Interviews and Articles

Rebecca Staab Proves That Life in PORT CHARLES's Mother 'Hood Is A Cool Place To Be

from the November 26th 2002 issue of Soap Opera Digest by Tara Shaffer

Meet Rebecca Staab(Elizabeth, PC)-tall;wispy, beautiful face-and it can come as no surprise that she was once a model at the prestigous Ford agency. But the actress admits that underneath her delicate exterior, she's a tough broad who loves to get down and dirty."I always play such girlie characters that no one knows, atheletically, the range I have," she grins. "I have a really strong work ethic; I don't know if it's a Midwest thing, but you just do it.". It's that attitude that came in handy last year when the adventure-seeking actress not only took on a job on SURVIVOR:MARQUESAS(see Did You Know? section), but got into some hot water while scuba diving with her boyfriend in Bali soon after. "This big storm came up while we were underwater. A boat that was supposed to pick us up crashed on the rocks.So we surfaced, we were seeing 10-feet-swells and I was out of air,"Staab shares. "We had to swim in, so [the risk] was the distance, as well as just coming in." That kind of risk-taking, brought Staab back to daytime after 15 years away. Once an ingenue on LOVING(ex-Cecilia), and GUIDING LIGHT(ex-Jesse), Staab is proud to now play the mother of one:Erin Hershey Presley's Alison. "Every time I look at Erin, I think of Jesse. When she said a certain line, I was like, "Oh, my God! That was me once!" she laughs. But the cool thing about Elizabeth is that she's still hot and sexy." One of the several facts that Staab didn't know while auditioning for the part."She was blonde, strong, sophisticated and I knew it was the mother of a character on the show; that's all I really knew," she notes. "I didn't realize it was even a series regular, so it was one of those stories where it just got better and better." Translation: Elizabeth is not your mother's soap mom."That's the thing I was afraid of with being a mother, that [I was] going to be so boring," Staab points out. The fact that her character is anything but cliche only makes the scenario more appealing, she says. "It's not like she's 'the money-grubbing mother' or 'the bitch' She's a mother, but in a different kind of mother/daughter relationship.There's the sophistication, the arrogance and self-centeredness, but there's this beautiful vulnerability about her,too. Everybody thinks she's evil, but she's just misunderstood." If there's just one trait that Staab actually does share with her on-screen alter ego, it's the sophistication. While growing up, the actress modeled for fun, but she eventually became serious about her hobby and headed to New York City. This move led to an international modeling career that took her to Paris and Tokyo-and eventually opened her up to a whole new career. "When I got back to New York,I was with Click Models. They had just opened their film and television division," Staab says. "There was an audition for LOVING, and it was Cecilia and it was only six episodes. I actually had a [modeling] booking where I had to go camera-ready. [Cecilia] was this punk-rock teenager, who was kind of like Cyndi Lauper and Madonna, and I go in [to the LOVING audition] looking like a pixie. But I got it!" From that moment on, Staab never looked back."I've had a dream life from the very first audition I ever went on,"she smiles. "[Cecilia]just took off,so the six episodes turned into six months I was actually still on LOVING when the role came up on GUIDING LIGHT, and I auditioned and got that and just moved over there." Staab tried her luck out on the West Coast in 1989 and found it to be mighty good-she consistently worked in primetime and film. "I was Daphne Collins on the remake of DARK SHADOWS and I was on THE FANTASTIC FOUR,to name a few," she recalls. "I was a hit at comic-book conventions!" These days, Staab is content to concentrate on home life-both on-screen and off. She recently bought a house in San Diego with her boyfriend(she closed on the same day she got the part of Elizabeth). "Everything of my life is now down there, so I stay i[in L.A.] during the week, and go down there on weekends or days off." And as for her reel hearth and home,"This is the best part because it has everything in it,"she enthuses. "Going back to a soap, it was worth the wait. I've never even played a mother before. Now, I'm the mother of a 21-year-old[laughs]! But moms can be cool."

Diet Disasters article featuring Rebecca from the December 24th 2002 issue of Soap Opera Digest

"I tried a macrobiotic diet years ago in New York,"recalls Staab. "It was so funny because when I was recently packing [to move], I came across my macrobiotic cookbook. I was one of the first people who did the green-water juice thing where it was, like, parsley and anything green [mixed together]. I would just drink this green stuff, and my roommate was always like, 'How can you drink that stuff?' That was the only diet phase I went through. But it wasn't a diet as a 'diet'; it was a diet as a regime. I think for the most part now, I just try to eat healthy, but not fanatically."

Rebecca Staab on what she likes best about her character(from the Port Charles Fan Club April 2003 Newsletter):

"I love Elizabeth's wardrobe, plus her worldliness. It's nice to play a character with sophistication. I love her relationship with Alison. I love her fearlessness and her bite. You rarely find the range of this character in daytime-or prime time. She's not a quintessential anything. She's not the bitch or the long-lost mother. It's nice that she gets to be the troublemaker and turn around and be so empathetic and then be funny, witty and sarcastic and then be scared out of her skin. The range is nice because I never get bored."

Rebecca Staab on her co-star, Michael Easton(Caleb)(from the Port Charles Fan Club April 2003 Newsletter):

Question: Michael seems very much like his character:quiet and reserved. Is he like that all the time? What is it like to work with him? Answer:"I wouldn't say quiet and reserved, but he is relatively the same. He's pretty low-key, not in an exclusionary way. He's funny, but not an attention hog or anything.  He's dignified, and you can tell he's always thinking. He's nice and sweet and wonderful and funny. He's also always prepared, very professional and always interesting because he always finds something new to focus on that was never there to begin with. So I have my own private game. Working with him is watching what it is that he's found."

Rebecca Staab answering a Q&A Roundup question from the February 18th, 2003 issue of Soap Opera Digest

Question: Was it love at first sight? Answer:"No.I actually ignored [my boyfriend] at first sight[laughs]. Then I went through that thing in my mind where I said to myself, 'Now, this is the kind of guy I should be with.' It was pretty straightforward from there, but not love at first sight. It was one day [when it] just escalated."

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