Biography | Library | Emmys | OLTL's Viki | Official Fan Club | About site  
Home Email  
 
More Articles
71 Spoiled with Love
72 DTV Cover
72 Memories Family
73 Lived like Gypsy
74 Not Ready
74 Miss SuperCool
75 Life Story
76 Five Years
76 Sensitive
77 SOD Cover
77 Surprised
77 ATVA Cover
77 RBD Cover
77 Lost her Touch
77 Daytime Stars
77 Like Yesterday
78 DTV Cover
78 Long Distance
78 My Rules
79 SOD Cover
79 Don't Step


70s Favorite Holiday
70s Loving Memories
70s Most Popular
70s Viki's Life Story
70s SOD Cover

80 On Her Own
81 So happy
81 More Children
81 2nd Pregnancy
81 Will she
83 ATV Cover
83 SOD Cover
83 Good Life
84 Bouncing Back
85 Niki Smith
86 Viva Miss Viki
88 Own Life
88 OLTL 20 years
89 Private Lives

90 Share Alike
90 American Dynasty
90 Day in Life
90 Shattering Myth
91 SOW Cover
91 Leading Lady
91 Two Emmys
91 DTV Cover
91 Lady of Manor
91 No Substitutes
91 20 Quotes
92 SOW Cover
92 Episodes Cover
92 Lunchtime Fav
92 SOM Cover
93 SOD Cover
93 OLTL 25 Yrs
94 New Age Innoc
95 SOM Cover
95 24 Years
95 SOW Cover M
95 SOW Cover A
95 With Reservations
95 SOW Cover O
96 Victorious
96 Thank the Lord
96 Her Life to Live
96 Multiplicity
96 In Step
97 Adores Her Job
97 One Life to Give
97 Who Says
98 30 Something
98 Life's Work
99 High Notes
99 SOD Cover
99 Changing Times
99 When Blondie
99 SID Cover
99 SOW Cover
99 TV Guide Online

00 Daytime Divas
00 SOW Cover
00 The Babe
00 Performer
00 Life Goes On
00 Tell All
00 Will Survive
00 Incomparable
00 SOD Cover
00 To the Mob
00 Promo
00 SID Cover
00 Last Chance
01 Thanks
01 Sentinel
01 Regis
01 Pictoral
01 Big 3 0
01 Click
01 Roundup
01 Good Show
01 Celebrates
01 Tribute
01 SID Cover A
01 Wedding
01 Soap Net 1
01 Soap Net 2
01 Soap Net 3
01 Time To
01 Secrets
01 Luncheon
01 OLTL Luncheon
01 Emmys
01 Perf of Week
01 SID Cover J
01 Fight
01 Wild Nightmare
01 Inmates
01 Real Life Love
01 Postcard
01 SOW Cover
01 Reveals
01 Changeling
02 Dear Niki
02 Promo
02 SOW Cover
02 Together
02 SOU Cover
 
Erika Slezak Library

Soap Opera News, March 1997


ONE LIFE TO GIVE


By: Sheila Steinbach

Erika Slezak first set foot on the set of One Life to Live 26 years ago this week -- and walked into the pages of daytime history. On March 17, 1971, she became the third actress to portray poor little rich girl Victoria "Viki" Lord, and after a quarter century of playing Viki (or, more accurately, Victoria Lord Riley Burke Riley Buchanan Carpenter), she is the most Emmy-winning performer in daytime history (five wins for Outstanding Lead Actress)!

"When I went into this' business, I thought I was going to become a stage actress, and that's where I started," Slezak says. "I did repertory theater and I was really working my way slowly, methodically, towards Broadway. But when I got to Broadway, there was this big door that said, 'television,' and I picked the television door," she laughs.

As Slezak notes, television then was much different from television now. "It's much more sophisticated today. They're not afraid to tackle very difficult problems. The writing is much more sophisticated. So are all the camera techniques, the lighting, costumes, sets, everything, because, although we are not competing, with nighttime, we are compared to it in a sense by the viewers."

Much else has changed over the past 26 years on OLTL. For example, Viki's multiple personalities. For most of the first 25,there was only one -- flirty Niki Smith. But during the past couple of years, the writers gave Viki five separate personalities and gave Slezak a chance to really show her stuff as an actress. "The challenge of the multiple personalities and what that gave me was just brilliant," she says. "I fell in love with those characters." Slezak has also enjoyed OLTL's rather outrageous fantasy storylines, including the famous "Heaven" plot where Viki went to the hereafter and was reunited with dearly departed friends and family. She particularly loved OLTL's "Old West" storyline, in which she played the dual roles of Viki and Miss Ginny. "I've had two fantasies," she admits. "I wanted to be in a western, wear the long dresses and ride in the stagecoach, and my other fantasy was to do a Civil War, belle-of-the-ball costume drama, where I would wear these wonderful clothes and dance with some wonderful fella."

Along with the fun storylines, there have also been some very difficult ones, ranging from the death of Viki's long-lost daughter, Megan, to the divorces from and deaths of, her various husbands. And while Slezak's dramatic ability is first rate, it hasn't always been easy to play some of the more outlandish storylines.

"This last story, where Viki tried to kill her son Kevin, was very difficult. It made no sense to me at any point, and I didn't like playing it," Slezak notes. "The relationship between Dr. Durbin and Viki, which was supposed to have been completely fleshed out in the first three or four months, was non-existent, because they never wrote anything for us. I found that very disappointing."

However, with the recent change in OLTL's head writers, soap veteran Claire Labine and her son, Matt Labine, have recently come aboard Slezak is enthusiastic about the future. "I have been a fan of Claire's since Ryan's Hope," the actress says. "She's a brilliant writer. I know she's going to pump great new life into this show and it will be wonderful."

What's yet to be determined is whether Viki will have a new love interest, or perhaps even reunite with her fourth husband, Clint Buchanan. Reflecting on the actors who have played her past loves, though, Slezak has no complaints.

"It's hard to say which one was my favorite, especially since they're all alive," she laughs. "Bernie Grant. who played Steve Burke many years ago, was so funny and charming. Lee Patterson (Joe Riley) is funny and wonderful, and we're still good friends. Clint Ritchie (Clint Buchanan) and I have had a wonderful relationship all these years. Roy Thinnes (Sloan Carpenter} is a wonderful actor, a delight to work with every step of the way. He is a gentleman and a charming, intelligent, sophisticated man. I miss him."

Is there no great love of Slezak's professional life? Sure there is: It's Robin Strasser (who plays Dorian, Viki's archenemy and ex-stepmother)!

"You couldn't ask for a better partner than she is, because as characters, we are so opposite and, yet, we're so alike," says Slezak. "Robin is one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. She is so sharp, so remarkably talented. It's a joy for me to come in, look at my script and say, 'Oh, I get to work with Robin today!' She's just fabulous!"

In her personal life, Slezak's loves have been much fewer than Viki's most notably, her father, famous actor Walter Slezak; her husband of 19 years, actor Brian Davies; and her two children, Michael, 17, and Amanda, 16.

Slezak credits her husband with keeping her priorities straight -- that family comes first. That level-headedness may be one reason she's stayed on OLTL for 26 years -- and never gained the reputation of being a daytime diva.

"As fabulous as it is, this job could end tomorrow." she points out. "The biggest pitfall in this business is when you believe your own publicity. I've never given up the idea that I'm simply a working actress, and that everything else that has happened to me has been lovely and gravy, but it's just that -- gravy. You cant let your head get terribly enlarged."

Well, actually you can. "This is a very cruel and unforgiving business," says Slezak. “Frequently, people go off to Hollywood because they say they are too good for soaps. I go, 'No. No.' Nobody is too good for soaps. Don't ever leave with that kind of attitude. To say that you're too good for soaps is stupid and invariably comes back to haunt you."

Which isn't to say that pursuing other professional activities is something that Slezak looks down on. "There are people who leave because they just want a break and then they come back because they know it's fun:" she says. "I know the value of what I do here. I may go off and do something else, but I will come home."

Last year, for example, Slezak did her first TV movie, Full Circle, an experience she thoroughly enjoyed. "Sure, I'd like to do more of them, but again it's a question of managing family," she says. "I don't really like going away for weeks on end, living in a hotel room and being away from my husband and kids. You know, you have kids for a reason and you love them and want to be with them, because they're going to be gone soon enough anyway."

But Slezak has no regrets -- not about putting her family first, and certainly not about staying with OLTL for 26 years: "It's been great fun along the way. Otherwise, I would not still be here."

 
 
Biography | Library | Emmys | OLTL's Viki | Official Fan Club | About site
Copyright 2002 ESFC    Home    -   Email