Jessica Leccia Talks Ivy, The End of GL and VENICE

We Love Soaps caught up with VENICE star Jessica Leccia (Ani) at the Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction on Sunday, September 27. Leccia spoke about her baby daughter, Ivy, the end of Otalia on GUIDING LIGHT and previewed her upcoming gig, VENICE.

We Love Soaps: How is Ivy doing?
Jessica Leccia: [With a huge smile on her face] She's so pretty, and she's so happy, and she's chunky, and she's got rolls, and she smiles a lot. She's great.

We Love Soaps: How are you doing?
Jesscia Leccia: I'm good. I'm chunky, and I have rolls, and I smile a lot. [Laughs]

We Love Soaps: [Laughs] You look beautiful! What are you saying? Do you feel like you're under pressure to lose weight?
Jessica Leccia: Myself, sure. No one has come out and been like, "You're heavier than you were before." But I'd really like to just because it's a little bit more comfortable for me. I'm little.

We Love Soaps: Now the question you've been asked a million times and I'm giong to be cliche and just ask it - how did you feel about how Natalia and Olivia's relationship ended at the end of GUIDING LIGHT?
Jessica Leccia: I felt pretty good about it. I understand maybe there might have been a little qualm about their physical relationship, but in my mind Natalia and Olivia were together in every way, they were together physically. Maybe you didn't see it, but they were together. And I felt like seeing them a year later really brought it home that they were really a family, they stayed together and they stuck it out. They were a real couple.

We Love Soaps: Were you satisfied with how it was tied up at the end?
Jessica Leccia: I don't know how else they could have done it. I think they did a really good job of trying to get everyone's story so that people could have a clear view of where everything was supposed to be. I thought they did a good job of doing that.

We Love Soaps: And the good news is that we're still going to see you working soon, right?
Jessica Leccia: [Smiles] Yes.

We Love Soaps: Can you tell us about VENICE?
Jessica Leccia: VENICE is going strong. Crystal is working really hard on it. She's a very smark cookie. I'll be working on it and people will be seeing it soon - I believe November.

We Love Soaps: And you going to California to tape that?
Jessica Leccia: I am.

We Love Soaps: What can you tease us with about VENICE? What can fans look forward to seeing?
Jessica Leccia: Pretty much a little bit of everything. Crystal's character, Gina, has a large circle of friends, she's a social butterfly. My character happens to be part of that social group. There's a relationship between them that will be interesting to see. She's got all these other interesting relationships on there. It's just really real, the kind of thing audiences want these days.

We Love Soaps: And we definitely think the web is going to open up story telling.
Jessica Leccia: Apparently so.

We Love Soaps: A lot of people who read our column are really having a hard time, and we're trying to support them with their grief and loss issues related to coming home and not having GUIDING LIGHT to watch. Is there anything you'd like to say to the people who are going through that adjustment?
Jessica Leccia: I have the same problem, honestly. It was on my DVR. I'd go home and see what my friends were doing. I'd see how the show turned out. It's very sad. And I don't think that will go away for a while. But we have lots of good memories.

We Love Soaps: And you've given us lots of good memories. No matter what we're always going to have those. I thank you for that.
Jessica Leccia: Thank you.

We Love Soaps: Please say hi to Ivy for us.
Jessica Leccia: I will. I'll give her a squeeze.