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Everyone loves cute, cuddly Parker Munson! A few months ago, while
Mom (Maura West) was off being aged prematurely and Dad was dealing
himself a bad deck of cards, half the adults of Oakdale -- John,
Craig, Rosanna, Katie, Simon, Nancy -- were practically arm-wrestling
each other for the chance to take care of the tot. But what's Cole
Kachelhoffer, who plays Parker, like in real life? We asked his
mom, Debbie, for the scoop! (Especially about the embarrassing stuff!)
Broadway Baby:
Cole's older brother had an agent in Manhattan. He's done lots of
print work. One day, we went to take him in to his agent and they
asked to sign Cole up, too. We asked him if he wanted to do it,
and he said "Yes." When he was three, they called us for
an interview for As the World Turns. Cole went up and interviewed.
They took him out by himself, and he walked with them and I could
hear him talking all the way. He was talking about the carpet and
everything under the sun. They asked him questions, and he answered.
Like if he had any brothers or sisters, how old he was, when his
birthday was. I mean, he was three and he answered all of them.
And then he told them he wanted to be on TV. They told him they
were going to take him to another room, and he kept telling them
"No, I want to be on those TV's back there," because the
room had TV's in the back of us.
Settling In:
Cole is four, now. He'll be five at the end of June. I think they
are writing him as though he were three, so he's almost a year and
a half older than what he actually is on the show. He loves to go
to the studio. Sometimes he has lines, but it's usually one line
or a couple words. I prep him on the day we tape. I don't see a
script until then. He doesn't get confused when he goes on air that
he has a different mom. He knows that it's his pretend Mom and his
pretend Dad and his pretend siblings. All of the adult actors have
made attempts to get to know him so that he feels comfortable with
them. He loves them all. As you can tell, he hugs them all and he
has no problems going with any of them.
Adult Video:
A few times I was concerned that he was involved in scenes that
were adult and deep. He was with Maura West (Carly) and Barbara
(Colleen Zenk Pinter), and Maura kind of moved him to the side and
tried to talk with him not hearing, but he pays attention. He came
home and he told me that Barbara was in big trouble! That they were
going to arrest her! He listens, and he understands what they are
talking about. One time, they wrote that he was wearing diapers,
and I had to tell him, "Don't tell them you're not in diapers."
Because he will! The first time he was on with Colleen, she had
to say that Hal was looking for something. And Cole goes, "It's
in the diaper bag!" Colleen had such a shocked look on her
face because she had never been on a set with him before. She didn't
realize he was understanding what she says! They had to cut and
redo it!
The Price of Fame:
Cole does get recognized when we go out in public. When my husband
had him at a restaurant one morning, someone came up and asked him
if he was Parker on As the World Turns. And I was very embarrassed
at the grocery store recently. He wanted to play that machine that
they have, the one with the claws and they grab the animals up.
He wanted to play that, and it was two dollars. And I told him "No,
I'm not going to give you two dollars. You don't need that."
And he was whining and the lady behind the cash register said, "You
need to get a job." And he goes, "I have a job."
And she says, "What do you do?" And he goes, "Well,
tell her Mom." So I tell her, and she goes "No!"
and he goes "Yeah, yeah," -- just kind of like that tone
of voice. And she goes, "Can I have your autograph?" and
he goes "For a dollar." I was like "COLE!" So
he wrote his name on a Shop-Rite ad or something for her and gave
it to her. And she called somebody else over because he needed two
dollars for the machine. And she goes to the other lady, "If
you give him a dollar, he'll give you his autograph." So they
both gave him a dollar and he gave them his autograph. And that
was right before he went up for the Fan Club Luncheon so he kept
telling everybody, "I'm not charging for these." I was
kind of embarrassed.
Off-Screen:
His friends that he goes to pre-school with all know about the show,
and they watch him once in a while on TV. But he doesn't watch himself
all the time. He doesn't really care. When he sees himself on TV
he just says, "Oh, there I am," and walks away. No big
deal! He's very nonchalant about it. But, sometimes, he'll sit and
watch the whole show by himself and he won't even want you in the
room with him!
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