Post by GraceBe on Nov 4, 2008 16:00:33 GMT
Alley Mills (Pam)
On a break for a book tour with her husband, B&B's Alley Mills caught up with *** about her character Pam, her infamous lemon bars, and buying her first computer.
***: You're character Pam, people either love her or hate her.
ALLEY MILLS: She's a trip.
***: How is it playing her?
ALLEY MILLS: I love it because I never know what they are going to do. I wake up on a Monday morning, get my stack of scripts for the week and start laughing. Brad [Bell's] (Executive Producer and Head Writer) mind is just kind of twisted. It's gone far, especially this last week. I was never on a soap before and when you're on a series you know exactly who you are all the time and you just have different events happen to your family. With this character, I never know when she's going to be flipping out and swallowing a tea bag down her throat or putting a gun in Donna's face or when things get real like this past week. A few weeks ago with Pam having a gun on Donna, I had to make Pam believable in that. If I was only funny like how I was up at the cabin Donna wouldn't do what she did.
***: The fans loved the cabin scenes with Donna, Pam and the bear.
ALLEY MILLS: The thing that was weird about it was that I laughed out loud when I read that Pam got so upset about the fact that Donna didn't like the lemon bars and that was the fact that tipped Pam that she didn't understand the depth of me wanting to give to people.
***: I'm surprised word hasn't gotten around town about Pam's lemon bars.
ALLEY MILLS: I know I tried to kill Eric that way. I found it hilarious. Especially when Donna was like "Alright, I'll eat one of your lemon bars." Seeing Pam in the fishing gear--hilarious. But then I actually try and kill her, so even though it was funny it has to be based in some kind of reality. So I realize I have to actually flip because then when the bear would come in it would be believable. It's a fine line you have to walk on a soap, drop dead hilarious but it's also someone who's disturbed. That's why this past week viewers learned about the bi-polar aspect and that's really sad.
***: Pam wakes up from surgery and doesn't remember the past few months, are you looking forward to reinventing Pam?
ALLEY MILLS: Well, they wrote one odd sentence at the end of my recovery with Donna. I say to her very sincere "if you don't forgive me Donna I couldn't bear it." Brad wrote that. So I played it with the possibility that I may not be completely fine. But I don't know how they will write it. We shot it very fast, and I was cracking myself up. I don't know if you noticed in the scenes in the cabin I couldn't stop myself from laughing. Pam has a sense of humor, she's an odd ball. She actually likes Donna. During the tea bag scene I smiled a lot, because I was jerking around with Donna. It's a very fun experience to play Pam.
***: Pam encounters a lot of animals, bears, snakes.
ALLEY MILLS: Tiny. He was the sweetest dog. There were actually two Tinys. One was very tough but the one that was my dog most of the time was a girl and was very, very sweet. Jennifer [Gareis] (Donna) wouldn't work with dogs, she was scared. I knew this and I'd use it. [Laughs] I'd pretend the dog was really pulling me and try and scare her.
***: Did they ask you before hand if you liked dogs?
ALLEY MILLS: They did. I had actually just been bitten by a dog that was just out of the pound. I grew up with German Shepards so I love dogs but I was a little scared and I know dogs can smell fear so I was worried about that. But this dog was so well trained, and the trainer was amazing.
***: Did you work with the bear?
ALLEY MILLS: No that day was crazy. They had so much security. I was able to meet the bear but we had to do the scene without the bear because they had to drive the bear into the studio and cleared out the hall, guards were everywhere. It was top secret. [The bear] was eight feet tall. He had a really nice dressing room, it was huge! He had the whole hall.
***: Now, just curious, who would win in a fight of sisters?
ALLEY MILLS: I mean, at the moment, the way Pam is, definitely Stephanie but I think Pam has a lot of kick in her. I think Pam's been so screwed up in her past that she's unbalanced but I think that she's really tough.
***: Would you like to revisit a romance with Eric?
ALLEY MILLS: Well I already read in a soap magazine that he doesn't want to. It devastated me! I love John McCook (Eric) but one day I came on the set after the romance had fizzled between the two of us and I saw him on set with Jennifer and I was like "what's going on" and he got all defensive. And I just started kidding him. The set is like real life. And I think he really felt bad that he betrayed me; it was so funny but none of it is serious. I thought for a minute that the guy up in the cabin, the caretaker would be my love interest. Pam needs a love interest.
***: What about Rick? He's available.
ALLEY MILLS: Ooh I love him. How cute is he?
***: He likes the older ladies.
ALLEY MILLS: Yes, but not quite as old as me! [Laughs]I don't know who Pam could be with. The reason I can't be with John is that I love my sister and it would be a breakdown of the backbone of who I am.
***: How was it working with Betty White (Ann)?
ALLEY MILLS: It's great. When we first did the 10 week cycle when Stephanie remembers her past, Betty had never done a soap either so we really connected because of that. So we'd have these speeches that are like 400 pages long and they give it to you like 3 hours before you have to go on stage and we were just going out of our mind. I sat with her almost all day and we just ran lines together and she was hilarious. The great thing about Betty is that she doesn't care. She'd go, "I'm sorry darling but I have no idea what I'm going to say next." She's wonderful to work with.
***: Did you want to do a daytime drama?
ALLEY MILLS: I never knew anything about them. It's a world I didn't know existed. Not being on the beautiful end of The Bold and the Beautiful. When they asked me to do the run it was great; I loved it. And I met Susan [Flannery] (Stephanie) I was like wow, I was so wowed by her.
***: Do you tune in to watch the show?
ALLEY MILLS: I do. My husband has become a complete fanatic. We watch the show when I'm not on it. We love it. My nephew was with me the other day, he's like seven, and he goes, "Wait, he's going out with her mommy and he's only a boy?" He was watching the Taylor stuff. [Laughs] He was so confused. It was so funny.
***: Tell me about what you're doing in New York tonight.
ALLEY MILLS: Well Orsen Bean, my husband wrote a book. About a year and a half ago he woke up in the middle of the night and it was a book he had started years before, and he just said I have to finish the book, now. He just pulled out a pen and started writing.
***: No computer?
ALLEY MILLS: No. But we had to get one when he had a New York agent because she said I'm not representing you without a computer because this phone thing is crazy. So we have one; it's an Apple and we have no clue how to use it. We can do email, but I did last week look up *** and saw The Bold and the Beautiful site, but that's really the extent of it. So we're here tonight at Barnes and Noble on the Upper West Side doing a book signing, and we've done some radio shows and TV around the area. The book is about Orsen's experience with God, which he didn't have when he was younger. It's about a twelve step program and a young kid going to Iraq and it's really just Orsen's point of view with the world. It's a really great book.
Check out Orsen Bean's book, "Mail for Mikey" at your local bookstore.
On a break for a book tour with her husband, B&B's Alley Mills caught up with *** about her character Pam, her infamous lemon bars, and buying her first computer.
***: You're character Pam, people either love her or hate her.
ALLEY MILLS: She's a trip.
***: How is it playing her?
ALLEY MILLS: I love it because I never know what they are going to do. I wake up on a Monday morning, get my stack of scripts for the week and start laughing. Brad [Bell's] (Executive Producer and Head Writer) mind is just kind of twisted. It's gone far, especially this last week. I was never on a soap before and when you're on a series you know exactly who you are all the time and you just have different events happen to your family. With this character, I never know when she's going to be flipping out and swallowing a tea bag down her throat or putting a gun in Donna's face or when things get real like this past week. A few weeks ago with Pam having a gun on Donna, I had to make Pam believable in that. If I was only funny like how I was up at the cabin Donna wouldn't do what she did.
***: The fans loved the cabin scenes with Donna, Pam and the bear.
ALLEY MILLS: The thing that was weird about it was that I laughed out loud when I read that Pam got so upset about the fact that Donna didn't like the lemon bars and that was the fact that tipped Pam that she didn't understand the depth of me wanting to give to people.
***: I'm surprised word hasn't gotten around town about Pam's lemon bars.
ALLEY MILLS: I know I tried to kill Eric that way. I found it hilarious. Especially when Donna was like "Alright, I'll eat one of your lemon bars." Seeing Pam in the fishing gear--hilarious. But then I actually try and kill her, so even though it was funny it has to be based in some kind of reality. So I realize I have to actually flip because then when the bear would come in it would be believable. It's a fine line you have to walk on a soap, drop dead hilarious but it's also someone who's disturbed. That's why this past week viewers learned about the bi-polar aspect and that's really sad.
***: Pam wakes up from surgery and doesn't remember the past few months, are you looking forward to reinventing Pam?
ALLEY MILLS: Well, they wrote one odd sentence at the end of my recovery with Donna. I say to her very sincere "if you don't forgive me Donna I couldn't bear it." Brad wrote that. So I played it with the possibility that I may not be completely fine. But I don't know how they will write it. We shot it very fast, and I was cracking myself up. I don't know if you noticed in the scenes in the cabin I couldn't stop myself from laughing. Pam has a sense of humor, she's an odd ball. She actually likes Donna. During the tea bag scene I smiled a lot, because I was jerking around with Donna. It's a very fun experience to play Pam.
***: Pam encounters a lot of animals, bears, snakes.
ALLEY MILLS: Tiny. He was the sweetest dog. There were actually two Tinys. One was very tough but the one that was my dog most of the time was a girl and was very, very sweet. Jennifer [Gareis] (Donna) wouldn't work with dogs, she was scared. I knew this and I'd use it. [Laughs] I'd pretend the dog was really pulling me and try and scare her.
***: Did they ask you before hand if you liked dogs?
ALLEY MILLS: They did. I had actually just been bitten by a dog that was just out of the pound. I grew up with German Shepards so I love dogs but I was a little scared and I know dogs can smell fear so I was worried about that. But this dog was so well trained, and the trainer was amazing.
***: Did you work with the bear?
ALLEY MILLS: No that day was crazy. They had so much security. I was able to meet the bear but we had to do the scene without the bear because they had to drive the bear into the studio and cleared out the hall, guards were everywhere. It was top secret. [The bear] was eight feet tall. He had a really nice dressing room, it was huge! He had the whole hall.
***: Now, just curious, who would win in a fight of sisters?
ALLEY MILLS: I mean, at the moment, the way Pam is, definitely Stephanie but I think Pam has a lot of kick in her. I think Pam's been so screwed up in her past that she's unbalanced but I think that she's really tough.
***: Would you like to revisit a romance with Eric?
ALLEY MILLS: Well I already read in a soap magazine that he doesn't want to. It devastated me! I love John McCook (Eric) but one day I came on the set after the romance had fizzled between the two of us and I saw him on set with Jennifer and I was like "what's going on" and he got all defensive. And I just started kidding him. The set is like real life. And I think he really felt bad that he betrayed me; it was so funny but none of it is serious. I thought for a minute that the guy up in the cabin, the caretaker would be my love interest. Pam needs a love interest.
***: What about Rick? He's available.
ALLEY MILLS: Ooh I love him. How cute is he?
***: He likes the older ladies.
ALLEY MILLS: Yes, but not quite as old as me! [Laughs]I don't know who Pam could be with. The reason I can't be with John is that I love my sister and it would be a breakdown of the backbone of who I am.
***: How was it working with Betty White (Ann)?
ALLEY MILLS: It's great. When we first did the 10 week cycle when Stephanie remembers her past, Betty had never done a soap either so we really connected because of that. So we'd have these speeches that are like 400 pages long and they give it to you like 3 hours before you have to go on stage and we were just going out of our mind. I sat with her almost all day and we just ran lines together and she was hilarious. The great thing about Betty is that she doesn't care. She'd go, "I'm sorry darling but I have no idea what I'm going to say next." She's wonderful to work with.
***: Did you want to do a daytime drama?
ALLEY MILLS: I never knew anything about them. It's a world I didn't know existed. Not being on the beautiful end of The Bold and the Beautiful. When they asked me to do the run it was great; I loved it. And I met Susan [Flannery] (Stephanie) I was like wow, I was so wowed by her.
***: Do you tune in to watch the show?
ALLEY MILLS: I do. My husband has become a complete fanatic. We watch the show when I'm not on it. We love it. My nephew was with me the other day, he's like seven, and he goes, "Wait, he's going out with her mommy and he's only a boy?" He was watching the Taylor stuff. [Laughs] He was so confused. It was so funny.
***: Tell me about what you're doing in New York tonight.
ALLEY MILLS: Well Orsen Bean, my husband wrote a book. About a year and a half ago he woke up in the middle of the night and it was a book he had started years before, and he just said I have to finish the book, now. He just pulled out a pen and started writing.
***: No computer?
ALLEY MILLS: No. But we had to get one when he had a New York agent because she said I'm not representing you without a computer because this phone thing is crazy. So we have one; it's an Apple and we have no clue how to use it. We can do email, but I did last week look up *** and saw The Bold and the Beautiful site, but that's really the extent of it. So we're here tonight at Barnes and Noble on the Upper West Side doing a book signing, and we've done some radio shows and TV around the area. The book is about Orsen's experience with God, which he didn't have when he was younger. It's about a twelve step program and a young kid going to Iraq and it's really just Orsen's point of view with the world. It's a really great book.
Check out Orsen Bean's book, "Mail for Mikey" at your local bookstore.
