This week’s guest is Hillary B. Smith, returning to One Life to Live next week as Nora. 

Carolyn: Nora’s finally coming out of her endless coma?
Hillary: She is. She opens her eyes and blinks a response. Then she twitches in front of Matthew. So, there’s stuff happening, but I have no idea whether she’ll get well.
Carolyn: OLTL wouldn’t have re-signed you if they were going to make you lie in bed.
Hillary: One never knows, Carolyn. But I think they are planning to get me up.

Carolyn: Did you watch the show when you weren’t on?
Hillary: No. To be perfectly honest, it was painful because nobody ever spoke about Nora. Nobody went to see her. So I thought, “You know what? I can’t watch this.” It was a little sad. So, I stopped watching and actually, I’m glad I did. I mean, I love to tune in and see what my friends are doing, but now it’s really good that I didn’t because Nora is going to have to catch up on everything.
Carolyn: You won’t know what went on, and neither will your character.
Hillary: There you go. I was Method acting.

Carolyn: Is there a handsome doctor in her future to help her?
Hillary: So far, just Spencer. He’s everywhere.

Carolyn: They’re not going to call in a twitching specialist?
Hillary: I have no idea. I’m hoping I’ll have psychological problems and they’ll have to bring Scott Bryce [John’s doctor] into my bedroom. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Carolyn: Remind readers why that’s funny.
Hillary: Because Scott Bryce played my brother Craig for 6 ½ years on As the World Turns. I played Margo. He was also my roommate when I was [commuting to] California doing Something Wilder. He was a guest star and played my old high school flame. It was hysterical – we were supposed to have this mad, passionate kiss, this complete soap moment, and we banged noses. It was the most awkward thing!

Carolyn: Do you think you’ll remember how to memorize lines?
Hillary: That’s a good question. That’s a muscle and I think it’s atrophied. I’m looking forward to what Dena [Higley, head writer] is going to write. We’ve got a year to find our way with this character – either put her back in the mainstream and build a story, or at least get her some place where the fans aren’t going to be upset [if I leave]. Nora just kind of did a disappearing act. It was upsetting to me. Use it to push Paige and Bo together. Make some resolution about Bo’s feelings about Nora. Have her wake up and say, “I’ve always loved you,” and then die. Something that would further Bo and Matthew along.

Carolyn: So, after a year you have an option to leave?
Hillary: Yes. This was not ABC short-changing me. There were no negotiations. It was a “No, thank you” on my part and that would be the end of it – I think there was some confusion on that. Suddenly the end was there and Brian [Frons, president, ABC Daytime] asked to speak with me. He said maybe we need a little more time. I thought about it and I offered to extend for a year. I wasn’t interested in doing more than a year as it was going. I don’t want to be a prop, I want to work. If there is no room on the canvas for me, then I will move on. That’s the way of soaps. I want the fans to know that, because there were some people upset that ABC only gave me a year, but this was my offer to them. They graciously accepted it, and we’re both really happy with the arrangement. At the end of the year they might turn around and say, “This is not working,” or I might say, “It’s not working for me.” There are no hard feelings.

Carolyn: And I heard you have a small bone to pick with me?
Hillary: This is going back many years from when I was in the train wreck and you wrote about my French manicure. I laughed because I don’t have a manicure. That was nice of you to say, but those are my fingers.
Carolyn: Okay, I won’t write about your French manicure while you are in your coma. Anything else you want to yell at me about?
Hillary: No. But if you ever want to yell at me, just call me up.
Carolyn: Good to know!