In the latest episode of “Soapy Hosted by Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart,” Lauralee Bell from “The Young and the Restless” discusses how she landed the role of ingenue Christine Blair on the daytime drama series created by her parents, the late William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell.
“This was never an intention for my family,” says Bell of her joining the show’s cast in an exclusive clip obtained by Soap Opera Network. “My mom wanted me to be a Northwestern Tridelt and go to school. We were living in Chicago, so we were very separated from this … I was a fan, so I would watch, and [my father] would be like, ‘One day you should come and really kind of get a sense of what this is all about.’ I first did an extra part on an airplane with David Hasselhoff [Snapper Foster], and after it was over, I was like, ‘That was so easy!’ and he was like, ‘No, wrong idea. You didn’t get the message.’”
When asked by Rikaart to expand on that, Bell noted that her father pointed out that her saying the work was so easy is incorrect, particularly as work on the set of the series is constantly in progress, with sets being built, among other moving parts, while she was “sleeping.”
Agreeing that the work was indeed hard, Bell explained she “had to sit there and buckle my seatbelt,” a metaphor of sorts to her scene with Hasselhoff, where she was on the plane with the actor who went on to star as Mitch Buchannon on “Baywatch.”
“A few years later, Jabot Cosmetics was coming out with a junior line, and so I was going to be on for just two days,” continued Bell. “The thing that really helped me out was there were no young people on soaps. People that were on soaps were 25 playing 13. So, my part continued for two reasons: one, because I said after the first two days, ‘If I take acting lessons and tap … I’ll do anything. Can I be on for two more days?’ It was that, and then we also very nicely got some fan mail saying, ‘I watch with my grandkids or my kids, and they are always running around.”
Revealing that the fan mail received indicated that the younger generation went from playing around the house while their mothers and grandmothers were watching the stories, to sitting around to watch with them, which is what eventually led to the casting of both Tricia Cast as Nina Webster and Thom Bierdz as Phillip Chancellor, in what would become the staple for summer storylines on daytime soap operas.
Watch our exclusive clip from “Soapy” below.
You can also watch the full episode below.
Hosted by Rebecca Budig (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) and Greg Rikaart (“Days of our Lives”), “Soapy” is a new audio and video podcast that dives deep into the legacy, fandom, and enduring appeal of soap operas. Available on Audacy or wherever podcasts are found, full video episodes are released every Tuesday through September 30 on the CBS brand YouTube channel.
CBS
The podcast premiered on Tuesday, July 8, with an episode featuring guest Eric Braeden (Victor Newman, “The Young and the Restless”). The second episode, released on July 15, features an interview with Deidre Hall (Marlena Evans, “Days of our Lives”), while the third episode with “Beyond the Gates” executive producer Sheila Ducksworth was released on July 22.
“We decided, since we knew each other so well, that we should interview all the people that we know, and people that we don’t know, in this genre,” said Budig in the first-ever episode of “Soapy,” explaining why she and Rikaart decided to do the podcast. Chiming in, Rikaart noted, the podcast was also a way to “celebrate our genre, coming from a place of love and reverence, and respect, for the incredibly challenging, hard and fun work that we get to do in daytime soaps.”
Future episodes will include interviews with Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos, “General Hospital”), Tracey Bregman (Lauren Fenmore, “The Young and the Restless”), Marc Cherry (Creator, “Desperate Housewives”), Scott Clifton (Liam Spencer, “The Bold and the Beautiful”), Eva LaRue (Natalia Ramirez, “General Hospital”), Christian LeBlanc (Michael Baldwin, “The Young and the Restless”), Cameron Mathison (Drew Cain, “General Hospital”), Karla Mosley (Dani Dupree, “Beyond the Gates”), Lawrence Saint-Victor (Carter Walton, “The Bold and the Beautiful”), Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki Newman, “The Young and the Restless”), Heather Tom (Katie Logan, “The Bold and the Beautiful”) and Tamara Tunie.
Produced by the Paramount Multiplatform Production Group, “Soapy Hosted by Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart” is executive produced by Mike Benson. Andrew Pemberton-Fowler serves as producer.
