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 Digest
April 2000


Performer of the Week



Asking Erika Slezak to tackle a breast cancer storyline is like throwing a fastball to Mark McGwire. You know they're going to hit it out of the park. Over the years and through five Emmy's Slezak's Viki has suffered through alternate personalities, kidney donation and stroke – and could probably make a computer glitch seem compelling.

So we waited to see what made this new trauma unique. Early in her diagnosis, Slezak already had us riveted. The first time she called herself a “cancer patient,” she paused, and in that silence we hard how far Viki still was from accepting her situation. Using a soft tone that belied Viki's shaky attempts at a reporter's objectivity. Slezak hammered home her characters' terror. By avoiding over-the-top histrionics, Viki's fear was more palpable.

But then Viki sat down to break the news to her children, and we realized we were seeing something different. In those moments, Viki wasn't just a victime of an illness suffering in self-imposed silence. With Jessica, Joey and Kevin, she had to play a new kind of multiple role, as a stricken woman, a cancer patient – and as the mother of three brokenhearted, adult children. Few actresses can shift from one to the other with such delicate grace.

We believed Viki when she said. “I am quite determined that it is not going to kill me. It is not going to beat me.” But there was more going on than just words or tears – in those moments we felt like one of her children. Wrapping her arms around a crying Jessica, it felt as if Viki was giving us a comforting hug, too. It was a unique, interactive moment – courtesy of a seasoned pro hitting another home run.


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