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INTERVIEW
EXCLUSIVE: LANE DAVIES ON HIS 'ALMOST SURREAL' RETURN TO GENERAL HOSPITAL
May 22, 2024 12:22PM
Disney/Christine Bartolucci)
In the late 1980s, Lane Davies and Nancy Lee Grahn became one of soapdomās hottest supercouples as they brought the fiery courtship of Mason Capwell and Julia Wainwright to life on Santa Barbara. Lightning didnāt quite strike twice when the actors were paired again on GH in the early 2000s, with Davies playing Cameron Lewis opposite Grahnās Alexis Davis. (Grahn didnāt mince words when reflecting on their short-lived GH pairing to Digest in 2014, saying, āYou take the man I have the most chemistry with in my career, the greatest love story of my career, bring him on General Hospital, and make it look like we have no chemistry at all. It takes real skill to make that happen. And by the way, I aināt blaming me or Lane!ā)
But that was then and this is now ā and now, Davies is making a brief return trip into the Port Charles universe to play attorney Fergus Byrne, who goes up against Alexis in court as she fights to get her law license reinstated. The actor spoke to Digest about his GH comeback, noting, āThe material is good, and working with Nancy, it was really just a matter of falling back into the groove ā and it was an easy groove to fall back into.ā
Soap Opera Digest: How did this new role come about?
Lane Davies: It was a combination of factors, I think. I know Nancy had been sort of making noises, like, āGet Lane back somehow!ā So that always helps, when a 28-year veteran of the show wants you back. Then I ran into Patrick Mulcahey [GHās exiting co-head writer, who wrote for Davies and Grahn at SB, as well] at Bridget Dobsonās funeral [Dobson was the co-creator and former co-head writer of Santa Barbara]. We had a lovely lunch and visit, even though it was kind of a sad time, and I think he took a look at me and thought, āWell, heās holding up pretty well. Maybe we can get him on the show.ā Iām honestly not sure, but I think it was a fortuitous combination of factors that got me back. Iām at a stage in my life where if it seems like fun, Iāll do it. My criteria is, Is it fun? Does it involve travel? Does it pay? Any one of those three will get me off my mountain and back to work, but it has to be at least one of those three ā and this was all three.
Digest: Explain where youāre based these days for those who may not know.
Davies: I divide my time between the Blue Ridge Mountains near where I grew up [in Georgia] and Prague in the Czech Republic. I work a lot with the Prague Shakespeare Company, which gives me a good excuse to hang out in Prague. Sometimes I go over there and just hang out; I donāt have to have a show [to perform] to go over, but having a play to do gives me an even better excuse.
Digest: When you said yes to GHās offer, were you intimidated at all to throw yourself back into the singular pace of daytime, with all that dialogue to learn in such a short amount of time?
Davies: I wouldnāt call it intimidating, but I was wary. Men of a certain age, your mental elasticity isnāt as sharp as it once was. I spent a good deal more time on the text than I used to when we were just turning out 60 pages a day on Santa Barbara. Most of the plays I do [nowadays] are plays Iāve done before, so those lines are back there in my reptile brain somewhere and they come back relatively quickly. I find new material much more challenging to learn than I used to. Part of it is just being rusty, you know, and not spending that much time learning dialogue and part of it is just, you know, an aging brain [laughs].
Digest: Itās certainly not unheard of in the daytime world that someone would come back to a show theyāve been on previously now playing a new role, but it also doesnāt happen every day. How did you feel about joining the club of actors for whom that does happen?
Davies: Well, you do enough daytime ā and I think Iāve been on every show thatās on the air now [a bit part on Young and Restless in 1981; the role of Evan Whyland on Days of our Lives from 1981-82; and a brief turn filling in for Ronn Moss as Ridge Forrester on Bold and Beautiful in 1992] ā and you sort of get used to the malleability of truth in daytime television. A popular character can be played by any number of competent actors and a popular actor can pop up in many different shows because heās got a following. So, it wasnāt a great surprise to me, but I am sort of flattered that they would have me back two decades later in another role.
Digest: Weāre speaking on the cusp of Santa Barbaraās 40th anniversary, which will take place in July. What does it mean to you that your name still resonates with the soap audience today?
Davies: I never ceased to be surprised by it, to be perfectly honest. When I did Santa Barbara, I was hungry for work and glad to get the work. I had no idea that it would open up the world for me. We played in 32 countries or something and we were pulling Super Bowl numbers in some of those. And Iām still capitalizing on it. The loyalty of the fans for Santa Barbara is very humbling, the number of people Iāve come in contact with that said, āItās the only show I watchedā or, āIt changed my lifeā or, āI really identified with your characterā¦.ā Nancy and I were talking about that, that it just feels good that people like you, especially all these years later.
Digest: And I assume the prospect of reteaming with Ms. Grahn held a particular appeal when GH came calling?
Davies: Oh, yeah, that doubled my excitement factor simply because Nancy and I, we buried our hatchet years ago [after clashing on set at SB]. But even when we were wielding hatchets, she was still fun to work with! The audience still liked it, hatchet in hand or not! So, coming back all these years later, when we both, dare I say, mellowed with age, it was just extremely rewarding. Itās always rewarding to work with good actors. But when itās somebody you have a deep history with, in terms of a working relationship and even a romantic relationship [the pair was briefly involved during their SB days], it just gives you more layers to play with, and thatās always fun.
Digest: Tell me what it felt like to step back into the GH studio, your old workplace, after 20 years.
Davies: I felt a little like Rip Van Winkle, you know? The building was the same. Some of the sets were the same. The dressing rooms are the same. Some of the staff had changed ā thereās a different security person at the front gate ā but other than that, it was almost a surreal feeling of stepping back in time.
Digest: Tell me about the whole Nancy experience.
Davies: I donāt think we have that much time, Mara!
Digest (laughs): I didnāt mean from the day you met her, I meant this time around.
Davies: Oh! This time around it was just fun, for the most part. Nancy said, āThis is just like falling off a bicycle!ā I think she meant āfalling off a logā or āriding a bicycleā but she mixed her metaphors and we giggled about it for several days. It didnāt take us more than five minutes to kind of get back into a rhythm. So, all in all, [it] was great fun. I actually stayed in her guest house while I was out there, which gave us some extra time to rehearse. I wonāt say we were together 24/7, but we got to spend a lot of time with each other.
Digest: Obviously, the idea behind putting the two of you back on screen together is to capitalize on the tremendous chemistry you displayed as Mason and Julia. Do you have a theory as to why the combination of two actors sometimes results in magic, and sometimes doesnāt?
Davies: I donāt know if itās even theory anymore, I think itās just chemistry. You know, two people sit down next to each other on a sofa and thereās some sort of quantum interchange between the two people that they feel and the audience picks up on ā and you either have it with another actor or you donāt. If you donāt have it, itās very hard to fake. And soap audiences are so attuned to that that they can spot the phony a mile off. Youāre dealing with an audience that basically is tuned in to watch for that reason ā the stories are fun and some guys look great with their shirts off and blah, blah, blah. You know, all the superficial stuff. But really, I think the audiences are watching for that chemistry between characters and they know when itās there and they know when itās not. And as an actor, you know when itās there and, you know, when itās not. Having been in shows where it didnāt exist, itās very hard to fake.
Digest: What other GH cast members did you get to interact with?
Davies: Most of my scenes were with [Nancy and] Carolyn Hennesy [Diane], who was a delight to work with; [she] works very much on the same sort of wavelength that Nancy and I do. I didnāt get to work with anybody else in the cast. There are other people in the cast that I would love a chance to work with; Maurice [Benard, Sonny], in particular, I think would be great fun to get stuff going with.
Digest: Santa Barbara devotees will recall that it was actually Jon Lindstromās [Kevin, GH] character, Mark, who was responsible for the death of Masonās first great love, Mary, who was infamously crushed by the falling letter C atop the Capwell Hotel. Did you happen to run into Jon at GH?
Davies: I didnāt run into him this time, but I did run into him the last time I was on the show. We had fun on Santa Barbara. We didnāt get to work together that much, but Jon is, as you know, a first-rate actor, and anytime you get to work with good actors, itās just fun. Itās half the reason you do it.
Digest: On the subject of your last time on the show: Did anyone inform you that Cameronās namesake, his grandson Cameron Webber, is thriving at Stanford University in the world of GH?
Davies: I didnāt know that! I knew I had a namesake on the show, but I didnāt realize he was at Stanford. Iām pleased that heās doing so well academically [laughs]. Thatās very funny. I thought for years that I had a daughter on Days of Our Lives, by the way [Sarah Horton, who was originally Evanās biological child], but down the road they decided it was Neilās baby and not my baby.
Digest: Well, to have any blood relative stand the test of time on a soap opera is no easy feat, so congratulations on that grandson!
Davies: Yeah, at some point, if I go back, theyāll have to put us in a scene together, just for a little wink to the audience, an easter egg.
Digest: There was a ripple of excitement among the fans when it was announced that you were going to appear on GH again. What would you like to say to those viewers who are loud, proud, and enduring LD fans and are looking forward to seeing you on the air this week?
Davies: Well, first I would just thank them for remaining a fan for all these years. And if they want to see a lot of old Santa Barbara people, weāre having a 40th reunion on August 2 at the Colony Theater in Burbank. There will be a great number of old cast members, writers, [Co-Creator] Jerry Dobson will be there, and it will be a combination reunion and memorial to Bridget Dobson. [Tickets will go on sale next month.]
Digest: This stint is just for a few episodes, but if the powers-that-be decided they wanted to extend it, would you be open to it?
Davies: Oh, totally. Like I said, Iām at a point in my life where if itās fun, Iāll do it, and itās always fun to work with Nancy. And I like camera work. I donāt do that much of it anymore, but Iām not fully retired. I call myself semi-retired, which basically means Iām lazy. But I had great fun this time and it fits my sort of life schedule of extreme slothfulness mixed with occasional bursts of energy and productivity [laughs]. It suits that rhythm quite well.
sending you š¤and prayersš
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May you find peace knowing that she might have know what was happening to her and wanted to make sure her beloved doggie would be taken care of by her friends.
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