Back in the day, fans watched a network's entire soap lineup; those days are long gone, but ABC Daytime president Angela Shapiro wants to restore the tarnished tradition. Her secret weapon is none other than beloved soap opera veteran Linda Dano. When Another World was canceled last spring, Shapiro wasted no time in hiring the Emmy-winning actress to return to the ABC family as Gretel Cummings (now called Rae). The plan is for Dano to jump from one ABC soap to another to help encourage across-the-board viewership. After a successful stint on OLTL Dano is headed to AMC as Rae locks horns with Adam Chandler. Dano, who's proving herself to be the perfect accessory to ABC Daytime, receives the ACE award from The Accessories Council at a gala ceremony held at the Rainbow Room in New York tonight, Nov. 2. While setting up her AMC dressing room, she took time to chat with TV Guide Online about returning to ABC, the causes she champions, and a romance for Rae.— Michael J. Maloney How has it been being back at ABC? For a while I felt guilty because I became employed and not all of my [Another World] friends did. I take every experience now and, I guess because of my age, I know how important each of these things is. I know the only thing you can do is hang on, go for the ride and also be beyond grateful that it's happening. I know I'll never lose sight of that. I worked with David Canary (Adam/Stuart, AMC) for the second time the other day. It's thrilling, professionally, to be given this opportunity. I recently said to my husband, Frank, "I can't begin to tell you how wonderful this is for me." And I worry about everything. I ask myself, "Will they like me? Will I do OK?" I make myself crazy because I feel so inadequate most of the time. Jean Dadario Burke (AMC's executive producer) called me into her office and she was so generous. She told me how thrilled [AMC] is to have me and they're excited to write for me. [Laughs] It's almost like she was talking about someone else! Frank wants me to go to the place where I can really enjoy all this. I am trying to. I got the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers on my first day at AMC and the card read, "Come back. We miss you already. Love, Llanview." Initially, ABC wanted to get the rights to your AW character, Felicia Gallant, but as Rae you get to have instant history with people like Viki and Dorian. Plus, it might have been awkward to see Felicia interact with so many characters played by former AW actors. It would have been glorious if it could have been worked out for me to play Felicia. ABC wanted to give something to the Another World fans. But in reality, it was such an easy transition for me as an actress and as a person to come back as a character I had already once played, even though she had changed dramatically. Having history with people like Viki and Dorian was great for me to hang onto. I also felt strongly about Felicia. When the show went off the air and was put into that other place wherever [canceled] shows go, I wanted Felicia to go there, too. When Rae was described as a "relationship expert," people feared you'd be stuck pouring coffee and handing out advice to other characters — but it's been great to see you have your own storyline, as well. I didn't want to just be this person who bounces in and out of all these shows, to be just kind of there with a good outfit on. A great outfit. [Laughs] Of course! A great outfit! I'm an actor and you really hunger for those juicy parts that come along. Even in a short amount of time on One Life I've had things to really play, with the flood and then finding out Grace died. It's been challenging material as an actress. I was very grateful for that. I heard you did your own stunts! Yes. They hired a stuntwoman but we didn't use her that much. Anything I can do to help create the mystery and excitement, I'm willing to do — including stunts. [Laughs] That is, if they don't kill me. The funny thing is I saw the stuntwoman and she had a wig on where the hair stood straight up. I thought, "Is this how my hair looks?" So we had a good laugh. I know you just arrived in Pine Valley, but is there a timetable to go to Port Charles? They're working on a story at GH that ties into the story I'm doing at AMC. We're not sure yet if I'll go back to Llanview before I go out to California to tape scenes [on GH or PC]. There might even be a phone call or two with John Bolger's character (Sykes) while I'm away. There's great chemistry between Rae and Sykes. We almost kiss before I leave. Do you feel that the plan to encourage across-the-board viewing on ABC Daytime is working? I hope so. I try to not even go there. I'll be so disappointed for Angela [Shapiro] if it doesn't work. For me, it's been a wonderful experience getting to work with the best in ABC daytime. I can't imagine it not continuing to be a positive experience for me but I'd love it to also work for ABC. As if four soaps weren't enough, you're staying busy with various other projects including being a spokesperson for the Osteoporosis foundation. How's your mom, who has osteoporosis, doing? She's doing fine, thank you. She's on certain kinds of medicine now that are helping her enormously. It's lessening her pain. My message to women — and men — is that you can short-circuit this disease. You can take care of it at a younger age by taking calcium and getting exercise. It can make osteoporosis a thing of yesterday. Have you found that viewers have followed you from AW to ABC? Yes. I found that out at Super Soap Weekend. I can't tell you how many Felicia Gallant fans there were there who are now watching ABC. I was very pleased by that. What was so great about coming to One Life to Live is that I had so many friends there. Not just the Another World actors like Kale Browne (ex-Michael; now OLTL's Sam) and others, but old friends like Erika Slezak, Bobby Woods and Robin Strasser (Viki, Bo and Dorian). That made it even more wonderful. It's a nice company, and also my dear friend Jill Phelps (OLTL's executive producer) is there, too. You were on The Rosie O'Donnell show last week for breast cancer awareness month. Yes. I took a woman into the hospital and she had not had a mammography in four years. Her father died in the same hospital. She was a candidate for something terrible, but thank you God, everything turned out OK. I told her before we went in that her father was here with us right now and that he's not going to let anything happen. And nothing did. I'm really bad about going to the doctor myself, but I'm getting better about it. Tonight, you'll be getting the ACE award from The Accessories Council. I'm just so pleased to be honored by the fashion industry. I say thank you to Kathie Lee Gifford, who nominated me. I'm quite thrilled. I feel unworthy other than I'm passionate about accessories. We really have it backwards. We feel we need to own a closet full of clothes. But you can have just five or six different outfits and if you accessorize them right you can look as if you have 25 outfits. Accessories last forever and are so much more fun to buy. You can buy a pin and it will last forever. You're very outgoing, but are you comfortable with the attention you'll be getting tonight? No. It's fascinating that you'd know that about me. I'm beyond honored and thrilled, but I'm not [comfortable with the attention]. Here's an example: I was at Super Soap Weekend, which was a great honor, and rode on the back of cars down Hollywood Boulevard. It was the most emotional, moving moment that I've ever experienced in my career. I just cried the whole way. I called Frank as soon as I finished the parade. All I could think about was my grandmother and my dad, thinking "How wonderful is this for [Linda]." I've never forgotten where I came from and how much all of this means to me. When I get honored like that and at the ACE awards, I don't take it lightly. I remember how tough it was when I was a kid. I know I've worked hard, but you know what? Thousands of people work hard. I've just been truly blessed and I'll never take that for granted. Ever. |