In August 2013 We Love Soaps TV spoke with actress and former soap star Rebecca Staab about her career and time in daytime TV. The interview was never published, and was tucked away in our archives until now. Staab was born in Hays, Kansas and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Excelling in academics, she had a 4.0 GPA in both high school and college, and placed in the top five finalists in the Miss USA pageant as Miss Nebraska.
Staab is known to soap opera fans for her portrayal of Jesse Matthews on Guiding Light, Cecelia Thompson on Loving and Elizabeth Barrington on Port Charles. She also guest-starred in numerous primetime TV shows including Cheers, Beverly Hills 90210, The Wonder Years, Home Improvement and Dark Shadows. She can presently be seen in Netflix's #1 series, The Night Agent.
Find out more about Staab in our exclusive (12 years later!) interview below.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: You have such a fascinating story going from Kansas to Miss Nebraska, becoming an international model, then cast as Cecilia on Loving. How did that transition happen? Did you always want to be an actress or did it just kind of randomly happen?
REBECCA STAAB: I wanted to as a kid, but in the '60s and '70s in Nebraska, there wasn't much of a market for actors, plus my parents just weren't those kind of people. I really wanted to be a dancer. I was always out in the garage dancing, making up my own little ballet and tap routines. I was a huge Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. You know, all the "Little House on the Prairie" books. My best friend and I in second grade would write plays because we knew the characters so well. And I remember when I heard that they were going to make a TV show for that I was like, I had to be Mary, you know, in my head. It's so funny, I think at the time I was only like six or seven or but I had to be Mary. You know, Mom, I have to. But that doesn't happen when you live in Omaha. So that was kind of my first acting disappointment.
I started out as a dancer. In high school, I got into musicals because I was in musical theater, I was in choir since I was a dancer. Then I was in theater in both high school and college. I would have loved to have been an actor, but I was a real academic. And like most people it's just more logical to go into something in the business world. So I didn't really pursue it professionally at all.
Even the modeling came out of left field. I had just done some local modeling, and this one fashion show that I was in, because I was with the agencies while I was in the show, they set up kind of a contest in order to get bigger names to come to this show. So through this strange series of events, I won this fashion show competition where I was kind of oblivious about the fact that it was even a competition. I just thought it was a show. I ended up winning that, and I got to go to this competition in New York. And so for me, it was like, woo-hoo! It was a trip to New York, but even then it wasn't logical that I was going to be a model. I mean, I was 5'7", and you've got to be at least 5'9", 5'10". To me, I'm like, hey, I just basically won myself a free trip to New York. I'm not going to pass that up.
So I went to New York and participated in the competition there, but again, just out of fun. I'm like, well, it's not like I'm going to really be a model. And ended up placing in the top, top, top. Nobody was ever more surprised in these situations than I was because I was just kind of doing it for fun and my love of it. Because of the competition in New York, there were agencies from New York and Paris and Germany and Italy, and the sister agencies in New York and Paris wanted me.
I remember I called my mom and dad on the pay phone in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria. And it's like, ah, they want me to go to Paris. And then again, I figured, well, this is a deal I can't pass up. Go to Paris for three months because it was my senior year of college. And I really want to go. I want to go back to school, but I'm like, when am I ever going to get another free trip to Paris. Little did they know, I'm not really planning to be a model, but I'm going to take the chance. I mean, I had French in high school, so I spoke French. I wasn't going to give up that opportunity. It was basically like, I'm going to go to Paris for three months, and then I'll be home. Well, I don't know what it was but by the grace of God my look just caught on like wildfire.
I started working the day I got off the plane and was doing a lot of editorial, all the stuff in the fashion magazines, which just turned into cover after cover after cover. And, again, nobody was more shocked than me because I'm kind of like, well, I'm not really a model. I'm just here for three months, booking, booking, booking. So it was kind of nice because it took the pressure and strife out of it because I was really just doing it for fun. I figured I would go home for Christmas and go back to school in January. So I go home for Christmas, and my agency calls the last week of December, and said you have this booking and this booking and this. And they had all these bookings for January already. and I told them I'm going back to school. And they're like, well, you already did all these deals. You already have these jobs. So I agreed to go back for this one month and do these bookings, and then would jump into school late.
Well, as soon as I got over there, my agents quickly learned how to keep me there was to book me on trips because I was just a sucker for it. It's like, really, I can go to Greece? Okay, well, I'll go to Greece, and then I'll go back to school. I was like, oh, okay, well, I'll go to St. Bart's. They were really smart. I ended up going to Europe thinking I'd be there for three months, and I stayed for three and a half years. Most want to model in Europe to get a book put together and then go to New York. But I just kind of kept staying in Europe because I liked the trips. One of the girls I worked with had gone to New York and had auditioned and got on Ryan's Hope. And, I'm like, oh, man, that's so cool. And in the back of my mind, I was like, well, if she could do that, I could do that. I was in theater. I could be on a soap opera. It was just kind of in the back of my mind.
When I ended up finally going to New York, I go into my modeling agency, and they're like, do you act? And I'm like, yeah. And they said, well, go upstairs and talk to Mike because we just started a TV and film division. I'm like, okay, cool. And this is like my first day in New York. I go up to Mike's and he said here's an audition for this soap opera, and it was for Loving. And he said, hey, just go on it. Have some fun. It's this character that's only six episodes so just have fun on the audition. We'll just kind of start you out slow, and you can learn as you go. And I'm like, oh, okay. And it was right at the height of the whole Madonna-Cyndi Lauper type of thing. So she was this little punk rock teenager.
I had this audition the next day or a couple days later. But I had a booking right after my audition for J.C. Penney's where I had to come camera ready. I wasn't going to jeopardize my booking for this audition so I went to the audition for this little punk rock teenager dressed totally J.C. Penney's, and in these little black pants, and I had this little tuxedo shirt, and my hair was all perfect. I walk in, and all these girls have ripped fishnet stockings and boots and punked out hair. And I'm just walking and going, oh, I'm never going to get this. Again, just kind of did it for fun. And by the time I got to my booking, they had called and I'd gotten the job on Loving. I just thought it was so funny that they picked me.
I went to work the first day and there were all these really great Betsey Johnson clothes. My hair was pretty short at the time and I'm really good with hair and makeup having just come back from Europe so I'm like, hey, let me do it. I started all this real wild punk rock makeup and put my hair up in this mohawk. I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to do my own. I was always used to doing my own. The hair and makeup people at Loving are like, okay, I guess she's going to do her own hair and makeup. And just went to work. And the character just caught on like wildfire. But I think part of it was just going to be innocence and naivety that I didn't know.
I knew my lines and I knew the scenes and I could act but I never knew the limitations of what I wasn't supposed to do. Because in theater, it was always make a picture. Always make sure there's something interesting going on. Don't ever just stand there. And so I was used to it from a theatrical point of view. So I would get in a scene where I didn't have any dialogue, it's somebody else's stuff, but I just happen to be in the room. I had to start doing stuff because I'm like, yeah, that's how I was trained. So I'm picking flowers out of the vase or getting gum out of my purse and blowing bubbles. I would always find something to do. And then it was so funny because it graduated into points where I would be in the scene, and I'd look at the page, and I'm like, well, I didn't have any dialogue. They go, that's okay. You just do whatever you want. It's just always fun to kind of have you there because you feel you would just always kind of cause trouble. So I had a riot.
I just loved that show so much. Just because of the nature of the character, I got to be a little bit of a wild child on set, which I never was in real life. When we would leave the studio fans would always be waiting for autographs and stuff. But when I would wrap, I would wash my face, comb my hair down, put my regular clothes on, and walk out, and nobody ever knew it was me. Because on TV I was this little punker, and I would just walk out of there like little Miss Nebraska. It took a long time for the fans to realize, oh, my God, that's her. So I ended up staying on for six months. Then a role came up on Guiding Light, and I auditioned and got it, so I just went straight from Loving over to Guiding Light.
Those were probably the first two auditions. I would just go into work every day, and it was always a great family and a great work environment and really interesting characters. And that was just basically how I started. I was on Guiding Light for, I think it was about a year and a half.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Was playing a character like Jessie on Guiding Light easier for you, or was it easier to just kind of let loose and play Cecilia on Loving?
REBECCA STAAB: Well, it was totally different. The beauty of Cecilia on Loving was just that freeform. I could just do whatever I wanted. The beauty of Jessie was that innocent naivete that everything was the first time. Everything was a discovery. She just was this positive kind of fairytale thing. And so for a long time it was kind of fun just to, if you just imagine, play everything as brand new. This is the first time I've ever had a friend. The first time a boy ever held my hand. And for being a character in her late teens, she was going through stuff that kids do at, you know, 6, 7, 8, 12 years old. And so it was really sweet.
The whole relationship with Simon (played by Shawn Thompson) was really easy for me because Shawn and I were kind of getting involved off-screen as we were on-screen. But, again, I was kind of more loyal to what was going on on-screen. I'm like, wait, but we can't, we haven't even kissed on the show yet. Our relationship really grew as it did on-screen so it was fun working together. As the characters, I was still really new to acting and he was a lot more seasoned. So it was the jaded guy leading the little girl with the wide open eyes. It was really interesting.
The only time that it got a little aggravating was when I really wanted Jesse to grow. You make a mistake and you learn. Or something happens and then the next thing that happens should be a step further. But because of the nature of soap operas, it was just a kind of character that she was naive. And you're going, come on, now she's not very bright. You know, I did this last month. I did this three months ago. And if I do the same thing a third time... I felt really obligated to the fans because the character of Jessie was a real role mode because it was this young girl going through a lot of these things for the first time. So much of the fan mail came from people who felt like they were like close friends. It was young girls who wanted advice or, I know exactly how you feel because when that happened to me it just made me cry when I watched. I felt really obligated to have the character do things that were in keeping with what I think these young girls should be seeing or learning.
I took the character to heart outside of just being an actor. I liked that part of it, too. And so then, yeah, when Guiding Light ended I was sad to see it go. But then it opened up my time and energy for all other kinds of roles. And I ended up staying in New York and eventually coming out to L.A. So it was the greatest foundation because the amount of work is so much, but that's all I ever knew. Luckily I had a real facility with memorization. As long as it's written well and it's a logical conversation or a progression of events, the amount of dialogue and the pages that we would shoot every day, it just seemed commonplace to me because it was like doing a play. I was just doing a play every day. So that's what I do like about the soap, too, is that you really get to be the character.
And then sometimes you can make decisions for the character to help them evolve the longer you're on the show.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Was Gail Kobe the producer when you started? She passed away recently, so I was just wondering if you crossed paths. She was wonderful.
REBECCA STAAB: She was wonderful professionally as a producer, but just as a mother and a confidante and her guidance. I was still really young and really new, and she was just a really great mentor to me. She was more than just the person upstairs in the office. She was down on the floor a lot, and she would really look out for me. We would just sit and have the kinds of conversations that people have that were always educational for me. She just made herself so available, and she loved the media so much, and she loved actors so much. It gave such a depth and richness to the show because she really cared. When I found out that she passed away, I just had these waves of guilt going, oh, my gosh, I should have kept in touch because, you know, that was basically my second job ever, that I wouldn't be doing anything that I was doing now if it wasn't for her. And it's always that regret where you go, oh, my gosh, I wish I could have told her.
I wish I would have kept in touch. So what it did teach me is to use the time now to reach out to those mentors, whether they were casting directors or producers, anybody that I worked with in my past, even if they're not old, to reach back. With social media, communication is so much easier with a lot of people, and really let them know what they meant to me then and still mean to me now. Hopefully now I can use a lesson from her even now and maybe encourage other people to do the same.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: You played Lisby Larson's (Calla Matthews) daughter and Tina Sloan's (Lillian Raines) niece, and you also worked with Beverlee McKinsey (Alexandra Spaulding), who some people consider the best soap actress ever. Do you remember anything about that or working with them? Were they welcoming to you?
REBECCA STAAB: It was great because Lisby was just so doting as a mother. She was just the character. She would fawn over me and was so sweet. then, you know, kind of like Calla, like a little scattered too, and it was so funny how everybody really was like their character. Tina was the grounded one, the absolute calm, cool, and collected mother hen, just always with her arms wide open and a big laugh.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: I love Tina.
REBECCA STAAB: She's just safe. I loved watching her act, too, because Tina was just so Tina, and Lillian was just so, I don't know, she was just so real. It was such a good lesson in acting because you never saw her act. So I loved Tina, and learned a lot watching her. And Judi Evans (Beth Raines) too was the same thing. It all helped because of the way my character was. She was so thrilled to have a cousin and have an aunt and share a room with my cousin who could be my best friend. Those relationships came really easy.
Everybody was really welcoming, and and Beverly would be. Her and Larry [Gates, who played H.B. Lewis] and Larkin [Malloy, who played Kyle Sampson], I just always looked up to. And Jordan Clark (Billy Lewis)! I would never just hang out in my room and read, either I'd be in the makeup room or watching the scenes on the monitor. I was always watching what was being done, or I would just stay on the floor and go up and watch because the actual production always fascinated me, the cameras and the scenes and stuff. So, yeah, Beverlee was just grand. I would do a scene with her, and all of a sudden, whenever I worked with Beverlee, I, in a way, would stand up taller. You would kind of float. All of a sudden, because of her, you became elegant. She just radiated this magnificence that, in her presence, you would just kind of be drawn into her rhythm. You felt so regal being with her. I loved doing scenes with her.
Michael Wilding, Elizabeth Taylor's son, was on the show at that time. I was really good friends with him. After work I'd go and grab a beer with him sometimes, too. I loved him. would love to get in touch with him and see what he's doing. It really is, it's not that cliche, like a family. It really was. And the fact that I was still young and green, everybody was very accommodating and helpful.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Jessie's story sounded kind of like your story when you were describing the original modeling show in Nebraska because Jessie entered the Samson Girl competition. They had this whole pageant thing going on for a while.
REBECCA STAAB: Yeah, it wasn't that foreign. It would have been fun if the character stayed on because I really wanted to take Jessie to a kind of rebellious state, It is hard to stay innocent for so long, you do you have to learn things. The breakup with Simon when they split our characters up was kind of hard on me, too, because I'm like, no, I want to be with him. I was fighting the soap opera rhythm because Jessie and Simon were so close and so in love that when they split up, there would be a real grieving period. It wasn't like, oh, hey, here's the next cute guy, which is because the soap world, they were ready for Jessie to have this thing with the next guy. And I was like, no, wait, how could they have a new boyfriend, you know? So I was kind of bucking what would have come next anyway.
I just needed to rebel a little bit. So it would have been interesting to see what had happened had the character continued.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: They kept mentioning them for probably the next 10 years. Every time Tina Sloan needed to be off the show for some reason, she would go visit Calla and Jessie. And a few years later, Simon and Jessie had gotten married, like around 1990 to 1995. They'd just had a baby or something. They used that as an excuse to get Lillian off the canvas. It was nice that they continued that story because a lot of times on soaps, they just sort of forget about characters. The last we heard, they had a kid and they were married and they were living in D.C. or somewhere.
REBECCA STAAB: My mouth is agape because I never knew that. Thank you for telling me, I had no idea. Because I would flip through and watch the show. I didn't watch it religiously. That's just sweet. I'm glad you told me that.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: As soap fans, we watch for decades and appreciate that kind of thing. And it's so easy for the writers. Especially these days with budget constraints, they can't always bring people back. And it's so easy to just drop a line in the script to mention a character from the past. Even if you can't have the actor back, it's a treat for the fans.
So fast forward to Elizabeth Farrington on Port Charles. Now we're on a show that has defined story arcs, there's vampires. What was this like for you?
REBECCA STAAB: Even more fun. I have been so blessed because my soap opera life has always just been so happy. And Elizabeth, I mean, there's nothing more fun than playing somebody evil, being a bitch. It was nice to have that corner on the bitch market. Because it's everything that you don't get to do in real life that you just want to. And I loved it because I loved everything about her. She had secrets and she was conniving and very self-centered.
I really loved her daughter, Allison (played by Erin Hershey Presley). That gave it some balance and some depth and some dimension. I loved being a rich character because then you always have fantastic wardrobe. It sounds shallow but, man, that is fun. You know it's fun coming to work and you've got all these great clothes.
I wish it would have lasted longer and I wish Elizabeth had gotten a chance to really enjoy it. I would have liked to play with it a little bit longer because I think that Elizabeth would have had an extra tool in her arsenal. On one hand you can see somebody's like, oh my God, I don't want to be a beast. But on the other hand, you go, well, if it's controllable, I can use this to my advantage. And working with Michael Easton (who played Caleb Morley) was so cool. I loved the vampire stuff.
Her grandson is now a character on General Hospital. They continued all that. Although they kind of rewrote the vampire theme and kind of explained it because it doesn't really fit with what GH is doing now. But anyway, the character is still alive. I think they mentioned her even in the explanation of all this Port Charles backstory. I was just at the 50th anniversary fan gathering. They brought only not old GH characters, but some of the Port Charles ones, which I thought was really cool. That's when everybody's like, I know your grandson's on the show and he needs you. So I'm like, oh, how neat would it be to just walk back in it. My thing with that is I go, but there's already an Elizabeth on the show. I'm like, hmm. Maybe I changed my name. They just brought on the second Anna. There's two Annas now.
WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Y&R had two Johns for like 20 years, so it's okay.
REBECCA STAAB: I could always be Liz. But it would just be so great. Port Charles had so much going for it. I liked that it was a smaller show, a smaller cast. And because of that, every character was very important because there was no doubling up. Like, nobody was alike. Nobody was similar. Every character on that show was very distinct. And I thought that that made it really interesting. I liked that the pace of the show at the time. Compared to other shows it really moved along quickly, it was interesting, and I liked that it skewed younger, and it was hipper, cooler. I think that of all the shows, that should have been the last one to have been canceled because it had the most potential.
They talk about what used to be the MTV generation, whatever it is now, because everybody's used to stuff so fast that if the kind of pace of that show was that younger, hipper, faster, a little more risque, a little more daring, that show was the most progressive and I think had the most potential. So it was really a shame that it was kind the first one off the chopping block. It was probably a little bit ahead of its time, I think, like a couple years too soon.
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Roger Newcomb is a New York–based producer, writer, and media entrepreneur. He is the founder and executive producer of the Indie Series Awards, the premier event honoring excellence in independent digital entertainment. His credits include the feature film Manhattanites, the short May Mercy Lie, and the interview series We Love Soaps TV and Serial Scoop Now. Newcomb has also appeared in the documentary Soap Life and James Franco’s feature Francophrenia.
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