Publication: Soap Opera Digest
Author: Carolyn Hinsey
Date: November 10, 1998
Can Catherine Hickland and Kale Browne find happiness playing divorcees on OLTL? The truth is out there.
Here's what you need to know: Catherine Hickland (Lindsay, One Life to Live) is married to Michael E. Knight (Tad, All My Children), who is old friends with Kale Browne (Sam, OLTL; ex-Michael, Another World). Hickland and Browne now play ex-marrieds on their soap.
Digest: Tell me about the first time you met in real life.
Browne: We woke up and introduced ourselves after a party the night before. And, there was this guy next to me - it was Mike! And he said, "I'd like you to meet Catherine, my wife..."
Hickland: ...and then he woke up.
Browne: Actually I saw her on an episode of Knight Rider, a zillion years ago. I said, "Hey a looker - and she can act." Little did I know that one day...
Hickland: ... you'd be saddled with me for the rest of your days on One Life To Live. I really met him through Michael. Then he moved in with us [when he separated from his ex-wife Karen Allen], and I got to know him much better.
Digest: What kind of a roommate is he?
Hickland: He comes and goes so quietly. I would sneak in and peek at him when he was sleeping just so I could lock the door at night.
Digest: Did you bring dates home?
Browne: Listen to you! Not when they were there.
Hickland: We went out of town, and my maid tattled on him. I heard all about Senor Kale's ... escapades.
Browne: As a matter of fact, Mike said, "You have to get an apartment because I like our friendship; I want to keep it."
Digest: Did OLTL ask who you thought would be good for the role of your wife?
Browne: Yes. I said Catherine Hickland.
Hickland: Is that true? Oh, my God, I owe it all to you.
Browne: It just so happened that ABC liked you tremendously, so that was that.
Digest: You came on for one day?
Browne: We both started as day players.
Hickland: Do you remember your paychecks? You were cashing them on the bus! [To Digest] When you're a day player, the money is not the greatest.
Browne: But I really wanted the job. I figured, "Well, ABC or bus boy?" Then ABC called the night of my first aired show, and I was stunned. [To Hickland] Well, you know - you have it on tape.
Hickland: We were out of town, and my answering machine recorded Jill [Farren Phelps, OLTL Executive Producer] telling him that they were going to give him a contract. We checked in for messages and Michael said, "Honey, listen to this!"
Browne: It was so not expected.
Digest: Have you kissed on-screen yet?
Browne: No.
Digest: Have you kissed off-screen? [Everyone laughs.]
Browne: Well, sometimes when it was late, and I was wandering around the apartment....
Hickland: (ignoring him) Actually, when I first got this job, I was thinking that it would be so weird if we had to kiss each other. But now, I totally think he's Sam.
Browne: Yeah?
Hickland: I do. I come to work, and he's dressed up in a suit, looking fine...
Digest: And in real life?
Hickland: In real life, this is what you get [points to Browne, who's wearing jeans, a T-shirt and cowboy boots]. But when you see him in a suit, all groomed... I can imagine it.
Digest: Do you ever borrow your clothes from the show?
Browne: Just for appearances [at fan events]. The only suits I have are from the old show [AW], from the first time I left. I went to put one on the other day, and the lapel was this wide [measures shoulder to shoulder with his hands]. They've been dry-cleaned so many times they have no body to them.
Digest: So basically, your look when you dress up is Michael Hudson, circa 1988?
Browne: Very funny. I actually just bought an Armani suit for a wedding I had to go to in California.
Digest (to Browne): What did you think when they married Lindsay to Clint?
Browne: I thought they were going to lay in more of the quadrangle with Bo and Nora, so I was surprised. Digest (to Hickland): What about you?
Hickland: I was seconds away from having my hands on Bob Woods [Bo], which was really exciting to me. I was like, "Okay, all those who are going to be married to Bob Woods, please step forward! Not so fast. It just shocked me.
Digest: Did Lindsay think Sam was going to stop her from marrying Clint?
Hickland: Of course! I was hoping he would erupt and cry and beg me not to do it.
Digest: Because Lindsay loves Sam?
Hickland: Sure she does.
Digest: But does Sam love Lindsay?
Browne: Yeah, but ... I've been baffled about that. I think it's really important to see why they got married in the first place. They have conflict, historical angst. But we've never gotten to explore why Lindsay is so ticked at me and wants t get back at me. Something else is going on.
Digest: What do you think it is?
Hickland: I don't even know. It's obvious that Sam was the love of my life, but Nora was the love of his life - and that is a big sore point with me.
Digest: So, Sam and Lindsay have a son and a daughter?
Hickland: Yes, poor girl.
Browne: Ah, the phantom Jen.
Digest: Why are you guys such good parents to Will and such bad parents to Jen?
Browne: Here's the deal: whatever child comes to stay with us we will take care of. But we don't visit anybody [laughs]. So, we lucked out that Will came to Llanview. Otherwise we wouldn't be seeing Will, either.
Digest: How will Lindsay and Sam react to Will impregnating Jessica?
Hickland: I think Sam will be much more tolerant of this news. Lindsay is going to flip right out.
Digest: Didn't Sam have a conversation with him about condoms?
Browne: Yeah, we talked about that. Sam carries a body condom around. It weighs four pounds, but covers every spare inch of me.
Digest: Well, you've got Blair and Nora sniffing after you, so you need it.
Browne: [the writers] were trying to pawn Will off as a little virgin. I said. Wait a minute. This kid is coming in, he's in college ... look at him. He's not a bookworm." It's not like Jessica was the first time.
Hickland: On soaps, it's only a cool thing to be a virgin if you're a man in your late 30s, like James on Bold and Beautiful. I waited months to see James loose his virginity.
Browne: The thing is, Sam and Will have the same story right now, the identical story. So we can provide each other with company, or I an rip his head off.
Digest (to Hickland): So now, due to your machinations, your ex-husband has slept with the one person you never wanted him to be with.
Hickland: That's right.
Browne: It would be nice if that was played up a little bit - that she has created the very thing she wanted to avoid.
Hickland: The thing that gets my goat is that he slept with her.
Browne: We didn't sleep. I'm a fertile guy - the next day, she had a glow about her, craving pickles...
Hickland (rolling her eyes): All right, you didn't sleep. I think Nora is complete trash because Bo is such a great guy.
Digest: What is Lindsay's relationship with Clint through all of this?
Hickland: I don't know. Since He's been back, it's been barely a peck on the cheek.
Digest: How do you guys feel about coming on as day players, and now being involved in all the big storylines?
Hickland: Fortunate, grateful.
Browne: Yes. Bur I have to day that a lot of times, there seems to be no good reason to put Sam in a lot of the stuff that he's been in. I thing the audience eventually begins to resent it. There's never a moment where I don't love my job, but there have been moments where I thought "Where do I get off being in this scene?"
Hickland: In a perfect soap world, every main character would work three days a week, and the storylines would rotate.
Browne: You want to be in it for the long haul. The audience gets so sick of [overused characters] after a while. It creates a lack of balance. Like with the kids. They come on, they burn out after a couple of years, they boogie off and...
Digest: ...go and get famous"?
Browne: Right. It's the rare person who survives any kind of celebrity. It's completely destroying. If you're a kid, you think it translates outside this, and it doesn't. It doesn't even translate within the medium, for God's sake. Case in point is my situation. I lucked out with Hilary [B. Smith, Nora], but I don't think for a moment that it's me. It takes the effort of a lot of people. But kids come in and go, "Whoop-de-do. Look at us."
Hickland: Not the kids we have.
Digest: Do you give them advice?
Browne: I give them bad advice. I lie to them constantly, I tell them to stand where there's no light. Actually, Jason [-Shane Scott, Will] is the sweetest guy.
Hickland: He's like my own son. I'm very protective of him. David Fumero [Cristian], Erin Torpey [Jessica], Erika Page [Roseanne] and Jason Scott have an uncanny ability to weed out the negativity and enjoy the experience.
Digest: What happens now?
Hickland: I have a lot of secrets. No. 1: I know that Bo can really father a child. No. 2: I know Nora had sex with Sam.
Browne: And you've seen Clint naked. That's secret No. 3.
Hickland: I can't talk about it.
Browne: I'm not surprised.
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