Me & My Character(s): Martha Byrne (Lily/Rose)

Lily has been kidnapped. Again. But, this time, there's a twist. Lily has been kidnapped along with her twin sister, Rose. Now, both women are stuck down a well with seemingly no escape, and a lot to talk about. Namely, Dusty Donovan. He was Lily's childhood love, and now he's Rose's adult obsession. While the sisters struggle with a host of physical and emotional challenges, SoapCity sat down with Martha Byrne, who plays both parts, to discuss the physical and emotional challenges of acting... with yourself. In a well.

SoapCityAlina: In real (not Oakdale) days, how long did you spend down the well alone?
Martha Byrne: Fourteen days? Maybe 15 days? But I wasn't alone. My incredible partner (and body double), Brooke Blanchard, got dumped on and got bumped on the head and tortured just as much as I did. We got dirt in very strange places. It was really messy. I mean, the first couple of days, the clothes were clean and everything was fine. By the end, though, we were putting on really dirty, disgusting clothes. We had to match the dirt, so the only way we could really do it was by us wearing each other's clothes. There were clean options available in case we had to go back and re-shoot something for any reason, but we never had to do that. We're keeping the dirty clothes and we're going to auction them off at St. Jude's this year. I don't know who's going to buy them -- but they're staying dirty until October!

SCA: What was a typical, double-duty day like for you? Did you first work on one character, then the other?
MB: Usually we'll block whoever has the most action or lines first, which was Rose most of the time. It was better for me to play Rose first, so I could kind of establish what she's doing physically, because Lily was passed out a lot of the time, fading in and out. It looks better when I'm playing Rose first because I'm establishing all of her body movements. She's doing most of the action, so Brooke has to mimic what I did, as best as we can remember. We'd write it down a lot, and our stage managers would write notes for us. Things like: you put your left leg up on the rock on this line, or you picked up the board on this line. That way the editing department has more to use, they have more to cut away from. If her movements don't match mine, they can't use that material, they have to go back to Lily or they have to find a shot that looks exactly the same as the first time we did it. We want it to look the best it can be, and there really weren't a lot of cutaway options, because you are so confined. It's not like you're on one side of a room and you're far away enough from each that you can cut to the other person, or you can cut to Holden or Lucinda for a reaction shot to cover a forgotten move. There aren't that many options in a well. So it's better when we mimic each other, exactly. Brooke would play Lily during blocking, and we would run lines back and forth for both characters. While I'm getting ready to play Rose, we'll run the lines for Rose and vice versa. We have it down to such a science. We almost didn't have to come in for blocking, we know each other so well and we're both prepared enough. A couple of days we actually did that, we went right into the well and we just blocked the scenes there, because there was really no blocking, it's just us sitting there, talking.

SCA: So, that's the physical side. What about the emotional side? Did you learn your scripts straight through, or did you learn first one character, then another?
MB: I usually learn one part first, and then kind of give Brooke an idea of how I'm going to play the other side, so she can give me the right intention for the scene. We discuss it just as if she were a regular player in the scene. We talk about motivation and direction, how we want the scene to end, and where we are emotionally. It's probably the most unrewarding job that Brooke has, because she does all the work, but she's never on camera. What's good about this story is that I think Lily has a very strong point of view about Dusty, and how she feels about him and Rose being together. Lily thinks it's because of him that they are stuck in this situation. And Rose feels the opposite. Rose has a very valid emotional attachment to him. Whether or not Lily understands that, that's another story. It's very clear that Rose does care very much for this man, and her thinking is: Let's just get through this, and you'll see what I see in him. But Lily doesn't want anything to do with Dusty. What's nice about it is that Lily isn't just preaching. She actually has a reason to fear this man and feel that he is a danger to her family and her life and Rose's life. It's nice to have that just beneath all the scenes that we've had to play together, as opposed to Lily just saying, "Oh, he's no good." Lily has a legitimate reason to think he's no good.

SCA: Do you think some of Lily's bitterness stems from the fact that Dusty has returned to town no longer the sweet boy she loved in high school? So, along with everything he's done, there is also a sense of betrayal, like he let her down?
MB: I know we're going to get into that more into the future. It's like finding out that your first love is a mobster. You have this romantic idea of what your first love was, and you've created this romantic fantasy about them. Everyone does it; I don't care who they are. In Lily's mind, she always loved Dusty, and he was always sweet and he was there for her and would do anything for her. That's why when Grayson (McCouch; Dusty) and I have scenes as Lily and Dusty, there's always that heaviness that we both find very interesting and really emotional. I love it, because there's always that extra level. There's a love there that will never go away. You know Lily loves to get involved in everyone else's lives, and she loves being the caretaker and making everything better. She can't help being involved in Rose and Dusty's relationship because, in her mind, she knows better. She thinks she knows Dusty better. She thinks she knows who he really is at the core of his being, and Rose doesn't -- as far as Lily is concerned. So, there's a really fun element to play there.

SCA: Does Lily ever find herself thinking: You've slept with Holden, and now it's Dusty. Can't you get a man of your own, for a change?
MB: We're taping scenes now where that is completely addressed in the subtext. I love the fact that Lily has this conflict. It makes sense, on the outside, why she would be so against Dusty, but there's more to it. The deeper we go with it, the more interesting it will be to watch. It's interesting any time people do things subconsciously and the audience gets to watch it and go, "No, Lily, don't feel that way," or "Lily, don't get involved. Why can't you just be happy?" I love that. The audience wants to go through that journey with you. And they'll have their opinions about it, which is great. Any time an audience has an opinion that means they're watching something that's interesting to them. The conflict between Rose and Lily, which is always interesting to me, is that Rose wants to live Lily's life and always has since she's come to town. She doesn't realize she is trying to ingratiate herself into Lily's life. But going out with her first love and taking that away from Lily -- there is some sort of power in that for Rose. I love that Holden was the one that convinced Rose to tell the police what's going on, and that Holden is the one that convinces Rose to work things out with Lily. Because Rose does anything Holden says. Rose doesn't even realize that's happening -- oh, Holden said it? Then it must be true! She puts him on a pedestal.

SCA: Speaking of having opinions, do you, Martha, have one about which sister is right?
MB: It totally depends on whom I'm playing. I commit 100 percent to both points of view. And I understand both points of view. I understand Rose because every woman has done this. You can justify certain behaviors of men when you have an attraction to them. That I understand. And for Lily, as a wife and a mother and being protective of her children, I can totally understand the point of view that you protect your family, doing everything you can, even irrational things, to protect them. It's that mother hen thing. I get both sides of the characters, which is really nice. Over 15 years, there have been times where you have to say to the writers, "I don't get it. I don't get why this character would do something like this." But I don't have that problem right now. It's really great.

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