All My Life
Page 25
But there was one time that was an absolute fashion disaster. It was in the late eighties and I was on location in Toronto doing a film when I realized I needed to find a dress for the Emmy Awards. At that time most designers simply couldn’t put enough stuff on a garment at the same time. The dress I chose was a strappy number that had every extra a dress could possibly have—and shouldn’t have. It was black and silver, had lace, and was beaded, too. It was so busy, it was blinding—and in the end, it was a definite learning experience.
Once I’ve got my hair and makeup done, life can move pretty fast on the set. We shoot ninety pages of dialogue a day. To put that into perspective for you, a major feature film might shoot, on average, two pages a day. An independent film, maybe four or five pages a day. In fact, it took five weeks to shoot the chariot scene in Ben-Hur. Since I am generally in so many scenes, I am constantly playing a game of “Beat the Clock.” Our studio in New York was about a city block long. If you had to run across it, it would be the equivalent of running the length of a football field. One day, I was running to the hair and makeup room as fast as I could when the heel of my shoe got caught on some cables and I tripped. I fell on the hard cement stage floor, landing on my knees. Cables are usually on the floor, and sometimes taped down. For whatever reason, these cables were raised a couple of inches off the floor. I knew they were there, as I had been jumping cables all day making my way back and forth from the stage to the makeup room. I got up and thought I was okay to walk back to my dressing room. I didn’t feel great, but I was able to make my way back. By the time I got to my room, I was in so much pain I really could not take another step. I had heard that if you break your kneecap, you cannot walk. I could walk, so I thought I must be all right.
One of the producers came into my dressing room to see how I was doing. He offered to send me to the emergency room, but I declined. I thought I could shake off the pain. The producer was worried about me, but he seemed more worried about the four-hour delay an impromptu visit to the hospital would create in his shooting schedule, so I decided to tough it out.
As the day went on, I had a scene where I was supposed to walk down a flight of stairs to get to my table at a local nightclub. By this time, my legs had become Jell-O. Although the scene had not been staged this way, I asked the actor I was working with if I could hold on to his arm. I somehow made it down the steps, played the scene, and was finally able to call it quits, as that was my last scene for the day.
By the time I got home that night, I was in terrible pain. My mother was at our house for dinner. I was sitting opposite her at the table. When I tried to cross my leg, she could see that something was wrong.
“What are you doing, Susan?” she asked.
“Trying to cross my leg,” I said.
“If one of your children was sitting here hurt, you would be right to the doctor’s office with them. You are my child. You need to see a doctor now.” And she was right.
Fortunately, Helmut had a golfing buddy who was an orthopedic surgeon. Even though it was ten o’clock at night, we called Woody Greiner, who graciously agreed to meet us at a nearby hospital so we could have some X-rays taken. Woody looked at the films and immediately told me that I had fractured my kneecap. It hadn’t gone all of the way through, but I was going to have to stay off my feet for two weeks. There was no way that was going to happen. I was fully committed at the show. Woody agreed to give me a Velcro cast that I promised to wear whenever I wasn’t shooting a scene. The wardrobe department found the cutest silver metallic flats for me to wear. Those two weeks of healing are the only time in the history of All My Children that Erica Kane wore flat shoes.
My working days can last anywhere from eight to eighteen hours a day. If we shoot late, there is no pushing back the next day’s start time. It’s “see you in the morning” for everyone. The schedule is grueling and hectic, but the fast pace is part of what I love most about working in daytime. I never get the chance to become bored because things are always changing. I have a new script to learn every day because tomorrow we get to do it all over again. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Photographic Insert II
So many times art and life imitate each other—this is me with Regis on the set of his talk show…
Photographs by Donna Svennevik/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
and Erica spotting a billboard on the street for her own talk show.
Photographs by Donna Svennevik/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
I’ve had many moments of great fortune throughout my life and career, including performing on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun…
Photograph © by Carol Rosegg
taking my cabaret act on the road with Regis Philbin…
doing the tango with Tony Dovolani on Dancing with the Stars…
Photograph by Kelsey McNeal/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
seeing myself as a very lifelike figure in Madame Tussauds wax museum…
having a doll made in my likeness…
and launching many beauty products, including my fragrance, Invitation.
Photograph by Yolanda Perez
I also got to work with the legendary Marvin Hamlisch (pictured here with his lovely wife, Terre Blair). Marvin kindly helped me prepare for my first Broadway audition!
And I got to make films with extraordinary actors including the late great Tony Curtis who signed and gave me his character’s fedora after we wrapped the movie, Maffia Princess. What a thrill!
Photographs by Linda Loeffler
Among the highest honors were meeting former president Bill Clinton…
receiving a congratulatory letter from him upon winning the Emmy…
and being named by Barbara Walters as one of the ten most fascinating people in 1999.
Photographs by Virginia Sherwood/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
I’ve also had opportunities to help those less fortunate. Here I am in Africa working with Feed the Children alongside Tony Geary, Kelly Monaco, Erik Estrada, Larry Jones, Kyle Massey, Chris Massey, and Devon Werkheiser.
This is one of the beautiful children I met at a school we visited.
I was treated like a rock star for bringing them such simple things as lollipops and rubber balls.
Of course, my greatest blessings have been family and friends. This is my real-life leading man and husband, Helmut Huber, on our wedding day…
enjoying a quiet walk along the beach…
and renewing our vows in Vienna at the Hofburgkapelle, the Emperor’s private chapel, in 1994.
Courtesy of the Friars Club
Helmut and I love to dance. This is us taking a whirl at our summer home…
and again at Helmut’s surprise seventieth birthday party.
Photographs by Heidi Gutman/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
This is the one-of-a-kind invitation I sent to him to be sure he wouldn’t suspect a thing about the party! Of course there was no affiliate event that night.
Photographs by Linda Loeffler
Here we are in Alaska on our dogsled at the Iditarod.
We were there as guests of our good friends philanthropists and racing aficionados Marylou Whitney and John Hendrickson.
And this is us high above Lac Tignes in France, moments before Helmut saved my life…for the first time!
Photograph by Luis Martinez, courtesy of Getty Images
Here are my wonderful children Liza and Andreas. They accompanied me to the Ellis Island Medal of Honor Award ceremony.
This is adorable Liza, one year old, all bundled up in the snow. (I’m bundled up, too, in a cozy hand-knitted hat and sweater from the Norwegian mom who hosted me during my studies abroad.)
I love this photo representing three generations of women in my family—Liza, my mother, and me.
Here my beautiful mother and I are headed to a charity luncheon in Palm Beach.
And this is a picture of Liza and me on the evening she appeared as Miss
Golden Globe. Doesn’t she look stunning?!
Courtesy of Getty Images
I tried to hide my real-life pregnancy with Andreas while opening a disco as Erica…
Photographs by Ann Limongello/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
but Andreas and I are happy to pose for the camera in this photo—one of my all-time favorites of the two of us together.
I adore being a grandmother. This is me with my first born grandson, Royce.
This is the pure white doe and her fawn spotted outside our window the day our youngest grandson, Brendan, was born. What magic the day held!
Here are my very handsome grandsons together…
and having fun with my wonderful son-in-law, Alex!
These are my best friends from college—Cathy, Patty, Linda, and Pat—who have been there for me throughout it all.
I call these fabulous friends from my hometown—Sandy, Kathy, Chris, Sue, and Mary—my “homegirls.”
This is my friend Mary whom I adore as well. Here we are celebrating our Christmas birthdays together.
Finally, my family would not be complete without Frida, pictured here with our dog, Oscar. She has cared for us all since Liza was a toddler.
This is the inside of my dressing room in L.A. I’ll just read my script now while you finish reading my book!
CHAPTER 15
Dancing with the Stars
The summer of 2005 marked the debut of a new ABC television show called Dancing with the Stars. Producers had approached me several times to participate in the first season of the show, but I didn’t feel as if I could take on the overwhelming task of shooting All My Children in New York while learning to dance and flying back and forth to Los Angeles twice a week. I watched the first season with great curiosity because I love to dance and I have a deep appreciation for those who can really move. I became an instant fan and continued to tune in every week. Despite my personal interest, I turned down the opportunity to participate for several more seasons.
I never even considered the possibility of doing Dancing with the Stars until the fall of 2007 when my costar Cameron Mathison joined the cast for its fifth season. Honestly, until I saw Cameron on the show, I didn’t even think it was doable for me. But once he was brave enough to try it, I knew I could do it, too.
I debuted as one of the contestants for season seven. I was paired with the wonderful, sexy, talented, and very patient Tony Davolani. Thankfully, the show sends your partner wherever you live, so Tony and I were able to spend five weeks preparing for our first appearance. For season seven, the producers had decided that in the first week they would add a second dance for each couple. The show had become very popular, so introducing new elements and shaking things up kept it interesting for the viewers. The producers are wonderful and very clever that way. There was one challenge, though—not only was I learning to ballroom-dance, I was now charged with having to learn two dances for my first week—the cha-cha and the quickstep!
Tony had to teach me those two dances complete with ballroom posture and technique. One of the reasons I was finally able to commit to the show was that the producers promised me that my dance partner would go wherever I needed him to be in order to rehearse—whether it was Manhattan, Garden City, or the Hamptons, where I spend my weekends in the summer. Tony went where I went. If I had to be in St. Petersburg, Florida, for a Home Shopping appearance, Tony came with me so we could dance. If I was doing an appearance in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Tony came with me so we could dance. Luckily, my schedule that summer wasn’t too bad, so we did most of our rehearsals out at the beach at the Westhampton Performing Arts Center. They offered us a gorgeous dance hall to use as our rehearsal space. That room was clean as a whistle. I swear that you could eat off the floor. The facility was perfect and everyone there was very accommodating.
Tony and I got to know each other rather well over the course of those many weeks we spent practicing as I learned proper postures, moves, holds, and style. It was a good thing that I do a lot of Pilates because at least I had excellent core strength to do the moves he was teaching me. They were all very foreign and surprising to me. I had no formal training as a dancer, but I had taken some modern dance back in college. Latin dancing is completely different from the smooth style of ballroom. I had no idea what an art form ballroom dancing is. I knew I loved to watch it and I always loved to dance, but I didn’t know that in addition to learning the steps, I would actually have to learn the language of movement. I was taught things I had absolutely no idea I was going to have to learn. I am that girl who loves to move when music is playing, especially Brazilian music. I’m out on that dance floor having a good time, dancing without a care, as if no one is watching. I was never thinking about pattern or choreography. I was just moving. Those days were over! I would dance, thinking I was doing a great job, and Tony would say, “NO!” Up until this experience, I knew I had rhythm and I thought that was the main thing you needed to dance. But according to Tony, you need so much more. And he was right. Once again, I was completely out of my comfort zone. Although I definitely wanted to grow, this time I might have been in over my head. Boy, was I in for a rude awakening.
All I wanted to do was dance! Who knew you’re not supposed to bend your leg in Latin dancing—Tony told me the judges consider that an “ugly” leg in routines. Apparently, you’re supposed to move from the hips—not the knees. As a two-time International Latin Ballroom Dancing champion, not only does Tony know what he’s talking about, he can swivel his hips unlike any man I have ever met—on-screen or off! He is an amazing dancer and a remarkable teacher and choreographer.
The show airs the dancing competition live on Monday nights and the results live on Tuesday nights. Cameron explained that it could be done as long as you plan out your time just right. He told me he’d gotten it down to a science. I really wanted to do the show, so I was willing to do whatever it took. I’d take the first flight out of JFK on Saturday morning, which would get me to the West Coast by nine-thirty, allowing enough time to make my first stop at the CBS Studio where the show is shot, go to my costume fittings, and then on to a dance studio to rehearse and dance—for hours. By Saturday afternoon, we had to perform our routine perfectly to record on camera so the shots could be set for Monday’s live show. I’d go to the CBS studio for my final costume fitting early Sunday morning, then head upstairs for the tanning process, then back to the dance studio for several more hours of rehearsal before ending up at the CBS studio again for our first opportunity to practice our routine on the stage.
Monday is showtime, which meant I was back at the CBS studio early in the morning to rehearse onstage and, for the first time, with the orchestra. By late morning, I was in hair and makeup so I could be ready for dress rehearsal at one o’clock in the afternoon. When we finished, I was back in hair and makeup for some final touches, and any free moments after that were spent dancing with Tony, preparing for the live show, which started at five o’clock Pacific time for the live broadcast on the East Coast.
As we stood backstage before the show, there was always a flurry of body makeup and sparkly powder that got sprinkled like fairy dust on us. The powder always matched my costumes. There were final tweaks to hair and makeup as the stage manager wrangled us up the long staircase so we could take our places before going on. The atmosphere was electrifying. The presence of the live studio audience and orchestra was exhilarating. When it was our turn, I stood poised with my dance partner, Tony Davolani, ready to enter, as the British announcer said, “Now, dahncing the chahhhh-chahhhh, Susan Looocci and her dahnce partner, Townee Davohhhlahhhni!” Every time I heard those words, sheer terror would take over my body. It took every fiber of my being to not let it take over! I had to go out there and just dance. At the end of the day, it was so much fun.
Once I finished with the Monday and Tuesday shows, I’d have to hop on a red-eye back to New York Tuesday night. After Tony and I left the studio, we stopped for a late dinner, usually at Maggia
no’s for pasta, as it was on our way to Los Angeles International. We’d go through security, and then Tony would whip out his laptop in the terminal to play next week’s music while showing me a little bit of the choreography he was thinking of using. Occasionally, we’d continue working on the choreography after the plane took off, but only for a short while, as we both needed that flight to get some much-needed rest. We landed at five-thirty in the morning, headed home to get some sleep and take a shower, and then met at a dance studio in New York to start the process all over again and learn a new dance for the following week…