“I enjoy working with Susan and Kelly for different reasons, Kelly (Brooke) is adorable and beautiful. It's easy for me to have Eric fall in love with her as long as I'm looking at her. It's easy for me to do the same with Susan (Stephanie). We've been together for 15 years and know each other well. It's fun.”

“What I appreciate most about Susan is just her flat-out talent, and how familiar and confident she is in what we do every day. I was impressed with that the very first day I saw her work. Her powerful opinions about how to execute these scripts are awesome and hardly ever wrong.”

John about the first time he met Susan: “I played Fannie’s old boyfriend from high school (on Harper Valley PTA). During a dinner break, Susan Flannery, a friend of Fannie’s, visited the set and we were introduced. Of course, I knew who Susan was, but it wasn’t so much because she was on “Days Of Our Lives”. Susan was one of the few people to step directly out of soap opera and into a major motion picture, “The Towering Inferno”, which starred Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. I was very impressed with her reputation, and her history in daytime television. I thought it was a coup that Bill had her” (for B&B).

“I love working with Susan Flannery, who plays Stephanie. She's my partner in the emotional investment we make in our children”.

“Always has and always will be Eric and Stephanie”

“I have my partner Susan Flannery (1974-75 Emmy winner for Outstanding Actress as Laura on DAYS). She's pretty inspiring. I have so much respect for her. She'll reach for some emotion during a scene, and I'll say, 'Whoa - where did that come from?' I give her a lot of credit for the success of our scenes and of our show.”

"Susan doesn't do a lot of public appearances, but when she does, she's wonderful. She's very succinct and sophisticated. She doesn't babble or gush. She's really lovely in front of people. I just love her."

”My favorite scenes are when something really big happens, and there's the emotional stuff to deal with -- with Susan Flannery (Stephanie), with Ronn Moss (Ridge) with Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke), with the people who've been here so long. We don't have to reach down and substitute our own relationships for anything, because we know each other so well and we've worked together so long, that it's wonderful to just emotionally touch one another in these scenes.”

“Susan chooses, it appears, to have that (Stephanie’s rarely seen vulnerable side) only with Eric, Ridge and Taylor because of her feelings for those characters. I think that’s perfectly appropriate. As angry as Stephanie was over the photograph, Susan didn’t have Stephanie yelling – except for a word or two – and that made the scenes all the more interesting.”

“When Susan falls into that unprotected place, it becomes involving for people to see and involving for me to play off. It’s touching to see Susan so affected by what I’m giving her as an actor.”

“I always like it when Eric and Stephanie rediscover what they enjoy about one another. I think that’s always a good thing – and that’s not a story that has begun and ended. It’s very much a part of the continuing story of Eric and Stephanie. And Susan (Flannery), who plays Stephanie is such a consummate actress that it just makes it a joy to work in scenes with her.”

“Even though I was unable to attend the Emmy Awards in New York, I was glued to my TV set at home with my son, Jake. B&B lost out on the other awards we were nominated for, so I did worry that Susan might not win. But I was so relieved when she finally did. I screamed when they called out Susan´s name. My one regret is that I could not be there myself. Even thought the award was presented by 3 of our co-stars (Winsor Harmon, Sarah Buxton and Bobbie Eakes), I still wish I had been there”.

Q: Who from your show would you call at 2 a.m. if you were in trouble?
John: “Susan Flannery, Stephanie, because she would jump all over me for calling so late. That would make me pull it together and take care of my own business”

“I don’t need to put gray in my hair anymore (for the character of Eric); I tell Susan Flannery [Stephanie] she’s responsible for it!“

(John about the emotional scenes he did with Susan Flannery after her character’s stroke in 1999): “Actors sometimes use substitutions – you think about an illness or the loss of someone in your own family and you play that,” McCook explains about how actors normally approach such emotional scenes. “But in these scenes with Susan, it never occurred to me to do a substitution because I’ve been with Susan for so long. We have been friends and co-workers for 13 years now. So it’s a lot easier to do those kinds of scenes than people think, to take somebody that you love, that you work with so much and to put them into whatever the character’s situation is and to play the scenes. It was a very easy thing for me to look at Susan and to see her so vulnerable in that hospital bed. It was very easy for me to get in touch with those emotional feelings. We are like people that have been married for a long time in many respects. We know each other really well. We can do shorthand to one another – not just about work but other things too – by stealing looks at each other or sometimes simply by raising an eyebrow. We know what we’re saying and what we mean to each other. No words are necessary. Just as now words were necessary when Eric came into the hospital room and saw Stephanie lying there unconscious. No explanations were needed for the audience, or for Eric. They were in the same boat. Susan and I, we’re very dependent on each other to accomplish our work every day. So the idea of Stephanie almost dying, and the very idea of wanting to hold her and to let her know how much he loves her was easier to do than you would think. It made for very meaningful scenes.”

McCook is enthusiastic about his new storyline, at least in part because it provides him with the chance to work more closely with castmate Susan Flannery (Stephanie). “There’s a certain parallel between the characters Eric and Stephanie and the actors John and Susan,” observes McCook. “The proposal scenes we did were perceived as warm and natural. It’s nice to see those two characters comfortable with each other, even when they’re discussing something as monumental as remarrying one another again. It’s as natural for me to sit and have a scene with Susan as it is for me to have a conversation with my own wife, Laurette. I’ve worked with Susan as long as I have with anybody on the show.”

“Susan Flannery [Stephanie] and I spend hours together in here, running lines” (In John’s dressing room)

“On my fiftieth birthday the writers had added a scene that wasn´t originally in the script. It was a scene with Susan Flannery at the beginning of the day. Stephanie rings the doorbell to Eric´s home and I´m supposed to answer it. We rehearsed the scene and blocked it. When it came time to tape the scene, I get up to answer the door. But instead to seeing Susan when I opened the door, my entire family is standing there! Everybody started singing “Happy birthday”. It was a wonderful surprise.