Soaps In Depth - 2001




Seize The DAY!


For Anchel, playing a patient was more fun than it looked!


What's it like to go to work every day and get to crawl back in bed? Opal Anchel (Arianna) found out recently when her character spent the better part of a month recuperating from her stab wounds. What could have been a real "snooze" turned out to be a blast for the actress who was made up to look like she was on death's door. "Every day I came in and they yellowed me out - it was hysterical," she offers. "I got to have so much fun!" Playing patient to the residents' doctoring turned out to be a less-than serious affair as well. "You'd never believe what it's like behind the scenes," Anchel confides. "In between takes during rehearsals we had stethescopes flying all over the place and people were pulling the masks over eachother." Of course, when the cameras came on it was time to make it all look real - and it was more difficult than it looked. During one scene when Arianna went into a seizure, a real nurse was on set to offer some pointers. "There was so much technicality," says the actress. "They were like, 'No you're doing it wrong.' There's a proper way to seize - can you believe it? Who knew?"

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