ACTORS' DIALOGUE:
John McCook & Bobbie Eakes
Daytime drama The Bold and the Beautiful co-stars Bobbie Eakes and John
McCook have managed to strike a balance pursuing two passions-singing and acting.
Bobbie Eakes made her way to the stage by first appearing in beauty pageants,
being crowned Miss Georgia and eventually named a Top-10 finalist in the Miss
America pageant. With her talent-singing-she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a
music career, though acting soon steered her onto a different course. A small
role on Laverne and Shirley began her "legitimate" performing career.
Appearing for the last 10 years on the CBS soap, Eakes will soon release her
first country pop solo album this spring.
With a background in theatre, John McCook appeared on The Young and the Restless
for five years prior to moving to The Bold and the Beautiful, of which he is an
original cast member. His numerous television credits include Our House,
Moonlighting, L.A. Law, Amazing Stories, and Murder, She Wrote. His most recent
theatre work includes Putting It Together with Carol Burnett at the Mark Taper
Forum.
Eakes and McCook have also collaborated on several songs released in conjunction
with the daytime serial. Back Stage West recently sat down with these two
singing soap stars to discuss the gritty side of acting in daytime television
and why they always return to the music.
John McCook:
I started singing in musical theatre. I studied piano for many years, as well as
singing. I did a lot of choir work, a lot of musical theatre in high school and
beyond that. The musical theatre is where I started. There was a lot of summer
stock. I got out of high school in 1962, and at that time in California there
were quite a few summer stock theatres. That was my "college." I
realized theatre is really where I wanted to go. That's where I went, and it's
where I go back to.
Bobbie Eakes:
Me too. Music came first for me, musical theatre. I started doing high school
productions, and then started singing in my first band when I was 16. Then I
moved down here to pursue a record deal, and the acting came later.
I don't know how you did Putting it Together. That's strenuous.
John:
But that's joy. That's like a necessary shot in the arm. After a few years, it
has to happen or I lose my patience. I forget I'm an actor. Do you ever forget
you're an actor?
Bobbie:
All the time.
John:
We sit here and do this stuff; some of it's not inspired, even though it's
demanding every day. I forget that I'm as creative and as full of juice as I am
in the theatre. If I don't do that every two years, then I really lose touch.
Bobbie:
I feel like I come in happier, with fresh ideas, when I'm doing something else
creative. One feeds the other when I'm doing my music. People always ask me if
I'm tired after doing the show after 10 years, and I'm really not. Am I supposed
to be?
John:
I think you would
be tired if you didn't have the music. That's the bottom line with any of these
jobs. If you don't have anything outside that job-relationship, kids, church,
friends, another part-if your job is your life, then you don't have a life,
because your job is not your life.
Bobbie:
And the little
things that come along with doing a daytime serial probably will bother you more
if that is your entire focus.
John:
You have to remember that show business is not your family. You have a family;
show business is your job. I remember how, when I was 18 or 19, I fell in love
with everyone I met, and I wanted them to love me, and I depended on them for my
well-being. I see college-age kids do that in many situations. They apply some
of the affection that they had at home to other people, whether it's earned or
not. I constantly say, Don't put all of yourself into it, because show business
is going to treat you like shit sometimes. If your whole life is in there, it's
going to hurt you so badly that you won't be able to recover from it. But if you
retain some of yourself and the people you love outside of it, then when show
business hurts you it won't kill you.
Bobbie:
That's what's so nice about doing a soap, too. Because you can have a regular
normal life, relatively speaking, as an actor. You're not going off three months
at a time doing a movie. I feel fortunate because of that. This was the first
soap I read for. I really wasn't pursuing a career as a soap actress. But I was
acting, and I was looking for work. My agent said, "You wanna read for a
soap?" I said, "Why not?" I was very lucky, and I got the part.
John:
Why not, indeed? There are these actors in town who say, I will not read for a
soap, or I will never do a soap.
Bobbie:
A lot of people, when they first come to town, say that too. Then talk to them
three, five, 10 years later, and it'll probably be a different story-or they've
moved back home even.
John:
It's work. If you're going to be an actor, and if you sing or if you used to be
a dancer or whatever, you have to be willing to do commercials, a stupid
voice-over, a radio commercial that doesn't make any sense. You have to be
willing to do all of this, because that's who you are. So when a soap comes up,
some young actors have managers and agents who say, "No, we don't want you
on a soap, because then you're not available during pilot season." And you
wanna go, "Yeah, but while I'm waiting around I could be learning something."
To get on a soap is not the end of the world.
When I was first on a soap, I learned more. Because I would see the show two
weeks later on the air and I would see myself doing the most inappropriate stuff.
You learn so much more from seeing your mistakes, from seeing yourself
performing badly, than you do when you do a good scene.
Bobbie:
You really have to trust and rely on the directors and the producers.
John:
When you walk on that set, whether it's a film or television, whatever, if
you're not ready, ain't nobody gonna help you. You have to go out there, believe
in the choices you've made, believe in the actor with whom you're working. We
don't get tons of input at rehearsal. If you and your scene partner don't create
some excitement in this stuff today, it isn't gonna happen, because [the
directors] are busy. They're shooting the show. It's not their fault, it's just
the way things are. And if you have an inspired producer or an inspired director,
that's gravy. Nobody's going to give it to you.
Bobbie:
They're not going to try to pull it out of you.
John:
When an actor comes on who has some intelligence and innate talent, you can see
them get it. You can see them be bad the first day, and still bad the next day,
and within two or three weeks they go, Oh, I get it. You can see it happen to
them.
By Behnoosh Khalili
Back Stage West, not dated