Soaps In Depth - July 23, 2002




Wild Child!


Opal Anchel followed up her crazy time as Arianna with adventures of her own!


You'd think after a whirlwind five months on PORT CHARLES, Opal Anchel (ex-Arianna) might have needed some time off, but it ain't necessarily so. Right after exiting, she was hired to host two episodes of WILD ON...E!, the travel show depicting the excitement of exotic locales the world over. "We got to do everything, from seeing a lot of the history to tasting the food," she says of her jaunts to Cyprus and Morocco. "It was so much fun!" Anchel also got to show her wild streak in Comedy Central's "Give Thanks", a film starring Maree Cheatham (ex-Charlene, PC) that aired over Thanksgiving weekend. "I played the daughter of Maree's best friend who spends the weekend with their family and gets to watch all the chaos." Now, the actress is excited about the progress of two other movies: "I Am My Resumé", a short in which she stars as a Hollywood hopeful, and "They Are Among Us", a scary teen flick about three friends who learn one of their parents is an alien. "Resumé is being submitted to the festivals now - there's even talk about turning it into a feature," she relates. "Among Us" begins shooting in winter. This August, Anchel also starts filming "Tom 51", a comedy about a guy who finally figures out his life upon taking his 51st job. Anchel's role, created specifically for her, is the man's crush. With so much on her plate, Anchel hardly has time for regrets about leaving PC. In fact, "after September 11, part of me was very thankful that Arianna was not on PC at the moment," she offers, recalling that the character came from an unnamed country similar to Afghanistan. "I told my parents, 'Thank God I'm off.' I don't know how Americal would've reacted. But I have such great memories of PC that it's still a part of my life."


Kelli M. Larson

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