For onscreen rivals and offscreen pals Catherine Hickland and Hillary B. Smith, turnabout is fun play at OLTL.

It’s time for the annual Woman of the Year presentation in Llanview, and, as is customary, disaster will strike the recipient. Remember Nora’s revelation that she slept with Sam (while married to Bo), and Evangeline being kidnapped? This time around, Nora presents the award to Lindsay (Can you say catfight?), and a long-awaited mystery is solved. (Don’t miss the last minute of Friday’s episode: The su-Spencer is killing us.)

Real-life pals Hillary B. Smith (Nora) and Catherine Hickland (Lindsay) share the details, on-camera and off.

WEEKLY: How does Nora come to present Lindsay with this year’s award?

Hillary B. Smith: I walk in and say, ‘I have no idea who’s going to receive it, because the person who was supposed to receive it got disqualified at the last minute.’ I find out it’s Lindsay and she finds out I’m presenting and we have that kind of awkwardness. Take it away, Cat.

Catherine Hickland: What’s really great about it is I’m terrified of what she’s going to say about me, because when Nora was getting the Woman of the Year award I basically ruined her life, her marriage and everything. I blew it all apart. So turnabout is fair play. I’m so honored because I’ve been the town pariah for so long and now I’m finally going to be embraced by [all of] Llanview. But deep inside I know there’s something about me that doesn’t deserve it.

WEEKLY: Nora’s a classy woman. Would she really use a public forum to get back at Lindsay?

Hickland: Yes.

Smith: No. Nora wouldn’t do that. I throw the index cards up in the air and say, ‘I’m just going to speak extemporaneously.’ The speech, in my opinion, will remind people why they loved Nora and Lindsay. And the people who never knew Nora and Lindsay will become quickly acquainted with their history. There are a lot of flashbacks, and yet it’s all done very graciously. Things like, ‘Well, we’ve certainly been down in the dumps together,” and there’s a flash-cut back to when we were in a Dumpster together, fighting. ‘She sometimes needles me and gets under my skin,’ and it cuts to her giving me that mind-erasing drug. It’s a great moment, but absolutely graciousness does prevail.

Hickland: For a few minutes, until everything goes haywire.

Smith: Well, listen, that wasn’t my doing. If Lindsay would just behave herself, maybe things would work out.

WEEKLY: I think I know the answer to this, but when you two work together to you ever crack up?

Hickland: You should ask us how we ever get through a scene.

WEEKLY: Do you ever not crack up?

Smith: There have been times when we understand the drama that we’re doing and we hold each other’s hand and look in each other’s eyes, and go, ‘Okay, here we go, I’ll be there if you’re there.’ There has been a lot of out-and-out horrendous stuff Lindsay has done to me. Nora has done nothing, of course. We really had to be there for each other and do the trusting.

Hickland: When we’re doing really heavy-duty drama, especially when one has to say horrendous things or behave in a horrendous way, the other person needs to support them in the story. Otherwise it can make the actor look so unattractive. If it’s not required for one of us to be really showing our raw nerves, we’re always laughing. We laugh on set, we laugh when we go home. We were roommates for a little while in real life.

Smith: We believe that you have to have one good laugh a day. If we can walk out of that building having had one good laugh a day, then everything else is perfect.

WEEKLY: Do you remember when you two knew you would be good friends?

Smith: I remember the first day you came in. I was such a raging fan.

Hickland: We were both like that, actually, because I used to watch her on As the World Turns (as Margo).

Smith: And I watched her on Capitol (as Julie/Jenny).

Hickland: When I came to work on One Life to Live it was pretty immediate. I’ve fallen in love and I can’t get up.

Smith: There was one moment I’ll never forget. It was the night when Catherine was sitting there with this mind-erasing drug in a syringe and she looked at the producers and she [said], ‘Really, my character is insane. She’s gone crazy at this point,’ and the producer said, ‘No, no, absolutely not.’ Catherine looked at me and I watched her go insane.

Hickland: I know what my moment was. When Nora was kidnapped and she was in a coma Hillary used to fall asleep all the time in the scene. Every now and then she’d do a snore and I’d knock her and she’d wake up. One time she fell asleep in the middle of the scene and all of a sudden I saw this marvelous spit bubble. I poked at it with my finger and it woke her up because it splashed all over her face. There you go. How romantic.

WEEKLY: How have each of you changed?

Smith: Well, there are certain things in both of our lives that we’ve taught each other. I’ve seen Catherine grow in other ways and I know the things she’s learned from me. I think Catherine, you would probably say the same thing.

Hickland: Oh, yeah.

Smith: Actingwise, she taught me a lot about lights and makeup.

Hickland: Thanks. “About lights and makeup…” What an artist I am.

Smith: In daytime, knowing about that is artistry. Being able to do your work, that is artistry.

Hickland: In life, we’ve seen each other through some stuff. Definitely you saw me through a lot of my personal stuff.

Smith: Vice versa. And you learn. There are a lot of things that I’ve learned from Catherine that I’ve taken into my personal life and the way I conduct and handle myself.

Hickland: The truth is, you really don’t know who your friends are until you need them. That’s the beauty of going through really hard times in life. That’s when you learn what you have. We love each other so much and have gotten each other through some very, very tenuous and difficult times, from death in the family to my marriage ending. This is heavy-duty life stuff and we have really, really been there for each other. I love her forever for all of that.