"The Mod Quad" - SOD, August 10, 1999

[Thanks, Kathy, for contributing this article.]

ATWT's Generation Next adds a new dimension to Oakdale.

They may be characters on a soap opera, but Katie, Georgia, Chris and Eddie, the fresh faces on As the World Turns, are still fairly innocent to the ways of the world. That presents a unique challenge for the four young adults playing them. Terri Conn (Katie), Jaime Dudney (Georgia), Ben Jorgensen (Chris) and Nathaniel Marsten (Eddie) sat down with Soap Opera Digest to discuss social issues, "the condom thing," and the struggle to act their (characters') age.

Digest: Do you hang out together at the studio?
Jorgensen: Hang out? We're too busy working ....
Marston (laughing): Working and preparing -- that's all we do.
Dudney: Terri and I hang out a lot off set.
Conn: But we ditch these losers.
Marston: They live near one another and they're from out of town. I've lived here, so I have a large base of people to hang out with.
Jorgensen: And I'm despicable, right?
Marston: No, Ben is the coolest. My grandma loves Ben. She told me that Ben was a really good guy.
Conn: And to watch out for him.
Marston: Yeah, she said, "Watch out for him." And at first I was like, "What do you mean? He's a sweet guy." And she's like, "No, watch out for him." Little does she know him.
Jorgensen: I'm just a deer in the headlights.
Marston: I just want that on the record because my grandma's an amazing judge of character.
Jorgensen: And she told you to protect me.
Marston: He's more vulnerable than he gives off.
Jorgensen: Aww.


Digest: How would you describe each other?
Jorgensen: I'll do word associations. Nathaniel: Trivial Pursuit.
Conn: That's a good one. This is hard.
Marston: Well, we could be really mean.
Jorgensen: Jamie's a Southern belle, which is a huge compliment.
Marston: Southern or belle?
Jorgensen: Southern.
Marston: Belle is just a throwaway comment?
Jorgensen: No, belle is because she's also very pretty.
Marston: Your lips are getting browner as we speak.
Jorgensen: It's the Chris Hughes in me.
Marston: Ben is extremely diplomatic.
Jorgensen: Terri is "friendly anger." [Conn laughs] Because you know she's just ready to explode.
Conn: That's why I always get cast as the bitch.
Dudney: She vents to me. She's like my best friend in New York. I mean, thank God for Terri. We're a lot alike.
Conn: We are.
Dudney: Nathaniel's a walking encyclopeadia, and he's very protective of the people that he loves and cares about. And Ben, he just entertains me. Talk about smart.
Marston: Ben is the philosopher. He can pontificate on anything. I mean, I know about things, but Ben can argue each side of something. Conn: He totally does that.
Dudney: I think Ben is extremely sensitive and has a really good heart.

Digest: Who's the most like their character?
Marston: I don't think that any of us are.
Dudney:I think I'm a little like Georgia. We're [referring to Marston and herself] way more like our characters than they are.


Digest: Were you surprised that Katie tunrned into a such a bad girl?
Conn: I was surprised, but once I thought about it ....
Dudney: I was happy.
Conn: I was, too.
Dudney: But people are nice to me. They're like, "Oh, we love Georgia." I think, "Poor Terri. Everyone hates Katie."
Conn: It was the condom thing [when Katie pretended to sleep with Eddie by planting a condom wrapper.] People freaked out about that.
Marston: Oh, people hated that. They'd come up to me on the street and be like, "I can't believe she did that!"
Conn: I was on a plane and this woman came up and goes, "I Just had to ask -- are you the condom girl?" It's amazing how one little deed like that changes a charcter. But I'm glad; it's fun.


Digest: Where would you like to see your storyline go?
Dudney: I'd like to see Katie and Georgia have a better friendship. And I want Georgia to throw a huge party at Lucinda's. But I read the script for next week, and [to Conn and Jorgenen] you break into Lucinda's house and throw a party.
Conn: We go skinny-dipping.
Jorgensen: And the script says you "smile appreciatively."
Dudney: Oh, is that what it is?
Conn laughing: It's his idea.


Digest: You're such troublemakers.
Marston: How come no one on soap operas ever has a heroin problem?
Dudney: Billie did on Days of Our Lives!
Marston: Did he really?
Dudney: She.
Marston: Well, cheers to that. Why isn't there a crackhead or prostitute?
Digest: Well, there are prosititutes, and Paul Anthony Stewart played a crack addict [Casey] on Loving.
Marston: Are you serious? Someone played a crackhead on daytime?
Digest: Well, recovered.
Jorgensen: We'd like to see storylines that are more socially conscious.
Marston: Exactly.
Conn: I think if the story's interesting and it happens to have a social message, why not? Instead of "I like him, she likes her ..." [laughs] well, not that.
Marston (laughing): "She likes her" is a very advanced storyline. That's what I think should happen. We should be left out in the cold because they decide we're just a couple of jerks.
Conn: We've already discussed that.
Dudney (laughing): Don't you think we'd much rather kiss each other than kiss you guys?


Digest: Is it hard playing characters who are younger than you are?
Jorgensen: I think it's kind of fun, actually. I forget when I was 18, I thought I knew it all. I think we forget how smart kids are.
Marston: Or how smart they think they are.
Jorgensen: But when I observer 18- or 19-year-olds, they have fake wisdom, because they don't know any better.
Marston: That's what naivete is -- it's thinking that you know, and really not knowing.
Conn: But pretty good at faking it.
Marston: I knew far more when I was 18 then now. I knew it all. Jorgensen: So along those lines, I have to remind myself, "You're not stupid ..."
Marston (laughing): No?
Conn: ... Just because you're playing younger. You're [playing] 21, right? Jorgensen: No, 18.
Marston: I just had my 21st birthday, so I can drink. I can manage a bar.
Digest: I thought it was your 22nd because you could drink before.
Jorgensen: Yeah, it was.
Marston: But there were times with Margo where we wanted to crack a beer and they were like, "I don't know." Whereas now, I can have beverage.
Dudney: But you can't have sex!
Marston: There will be no sex.
Jorgensen: I know I'm 18 because Bob just said, "You're 18! Isn't it about time you knew better?"
Dudney: I'm 18.
Conn: I think I am, too.
Marston: So basically, I'm a cradle-robbing bastard.
Conn: Your cradle was robbed by Margo.
Marston: And now I'm robbing it back.


Digest: Your dialogue is pretty youthful, too. You're always referring to Leonardo DiCaprio.
Marston: I don't do it. We use Brando or DeNiro.
Conn: And Marilyn Monroe instead of Gwyneth Paltrow.
Marston: Any one of my heroes we put in place of any of the teenybopper flavors of the month.
Jorgensen: But Jaime said it. Actually, I changed the line. I said, "Leonardo would never be me." That was me -- I ad-libbed that.
Marston: Well, that was beautiful.
Jorgensen: It was originally, "I want to be like Leonardo."
Marston: Do you?
Jorgensen laughing): No!
Marston: I know you do.
Jorgensen: He's got my career. It's over for me.
Conn: We change it sometimes. They say, "If this isn't how you... 18-year olds talk ..."

Digest: "You kids."
Conn: Yeah, they call us kids.
Dudney: I love that, though. I will chase it forever. I think anything under 25 ... once you're 35, you're definitely an adult.









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