SOD/SOW Website, New Interview with Jerry--Minor spoilers

Just read this on twitter, was posted in the last 24 hours.

http://www.soapoperadigest.com/features/on..._jerry_verdorn/


owling With Jerry VerDorn
— By Mala Bhattacharjee
Soap Opera Weekly caught up with ONE LIFE TO LIVE's Jerry VerDorn at the Oct. 11 Daytime Stars and Strikes charity event for the American Cancer Society.


OLTL's Bree Williamson (Jessica), Jerry VerDorn (Clint) and Melissa Archer (Natalie)
— Steven Bergman
Soap Opera Weekly: Is it a little bittersweet, doing this since you started it when GUIDING LIGHT was on the air, and now the show's gone?
Jerry VerDorn: Yes. The demise of GL really hurt me. It was part of me for 27 years, so I was very sad to see it go. But in terms of it affecting this event, it really didn't, because the actors are still kind enough to come and join in. This is year number six, and we've been averaging $12,000 a year — all of which goes to the American Cancer Society for research and development. So they are giving a substantial amount of their time: Three-to-four hours on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in October is asking quite a bit, and nobody gets paid. Everybody here is a volunteer and the people who put this together...it's a year-long job. It's kind of like Macy's [Thanksgiving] parade: you take a rest for one day and then start thinking about next year.

Weekly: Exactly. It's wonderful. It's wonderful that you host it. It's wonderful that everyone comes out.
VerDorn: Well, cancer in one way or another touches absolutely everybody. And years ago, the soaps kind of broke ground, even before prime time, by dealing with cancer. I remember Bert Bauer, a GL character in the early '60s, was dealing with cervical cancer when you couldn't even say cancer on TV. So everybody responds to it because of a friend, a family member or they themselves may have been touched by cancer.

Weekly: Your whole ONE LIFE TO LIVE family had a great turnout here, too.
VerDorn: Yeah, my current TV family really came through, and I appreciate every one of them coming here, because they could be doing other things, too. But, once again, they all tell me it's for the cause and not just because I'm a nice guy. [laughs] They want to come out and honor someone that they know by raising money. And if you can be absolutely goofy and stupid and sell all this stuff to fans and make money at the same time, it's a beautiful thing.

Weekly: Your onscreen daughters, Bree Williamson and Melissa Archer, are here, too.
VerDorn: I know. I have daughters all over the place. So I'm very pleased with the turnout, and the fans really get to see the actors in a light they never seen them before.

Weekly: How about Clint? Are we going to see him in a light that we haven't seen before?
VerDorn: Yeah, you are.

Weekly: I love it, because Clint is sort of turning into Asa in a lot of ways.
VerDorn: You know that happens, and not just because the writers want it that way, but it happens a lot in life. Sometimes you look in the mirror and you say, "Oh, hello, Mom; hello, Dad." You start looking and behaving like your parents, and a lot of times the sins of the father come back and revisit the son. I think it's a great thing, because it happens in families all the time. And Clint is going to go slightly bonkers. It should be a lot of fun.

Weekly: Well, we can only hope he finds out that Bo and Nora have been making out behind his back.
VerDorn: [laughs] Oh, my God! It's going to hit the fan. I'm telling you, those feathers are going to be everywhere. It'll make for some very nice soap.

Weekly: I remember it was so priceless during the David reality show segment a while back, when you had to whip out the shotgun.
VerDorn: I love it when Tuc (Watkins, David) comes back.

Weekly: It's such a great dynamic between him and the Buchanans.
VerDorn: I love to see Tuc and Peter Bartlett (Nigel). It's just a hoot. I keep hoping Tuc flies in. Because he's based on the West Coast, he flies in, does a whole bunch of shows and goes away again. It's tough on everybody, but so much fun.

Well I'm glad about some parts of the upcoming story.

It sounds like we'll see a lot more of Clint.

That he gets to go off on Bora and they deserve it and I would have just HATED it if he didn't!

I hope this means he's soon away from them and they feel some ramifications for thier selfish behavior.

Clint being more like Asa isn't a bad thing for me. He should be more take charge and he should call those who are using him on their "ish". Now I don't see him ever getting just like Asa. But driving situations is a lot better than reacting or just attending to them.

Sounds like the event was a big success again this year. That's wonderful.

Thanks BL for finding and posting this.

I too am glad that Clint gets to react and lash out at Bora. It sounds like this is being used to push Clint into being more Asa-like, since his wife and brother have betrayed his trust. I really want to see Bora ridden with angst, guilt, and remorse for how they used Clint. I don't want to see Clint lose those relationships permanently, so I want to see Bo and Nora work hard, however long it takes, to repair things with Clint.

I'm glad Jerry's enjoying himself, but I hope Clint doesn't do anything reckless. Despite being hurt, I don't think he'd get stupid and take unnecessary risks that will continue to hurt him. I don't want the stripper story to be more of the same of Clint being clueless of something taking advantage of him. He's been on the losing side of things for too long and deserves his own wins now.

I know Jerry and the other actors like the conflict and soapiness of the story, but I think it was only enjoyable for Bora fans since we rarely saw Clint, especially after he and Nora married. I'm tired of Clint being ignored (it looks like he's only getting 2 days in October unless I'm forgetting some other appearances). It's time for Clint to get some of the spotlight.

ITA It's been annoying that Clint has been mainly a passive reactor all these many months. As the new family patriarch, Clint should have been portrayed as more take charge all this time now. It's natural character growth for Clint to gain traits from his father at this time in his life, but I agree that he shouldn't be made into Asa's clone. Clint should still do things based on his personality.