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Elsewhere on the Web • Annie Parisse Biography

Breathless by Stephanie Akner.
Appeared in Soap Opera Weekly on October  3, 2000. 

ATWT's Annie Parisse takes a much-needed breather  to discuss her  well-developed character, her very loyal fans and the chaotic  state of the  city in which she lives. 

You can't blame Annie Parisse for being just a teeny bit  defensive when  it comes to discussing the love life of her As the World Turns  character, Julia Lindsey Snyder, since, for all intents and  purposes, the  actress just can't catch a break. "Yes," Parisse answers  with a hint of  frustration to the question that just about everyone has been  asking her.  "Jack and Julia are back together. That is the god's honest truth." 

You'd be exasperated too. Her army of fans, many of whom  have banded  together in the form of an online fan club called Annie's  Angels, has been  bombarding her with mail begging to know Julia's romantic  fate, particularly  where it concerns Oakdale's most active participant in  romantic triangles,  Jack and his longtime object of affection, agitation and  rejection, Carly. 

Not that it's a good reason, but that's why many attendees  at this years  ATWT's fan-club gathering actually booed her--Annie, not her  character--when  she was introduced and beckoned onstage. "I didn't go home  and cry because  Jack-and-Carly fans hissed me," Parisse says. "But they  don't have the  experience with the behind-the-scenes of this stuff. I think  there's a loss  of reality for the fans in the sense that, if they don't like  Julia, they  don't think of the real person behind the character. 

"When Keith (Coulouris, who played David Stenbeck) was on  full-time,  there were fans who really didn't like him, and they'd put  that stuff on the  Internet. Keith has a computer. He can see that. He did  see it. I didn't  go home and cry about it when it happened to me, but it did  make me pause,  to be like, 'Guys, I didn't have anything to do with this. I play a  character. I do my job. When you hiss at Annie Parisse,  you're not hissing  at Julia, you're hissing at Annie Parisse. And I don't  appreciate that.'  There has to be a separation there." 

Equally baffling is that more people wouldn't be on Julia's side,  especially with all the strides she's made since her breakup  with Jack. "I  think Julia's a lot different now than she was when she first  came on the  show," Parisse muses. "She's a lot tougher; she's more  savvy; she's a  lot more intelligent; and, she's a lot more independent." 

And it's a good thing. "After the whole breakup," Parisse  explains, "I  was so sick of {the directors and writers} saying, 'Let's do  another scene  where Julia's scared,' and 'Let's do another scene where  Julia's running  away, were Julia feels sad, where Julia feels guilty.' I was  like: If I  have to do one more of these, I'm just going to die" 

The transformation came not so much from Julia's creators but from  Parisse herself. "I had this conversation with Ellen Wheeler  (now directing  the show). She was like, 'Listen to your feelings. Just  name the three  things you like best about your character, and three things  you would like  to see more of in your character, and play those things.  Don't play the  things you don't like.' And I started doing that, and I  think that really  helped in terms of at least changing her around." 

Parisse credits fans with her return to front-burner  status after the  Jack/Julia breakup last year. "As far as I had been told,"  she explains,  "we were no longer going to deal with a Julia/Jack/Carly  triangle anymore.  It was over. Everyone was sick of it. They didn't want to  see it anymore.  So I had no idea that they were going to go back to it after  Maura (West,  Carly) went on maternity leave. And, honestly, I really  think it had a lot  to do with the Jack-and-Julia fans. I'm very serious. Those  people wrote  so much, so often and worked so hard. I mean, I get these  huge pamphlets,  and I'm just astonished at the dedication. I really think that had  something to do with it." 

Yes, but what now? With West back from maternity  leave--and Carly back  from Hong Kong in full force, with designs on her old life,  including her  former fiance--will Julia, along with Parisse, be relegated  to the sidelines  again, despite the characters recent marriage? "I honestly  don't know,"  Parisse muses. " I would love if there was some way they could work a  friendship out between Julia and Carly. I think it would  make the rivalry  between them over Jack a lot more painful if they actually  cared about each  other, instead of making it a whole catfight thing." 

Parisse is the first to admit that, while defining Julia has been  difficult, it's not for the show's lack of trying. Just the opposite:  Julia has been through so many identity changes that Parisse,  not Martha  Byrne (Lily/Rose), could have taken on the dual storyline.  In the past  year, the young heiress has gone from physician's assistant  to evil-avenging  investigative reporter; from Jack's fiancee to Jake's  sidekick; from a  pill-popping debutante to a socially responsible citizen. 

"We got a lot of positive responses from all these  changes," Parisse  says. "I feel like {the writers} aren't entirely sure where  they're going  with the whole thing now, and they aren't afraid to try new  things out.  Jake did not work out, and I am genuinely not sure why. I  thought it was a  really fun relationship and a fun story." Well, she  concedes, you can't  please everyone. And so Parisse is trying to please herself.  Though the  Seattle native is a somewhat recent transplant to New York  City's Upper West  Side (she moved there after high school to attend Fordham  University), she  has a keen interest in the metropolis. A confirmed liberal,  she speaks in  no uncertain terms about everything from the state of the  city's public  transportation system ("Mayor Giuliani is a fascist pig! I  will be nothing  less than thrilled when he is no longer a part of my life and my  government!") to the city's best health food ("By the way, I actually  prefer soy milk in my coffee.") to the upcoming election  (George W. Bush?  Oh, my god, the man is insane. And Al Gore? We've got a  jock and a nerd  running for president--a frat boy and a geek boy.") 

For now, Parisse is content with a very full plate. With  an exasperated  sigh, she'll quickly tell you all about her hectic schedule.  Despite the  fact that she has no real hiatus from ATWT; she is a constant  presence in New York's downtown theater scene. "I haven't  had any free  time," she says. 

One play she recently starred in was I Want to be  Adored, based on  Joy Division, a late 1970's, early 80's band. "They were goth rock,"  Parisse says with a laugh. "You know, black lipstick, black  eye shadow...It  was about the lead singer of the band who killed himself.  It's about his  death, actually, but it's a comedy. I played his French  mistress, so I had  to do an accent. 

"It was funny, because I was industrial goth in high  school, with black  lipstick, tights, cut-off jean shorts, combat boots, long  black cardigans  that came down over the shorts: That was the standard uniform." In  September, Parisse starred in a four-person play called The Crackwalked, by  Canadian playwright Judith Thompson, at New York's hip Soho  Repertory. "The  woman that I played is beaten by her boyfriend and wants to  overcome that,  but stays with him," she says. "It's really sad. It's a  really good play,  though." 

Before that, Parisse entered the lottery--and began training--to  participate in the New York City marathon. "I run a lot.  I've been running  just for exercise for about two years. But I started training for the  marathon seriously in January," she reveals. However, when  she got to the  point where she was running "13 or 14 miles on a long run,  about once a  week," the marathon's lottery system (a random process used  to whittle down  the number of runners during November's already huge race)  made the point  moot. Parisse would not be running. 

But who has time to anyway? Not Annie Parisse. Almost as  if she heard  the pop of a starter's pistol, she announces that she has to run to an  audition, then to her acting classes. And she's off...