First Impressions
"I actually do remember it perfectly,
DAYS brought me in to read for the
part of Kayla with Stephen. He had
on his leather jacket, his patch, his
scar, his whole look there. And I don't
remember him being out of character
the whole time I saw him...I hadn't
really seen the show, so I think I thought,
"Oh boy. This is a twist." {laughs}
But we really hit it off
from the beginning. We have always
been great friends and trusted each
other."
-Mary Beth on meeting Stephen
for the first time,
Soap Opera Digest,
March 30, 1999
"It was when she auditioned for
DAYS. Right after she said her last
line she turned to me and said,
"Well,that was s--t! "{laughs} and
walked away...I thought she was
very spunky and energetic and very
pretty. I liked her a lot. I got a nice
vibe from her. "
-Stephen on Mary Beth,
Soap Opera Digest March 30 1999
" 'We both knew that we had found
our match when I started working there,'
smiles Mary Beth Evans on her electric
pairing with Stephen Nichols."
-Mary Beth
Soap Opera Digest
Online
www.soapoperadigest.com
(Supercouples article /week of
April 27, 2004)
 "I fell in love with her immediately"
-Stephen Nichols on Soaptalk 11/07/05
(when asked his first impression of
Mary Beth/discussing her honesty
at the audition)
On Their Friendship
Mary Beth, first of all, is the
absolute
most cheerful person I've ever known in my
life and she lights up a room"
-Stephen Nichols on Soaptalk 11/07/05
" 'Stephen and I are the oldest of
friends', Evans gushed. 'He's always been
there for me and I for him... ' "
-Mary Beth,
Soap Opera Previews March 14, 2005
"I consider Stephen Nichols one
of my dearest friends. He's a very
loving person.."
-Mary Beth
Soap Opera Magazine, 1997
"I've always loved Mary Beth a lot.
I didn't think I could love her any
more, but now that she has 'Milo'
cooking in the oven, I love her
even more. I think she's one of
the cutest pregnant women I've
ever seen"
-Stephen,
Soap Opera Digest, 1987
"There's a lot of love there, and I
think it shows. It seems kind of
corny to say, but we connect."
-Mary Beth Evans,
Soap Opera Digest,
Feb.23 1988
"Mary Beth is one of the closest
friends I have"
-Stephen, Soap Opera Stars
Jan 1989
"There is a very sweet tender
side to him. He's a guy who
loves kids and loves me, and so
when I was pregnant, he'd always
be rubbing my tummy and asking
how I was feeling. He never made
fat jokes...He came to visit me at
the hospital. He is very special to
me in that way"
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Digest,
August 22 1989
"Mary Beth is the very best friend
I have at the studio. I've just never
had this type of good, good platonic
relationship with a woman before.
We both have the same outlook on
life. We have the same way of
working and we are both deeply
committed to our families"
-Stephen, Soap Opera Digest,
August 22 1989
"When she's not at the studio
I'm miserable. Who am I going
to lunch with? Who will I work
out with at the gym? I'm just
lost without Mary Beth"
-Stephen
Soap Opera Digest,
August 22 1989
"The best part of being on the
show was, of course, working
and becoming friends with Mary
Beth Evans"
-Stephen
Soap Opera Update
October 8 1990
"I have a very special friendship
with Stephen. He is not only a
great actor,but also a wonderful
person. I feel so lucky because
we get to work together so much.
Stephen and I literally spend
all day together at the studio.
We run our lines a million times,
laugh, joke around, and always go
out to lunch together. He's a lot
sweeter and a lot nicer than Patch
in real life. He's a very loving guy.
He took such good care of me
when I was pregnant. I'll never forget that.
He'd get up and get me things
all day long and was always rubbing
my tummy. Stephen went through my
pregnancy right along with me. He
was as excited about it as I was.
He even came to visit me right after
I had my son. It was the sweetest
thing. Stephen had a cold that day,
and he wore a doctor's mask so Daniel
wouldn't catch any of his germs.
Stephen couldn't wait to hold Daniel.
He waited for him, just as long as I did,
and I could tell right away that
Stephen loved my little boy very,
very much"
-Mary Beth
Soap Opera Stars,
May 1988
"She's a very special friend and I
treasure our friendship. We're really
close and we really know one another"
-Stephen,
Soap Opera Stars,
Jan 1989
We love each other tremendously
as friends.He was driving down PCH
(Pacific Coast Highway) with the
ocean and sunset, and he called me
for my birthday, and I was like,
'I love you so much.' "
-Mary Beth Evans,
Soap Opera Weekly 4/24/01
On Fame as Steve and Kayla
"Even being in the middle of it at
the time, I don't think we were
aware of how popular we were.
It's only in retrospect that we see
that Patch and Kayla were the
biggest thing on daytime at that
time...."
-Stephen Nichols,
Soap Opera Digest
March 30 1999
"I think a major part of their
success was the chemistry that
Mary Beth and I had. When we
looked into each other's eyes,
there was trust. We connected
on a deep level, and that translated.
When people see that connection
on their television screens, they
relate to it as something they have
or long for."
-Stephen Nichols
Ultimate Days Fan Guide
(SOD),
Spring 2003
"It was a lot of work and a lot of
lines and you just got wrapped up
in your everyday existence. There
certainly was a huge response, but
we never discussed it. Isn't that
funny? We even went to Australia
together and there was a huge
following there. But I have to say,
we never said to each other.'Wow,
that was amazing.' It was never
really discussed. It almost seemed
like we were just the people who
came to receive {the attention}
for someone else; we were sort of
the liasons."
-Mary Beth Evans, March 30 1999
"The only cover I really liked a
lot was the first one we ever
did [10/7/86]. Mary Beth looked
gorgeous, which she is."
-Stephen on his favorite
Soap Opera Digest Cover
that he posed for Nov. 27, 1990
On the End of Steve and Kayla
"The Patch and Kayla story has been
beautiful. They showed you that you don't
have to be beautiful to be loved or to
love yourself, and you can find beauty in
yourself. That's what happened in Patch.
I'm sorry to see it end. It has made
all of our lives grow."
-Mary Beth,
Soap Opera Update,
Oct. 8 1990
"The show is part of my life, but its a
smaller part than the rest of my life.
It is my living, and I love being an
actress, but my children and my family
and my friends are 95% of my life.
Stephen falls into that 95%. I'd rather
have that 95% of friendship than that
5% of work.."
-Mary Beth,
on Stephen leaving Days
Soap Opera Update,
Oct. 8 1990
"I had such an incredible connection
to him as an actor. I thought I'd
never have that again and it was
very sad"
-Mary Beth , Soap Opera News,
April 8 1997
On the Beginning of
Stefan & Katherine
"We want to give it our all, not
because we're trying to live up to
something that once was, but
because we enjoy working together"
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Digest,
March 1997
"Reunited and it feels so good.."
-Mary Beth in Soap Opera Weekly,
Dec. 17, 1996
"That magic, You'd have to be stupid to
ignore that. We're two actors who work
well together. We have an instant
connection"
-Stephen Nichols,
Soap Opera Weekly, 1996
"She was one of the main reasons why
I came on the show."
-Stephen Nichols,
March 30, 1999
Soap Opera Digest
Asked If Their Characters Should
Be Reunited On General Hospital
(after the characters' break up)
" As long as it makes sense, the story
is compelling and there's a reason for
Stefan to be interested in Katherine and
vice versa. I would say yes, lets go for it,
because I absolutely love working with
Mary Beth. She makes going to work fun
and enjoyable and who wouldn't want that? "
-Stephen,
Soap Opera Digest,
March 30 1999
"I would absolutely like to see
them paired up again. I love working
with Stephen, so I always hope it goes
back to that."
-Mary Beth,
Soap Opera Digest,
March 30 1999
On Playing Stefan & Katherine
"I remember the first time our characters
spoke-when Katherine was in the hospital
after Stefan shot her -Stephen and
I were both so excited. We were like,
'This is so much fun!' So that part was
great. I just adore him."
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Digest
March 30 1999
An audience member asks Stephen
to compare working with Mary Beth
on GH vs. Days, He answers:
"She's still the same person and we
still have a fun relationship. She's like
a breath of fresh air every day on the
set. In terms of acting together,
these characters are a lot more complex
than Patch and Kayla ever were and it's a
whole different ball game trying to find
that dynamic and make it work"
-on Northwest Afternoon talk show
April, 1998 (KOMO-TV, Washington
State)
|
On Acting With Each Other
"Stephen takes his job and acting very
seriously.
He's not one who memorizes his lines
on the staircase. He's worked on it,
he's thought about it - and if it's not
what he thinks his character would do,
he suffers over it ...He brings the
standard up a couple of notches
because he's so into his work in such
a positive way"
-Mary Beth,
in Soap Opera Magazine
"Sometimes if one or the other or
both of us were having a hard time
getting to the place we needed to be
emotionally for a scene, we would
whisper little secrets in each other's
ears, that we knew might put us in
the place we needed to be. When all
else failed, we would get lost in
each other's eyes, or "eye" as the case
was with me. "
-Stephen in Soap Opera Update
Oct 8 1990
"We trust each other as actors.
We really pay attention to what
each other is doing. He'll say,
'Look at me', and we'll block out
all the rest of the baloney and
concentrate on the scene that
we're doing"
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera Digest,
August 22, 1989
"On her first day of work, she was
absolutely brilliant. Patch had
ransacked her apartment in
Cleveland, and was hiding in the
closet, watching her...She came into
the room and saw the place in
disarray...when she turned her back
and caught a glimpse of the message
on the door, she just cracked. She
broke down right there on the spot.
It was beautiful. A good example of
how so much can be said without words,
is in Mary Beth's scenes when she is
deaf- our scenes in the hospital after
the accident,and when we're home on
the loft roof. Check those out. Mary Beth
is so beautiful there- her work so clear."
-Stephen in Soap Opera Update
October 8 90'
"My Favorite scene was when I was
pregnant with Danny and
they were trying to hide it every
way possible. It was a drag because
if it showed, we'd have to take it over.
And then Stephen and I did that little
dream of his where I was pregnant. We
ad-libbed everything. We put in all
these things we had talked about during
my pregnancy. Singing songs. Things
Michael (her husband) did and and things
Stephen had done with me being pregnant.
Things I said to my husband about 'no fat jokes'.
We incorporated it all. In that
scene, it shows how much Stephen
loves me and how he cared about me
while I was pregnant.
It was a sweet time for both of us."
-Mary Beth
Soap Opera Update
October 8, 1990
"I loved Mary Beth's honesty and
outspokenness right from the start. I
remember she was testing for the part
{of Kayla, Days}, under this tremendous
amount of pressure, and we were doing this
really intense scene. After we were done,
she just walked away and said, 'That was
s--t!' Most actors are so paranoid to ever
admit they did something wrong, but not
Mary Beth. She's brave, and she's honest.
She knows when she's on and when she's
off, and isn't afraid to admit it. I thought
right then, this is my kind of actress,
my kind of actor"
-Stephen Nichols,
Soap Opera Digest,
August 22 1989
"We always work so great together
because we're very comfortable with
saying, 'If you said that line like that,
that would be so great,' or, 'Maybe
if you did that...' We don't get offended;
we're very encouraging. If he got cast in
something and there was a part for me,
I'd be knocking on the door, saying, 'Can
I be with him?'"
-Mary Beth Evans,
Soap Opera Weekly 4/24/01
"It takes a lot of people to decide
whom to cast, but actors do have
some input, so when they asked me,
I said 'Mary Beth"
-Stephen Nichols,
Soap Opera Digest Presents,
August 1 1989
"Mary Beth could be laughing one
minute and the cameras turn on
and she's instantly in the scene."
-Stephen in Soap Opera Update
October 8 90
"If something tickled her, she would laugh
until she cried and have the whole place
roaring. I've seen her get four or five actors
going at once all with tears streaming"
-Stephen Nichols,
Soap Opera Update,
Oct. 8 1990
Soap Opera Update's Flash Fax Feature
in the late 80's asked Stephen:
What is it about Mary Beth Evans that
makes her portrayal of Kayla so special
to him?
Stephen answered:
"It's Mary Beth's sincerity"
When they asked Mary Beth the
same about Stephen, she answered
that it's:
"Stephen's vulnerability and good heart"
that makes Steve Johnson so remarkable.
"She is a lot funnier than I am.
I'm only funny when I feel like it,
but she is funny all the time. She 's
hilarious.Believe me, everybody
around the set really loves having
her there. You know , the makeup
room is a good gauge of who's liked
and who isn't because the hair and
makeup people have to be in there
all day and watch everyone come in
and go out with all their bulls--t.And
I have got to say, hands down, that
Mary Beth is the absolute favorite."
-Stephen Nichols,
Soap Opera Digest,
March 30 1999
Favorite Scenes:
"The time that Kayla was nursing
Patch back to health after he was
beaten up on the docks. It was pretty
early, maybe the first or second year.
And she removed the patch to nurse his
wounds. I'll never forget the exchange
between the two of us in those moments.
I'm not referring to the end result, rather
to the experience of being in those scenes
with Mary Beth on that day. "
-Stephen Nichols,
Ultimate Days Fan Guide (SOD),
Spring 2003
On Chemistry
"..There was sort of a magic that
we had that I don't know if you get that
many times in your life."
-Mary Beth Evans,
Ultimate Days Fan Guide (SOD),
Spring 2003
"It brings tears to my eyes to remember
how Mary Beth and I connected in our work...
we are the best of friends"
-Stephen in Soap Opera Update,
Oct. 8 1990
"The thing that people like to call chemistry
(a hackneyed term in my book), for Mary
Beth and me was simply concentration and
trust- and yes the trust was supported by
our relationship off camera."
-Stephen in Soap Opera Update
October 8, 1990
"We work together as a team. I think it was
the two of us, not just Patch and Kayla. We
look into each other's eyes and we know
what the other person is thinking and what's
going on. We're never afraid to try anything
or do anything...We have our own style of
working together"
-Mary Beth in Soap Opera News,
April 8 1997
"Even John York, who was my onscreen
partner at the time, encouraged that. He
even jokingly said, 'You never looked at me
like that.' There is just a certain something
that Stephen and I have. Our friendship
goes very deep"
-Mary Beth, Soap Opera News,
April 8 1997
"Naturally we've grown as people and as
actors. We totally trust each other. I
haven't found that chemistry with anyone
since. We walk into a scene
and we look at each other and I can just
see the twinkle in his eye. We know what
we mean to each other as friends- and it
comes across when we work together. We
create magic"
-Mary Beth in Soap Opera Magazine, 1997
"Aside from my wife and daughters, Mary
Beth has without a doubt, the most
beautiful eyes. They're not only
expressive, they're soulful. She gives
you so much through them"
-Stephen Nichols,
Soap Opera Digest,
April 1997
"The sexiest thing about Stephen is his
eyes. Even with one eye hidden behind a
patch, he has more expression than most
actors"
-Mary Beth Evans,
Soap Opera Digest,
November 1, 1988
"I think we just have that connection to
each other. We both know how to kind of
stop everything around us and just listen to
each other. When I have scenes with him
now, its hard for me not to do that."
-Mary Beth, March 30, 1999,
Soap Opera Digest
"There is a mutual respect and
there's nothing I couldn't say to
Mary Beth about anything and
vice versa. We can be completely
and totally honest. We don't have
to play games or dance around each
other's ego or any of that crap you
have to do with other people. With
Mary Beth, it's just so easy."
-Stephen, Soap Opera Digest
March 30 1999
"Stephen and I have chemistry
even if we're sitting around a
7-11. We're very good friends
and we connect on a visceral level.
I truly believe that would
be there no matter what we
played. I loved it when the
writers committed to us as a
couple. "
-Mary Beth Evans
1/4/00 Soap Opera Update
"Stephen and I just did a photo shoot
for Soap Opera Digest and I swear,
we were like the old married couple
(laughs). We were sitting on the couch,
all cozied up, he was reading something,
I was doing something. It's like we don't
even have to talk to each other. It cracked
me up! We've known each other for such
a long time and we're so comfortable with
each other. So I'm hoping that we work
together again, because I always have such
a great time!"
Mary Beth Evans
Soap Opera Digest
Online
www.soapoperadigest.com
(Supercouples article /week of
April 27, 2004)
From the March 27, 2001
issue of Soap Opera
Update:
The evening briefly reunited Nichols
with former leading lady Mary Beth
Evans, who had just wrapped up a
stint as Sierra on ATWT.
The two fan favorites performed
a scene from 'Night of the Iguana'.
Attendees later commented on how
the chemistry between Nichols and
Evans radiates on the stage as
well as the screen.
"Inevitably, Mary Beth and I
connect in a way that many
actors never get to. For us,
having a live audience to feed
off of made working together
again all the more joyful."
-Stephen on the onstage
chemistry with Mary Beth at
the Los Angeles Media &
Education Center's festival,
where they performed a scene
together
On The End of Stefan and Katherine
"A lot of fans really liked Stefan and
Katherine. I would have probably given
it more time. The idea of pairing us
again was wonderful, but it has to be
handled very carefully...
I think Mary Beth and I could've clicked,
and made it work again,but it was done
too hastily. So yeah, I'm a little bit sad
that it didn't work out for us.
Anyway, I'm glad Mary Beth is moving on,
because she wasn't getting anywhere in
that role. There was never a clear [vision]
of who [Katherine] was. Of late, she was
being used as a[story] vehicle, and not
as a solid character in her own right."
-Stephen Nichols,
Soap Opera Weekly
November 9, 1999 |
