a general theater major with more emphasis on history and English courses. "For me," she explains, "it was really important to feel that I was getting a good education."

Later, degree in hand, she spent a year living on the island of Rhodes, teaching English to Greek-American children and enjoying side trips to countries such as Germany, France, and Italy.

Once she returned home, Bonarrigo commuted between New York and Maine, modeling, studying acting, and pondering her options. An office job at a TV commercial agency--where she saw actors of all ages, shapes and sizes come and go--was a real eye opener. "It made me realize that acting was something I could continue to do my whole life," she recalls. "All of a sudden, I lost the feeling that if I didn't make it by twenty-five, I might as well quit. It's like, I never felt I was tall enough or thin enough. I hadn't finished my training, I didn't want to be a starving waitress.... When you're young you absolutely believe there are rules about these things. But once I made the commitment, things fell into place fast.

To survive in New York, Bonarrigo took a mother's helper job with a family friend who's a single parent. Her job involved shepherding the woman's two children, a fourteen-year-old son and an eleven-year-old daughter. She did so well as a female CHARLES IN CHARGE that even today--in spite of her budding TV stardom--Bonarrigo continues to live with the family, making breakfasts and lunches for the kids, cleaning the kitchen and walking the family dog. "When I'm carpooling, I'm 'Lauren's babysitter', and that's it", she says. "It's very grounding for me. I'm like an extra pair of hands, and the woman I work for has been very supporting. If the kids had been younger, I couldn't have accepted the job, but they are sophisticated New York kids. And I need to have that feeling of family in the city. They've asked me to stay at least through December and, right now, the company is more important to me than going home to my own place."

Even if she had an apartment, Bonarrigo wouldn't have much time to enjoy it. After joining OLTL, she was instantly thrown into a sizzling TV romance with the popular Bob Woods (Bo), who says, "Laura is so enthusiastic about everything, it rubs off on me. I've been here twelve years and often take things for granted, but she makes me see things as if for the first time". In return, she says, "I enjoy working with Bob so much. He's really a grounded, dependable person, like Bo, and he's been a big help." She laughs. "He's always scolding me because I haven't seen any movies. Because of him, I have a running list of films to see when I get a TV set." (Her list includes Annie Hall and the original Father of the Bride, with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor.)

Normally, any actress's debut is tense, but Bonarrigo's arrival on OLTL coincided with a major backstage shake-up. Just three weeks after her starting date, Bonarrigo got a new boss: Linda Gottlieb succeeded Paul Rauch as executive producer, and a new writing team came aboard. Asked about the recent change, Bonarrigo says frankly, "I have no old loyalties, because I never watched the show. It's all new and exciting to me. What's nice is that the show's transition has been my transition, and I try to stay out of conversations and situations that don't involve me".

After a recent hectic day in which she'd gone to husiness meetings all over the city, Bonarrigo says she paused to ask herself, "Can you believe this is really you? You're riding up to the tenth floor at ABC". She laughs at the memory. "I got such a kick out of it. Someday I'll have animals and a farm of some sort in the country, but this is the stage my life is in now, and it's great."