Digest: Why did you leave AMC to go to ATWT?
McClain: It was so different from what I was doing, and I really like working on daytime. You know, I've been playing a good character for so long, people think that's all you can do. They think that's the sum of your ability, which is not small with the range of stuff they ask you to play, but it's still within a limited parameter of what this character would do. Dixie would never be mean to anyone. It's not in her capacity to hurt because she was hurt. It is within this character's capacity to do that. I know that audiences in this medium tend to believe in a character so much that they believe the actor is the character, and it's hard, in this medium,
to go from one kind of character to another. You're asking all the viewers to make that leap with you. but I feel that's been a challenge. That's been the pressure, to make that work. I feel like it's working, though. I feel like people are coming.... And Jeanne [Dadario Burke, Executive Producer] was unbelievably supportive to me during the years that she and I were working together. I never wanted her to feel that the decision for me to go to AS THE WORLD TURNS had anything to do with her, and she knows this. Or my
not liking working there or anything like that. I just needed a change.

Digest: What is the difference between working for P&G and working for AMC?
McClain: I know it is different, but I couldn't really tell you how. I suppose the biggest difference that I feel is that working at ABC we worked very close to the ABC network heads, ABC news, ABC radio, there was a world of ABC that we were, REGIS AND KATHIE LEE up the street, and Disney, that we were a part of. And working out of Brooklyn, you don't feel connected with [local CBS] Channel 2 or P&G. You feel like we're these little renegades out in this little studio in Brooklyn, thinking of crazy things to make people laugh or cry. And I like that feeling. There's nothing necessarily wrong to being close to all of that [at ABC] - it really feels like a lot of power - but I'm a creative person, I'm not so much of a businessperson. So being way out there and not feeling connected to the industry aspect of it has been really positive for me.

Digest: What will you miss most about AMC?
McClain: I miss Michael Knight [Tad]. I miss the history - walking into a room and knowing everything about everybody in a scene and I suppose I'll have that in time [at ATWT]. It takes time. That sense of time and character. That connection. Mike is one of my best friends and he always has been and we never dated, but we've always been just great pals. I was really lucky to have that. My mother was sick all that time, and she died when I was twenty-five, so for me to have that family type of world to work in, and the issues were all about family was really helpful and the people there were amazing to me.

Digest: Do you ever get sick of doing interviews, especially about this?
McClain: I'm always discovering new things about me, and I think giving interviews is a necessary part of the process of being a performer. I always try and stay in contact, to some degree, with the audience to let them know that I'm certainly accessible and I care about what they think about the work and the story. I've always had a nice flow of information back and forth between me and the audience. A strange sort of connection. A part of this interview process is that connection, so I don't begrudge it at all.

Digest: You actually wrote a letter to the fans that was posted online after you made your decision. Why?
McClain: It was a response to I think, gossip getting out of control. I was finding that this decision that I was making was making a lot of people question my motives, in the industry and online, from the fans. I don't go into the chat rooms, but I have a friend who's connected with that world and she sort of lets me know what's going on. But I felt like it just dawned on me, once everything had been decided for me, that they deserved to know. They're a huge part of this industry. there would not be daytime without the fans. We rely on their viewership. And I don't see fans as a mass of people. I see them as a group of individuals with a lot of different ideas. I think they're an intelligent lot, and the people who care really care. I've met judges and people in sports and people in politics, all different kinds of industries, that read Soap Opera Digest, are addicted to one show or two or an entire channel and they really care, and I completely understand that. I don't think it's right to play down to their feelings or their intellect, because I wouldn't want anybody doing that to me.

Digest: Do you think they've followed you?
McClain: I've been pretty immersed in the work so I don't know, but from what I've heard from the people I've talked to at different magazines, the response has been good and people are following. They're continuing to watch ALL MY CHILDREN and have come over to AS THE WORLD TURNS. And if they come to see what I'm doing and they end up staying because they love Maura West [Carly] or Hunt Block [Craig] - there are so many fantastically talented actors and so many good storylines on the show, I know they won't be disappointed. They won't be waiting around for my scenes. I think they'll be as captured and entertained as I was when I watched the show.

Digest: What did you like most about it?
McClain: I loved Craig and Carly and Jack and Hal. Benjamin Hendrickson [Hal] is an amazing actor and a lovely person. Ellen Dolan, Margo. Those are the people that stood out the most as being really remarkable players, although everybody's great. Oh, and Martha [Byrne, Lily/Rose]. Oh my God! How could I leave Martha off the list?

Digest: Did you know each other before?
McClain: We knew each other sort of, from around. For whatever reason, the times that I watched, Martha wasn't on that much. She's a phenomenal actress.

Digest: You both have somewhat similar career trajectories, from being child actors to playing the heroine forever. Although now she's also Rose.
McClain: Yeah. If I had stayed on ALL MY CHILDREN, they might have done that. We've talked a little bit about it. She understands needing to break out. A character can only go through so much. Dixie was getting to that point where, she's died again, she's got one kidney, another miscarriage... what else can you put this kid through?

Digest: Over the years, they tried to darken Dixie a few times.
McClain: We did the whole Dixie-David thing. And I imagine it's because the industry is so aware, or very tied to, fan response. And if fans are torn two ways then the people who have to make the decisions are torn about what to do. They decided to go the safe way and keep Tad and Dixie together. And keep Dixie are moral character.... It's Agnes Nixon who's the head of that show, and I believe that she knows what she's doing. So to protect the character's ultimate integrity is, I'm sure, foremost in her mind. And that's what she's trying to do. As an actor it was frustrating, because I wanted to grow and change and do something different.

Digest: Do you see more of yourself in Rosanna or Dixie?
McClain: I'm both. I'm absolutely both. there was a lot of me in Dixie in terms of, it's so weird to say, I guess, the softness of the character. Her vulnerabilities were my vulnerabilities. Her needs were family and all that. Her grief and loss was a lot of my grief and loss. So I had a lot of ways in to that character. Different situations, but similar ways of identifying.

Digest: Is Rosanna after true love?
McClain: It's more like she tried for it, got her heart broken, went away, licked her wounds... she's trying for it again, but way more wearily and much more carefully and with a much shorter fuse. But it doesn't hurt as much. It's sort of bewildering. She can't seem to figure out how, with all the money, all the education, all the experiences she's had and all of her ability to make her way in the world that she can't find somebody to love her. There are a lot of women in the workforce now who are actualizing themselves, finding out who they want to be and focusing on the things in their character that they want to improve, or their physicality or whatever, becoming wonderful people. But they're still struggling with, 'Why can't I find a guy to love me? I'm great! What's the problem?' It's a thing I've seen with friends of mine and stuff where it can be a little embittering. And it can make you a little tough. You think 'I'll just adopt a child.' I'll do it on my own. there are all sorts of questions that it brings up about, 'What is a woman's role in a relationship? What is feminity these days? How much do we become men in order to survive, and lie about what we really want from a relationship? To ourselves as well as whoever we're hanging out with. Rosanna is guilty of all of that.

Digest: Do you feel the need to have kids?
McClain: I don't feel a driving need for myself. And I know there's a lot of kids out there who desperately need homes. It would be nice if I could get it together to have a man be a part of that so the kid has a mom and dad, but I know plenty of single women with children, and they find father figures in other places, and I have a lot of great male friends. Right now, that's a viable option.
 

© Soap Opera Digest 2002