By Travis Kinsey

WEEKLY: Santa Barbara was known for being a creative paradise for actors. Was that your experience?
Norris: You had input. That is why SB attracted the caliber of actors, writers and directors that it did. It was an intensely creative effort and very collaborative. I would talk to the writers about ideas that I had and they were always very supportive. Not everything I said (was accepted), but you wouldn't expect that anyway. (One time), I was listening to a classical station and I was just transported by [a certain piece]. It really hit me and I went to the producer and said, "Do you know what would make me so very happy? Even if you don't use it for the show, but if you would play this aria while I am [taping].' I was doing such nutty things all by myself, so I didn't have a lot of dialogue. If I did it was talking in my head. I said, 'If I could just hear that it would make such a difference because that's what Laura hears in her head. He (executive producer John Conboy) said, 'Sure, of course we will do that.' But then they didn't play it on the set and that disappointed me. Later, after whatever scene I finished, John came onto the stage and called me over and said, "Come with me for a second." So we went into the mixing room and he played the scene back to me and there was the aria. Tears came to my eyes. I said, "Yes. That was my intention as an actor." They used it on the air; paid for it and everything. That's what I mean by a collaborative effort. It was a very happy, creative period for me.

 WEEKLY: Your character became really bizarre by the time you left  the show. She ended up killing Sasha Schmidt and carrying her corpse  around in the car.
 Norris: When I first came on the show, Laura was a high school  principal married to a very successful businessman. They did not have any  children, but that's all you knew about her. She was pretty uptight and  straight laced; all of those things you might expect from a teacher. They  had the storyline as far as my son being killed and the priest (who was  the boy's father). But they didn't have where my story was going. Patrick  (Mulcahey, an SB writer) said to me - because we became quite good  friends - "The first week that I saw you on the show, I saw so much going  on behind your eyes that my mind started racing, and started realizing how  important that event was to the character." And that's basically why we  went off in this bizarre direction. That is one of the things that I found  so beautiful about Santa Barbara. Patrick was very sensitive to  what the actors brought to the words. He allowed me to lead the character.  He said, "I would just follow where your intonations or eyes took me."  That's a huge compliment from a writer.

 WEEKLY: And then the character had gotten so out of control, in  terms of her behavior, that your time on the show ended.
 Norris: Exactly. It was very sad. There was no more room. And  also, by the time I left, the show had kind of taken a different turn.

Leigh McCloskey (Dr. Zach Kelton, 1988-'89; Ethan Asher, 1989-90)

By Travis Kinsey

 WEEKLY: You played two characters on the show with only a six-week  break in between. And your first character, Zach, was Eden's gynecologist  who also turned out to be her rapist. Creepy.
McCloskey: "I was thinking, 'This is going to play havoc with a whole lot of young people's brains." I thought it might not be the healthiest thing to put out there, but [people really responded to it]. Jill (executive producer Jill Farren Phelps) told me they wanted me to come on for a short-term character that was going to turn dark. And so when they made my character the rapist and he started worshipping his sister in the basement, I had so much fun. Jill gave me permission to just go for it. That's probably what I remember the most, when the character went from becoming the rapist to spiraling down into a type of madness that was just very fun to explore. I would get letters as Zach and people would say, "I hate you. I wish you were dead. I hope you stay on the show forever." That's psychology of really hitting a nerve and people wanting you at the same time. The dastardly villain turning his mustache, the audience knows how important it is. I learned a lot from that.
 Then, Jill said, "We want to kill you off, but we want to bring you back,  and since we saw you as Zach and what you did when he went crazy, you can  do anything. Why don't you come back as our DA and we won't make you  related at all. We'll give you six weeks and then come back.' And that's  what I did. A lot of people would still refer to Zach or they would ask  whether I had something to do with the other character.

 WEEKLY: What was your relationship with Marcy Walker (Eden Capwell  Castillo; now All My Children's Liza)?
 LM: Marcy I adored. Because I was her doctor we had some nice scenes  together. She was a very present actress. Just very enjoyable to move in  the scenes. Most of our work was her coming in and it was counseling her.  When I did find out my character was the rapist, it textured the scenes  even more perversely in a sense.

Harley Jane Kozak (Mary Duvall McCormick, 1985-86; 89)

By Gabby Winkel

 WEEKLY: What do you remember most about playing Mary?
Kozak: The thing I think I most remember is how much fun I had with Mason. It was such a great romance because I was this really goody-two shoes, A-student-nun and he was sort of the bad boy with the heart of gold who you're supposed to really disapprove of, but of course, everybody loves him. And just the oddness of their becoming a couple and people rooting for them because they were so unalike. And he's such a great guy; he was just so much fun to work with - such a sweetheart. So that really set the stage for my entire experience.