Kit Paquin isn't just GL's newest actress -- she's also a longtime fan! Find out how the young woman who remembers Marina Cooper being born, ended up playing her!
SoapCityAlina: How did you get started in show business?
Kit Paquin: Both my parents are very theatrical.
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My whole family is really crazy and artistic. My parents would always invite people over and play music all night, and I did lots of community theater, musicals mostly, growing up in Vermont. My father directed Oliver and Oklahoma when I was really little, and my mother and I wrote a couple of musicals when I was younger.
SCA: You know, Beth Chamberlin (Beth) is from Vermont, too.
KP: I know! It was so funny; my mom called my old high school to tell them about me getting this job, and the secretary there said, "Oh, my niece is on that show!" That's so funny because I've been watching the show since I was about eleven years old, and my mom has been watching practically since it's started, so I feel like I know all these characters. I loved Eleni. I loved the actress that played that part (Melina Kanakaredes).
SCA: Being a fan, how did your mom react to you getting this part?
KP: Everyone in my family was just thrilled. I have this huge, huge, huge family and they were all just incredibly supportive. They threw a big party for me. It was just the best night of my life.
SCA: You spent the past two years at Circle in the Square Theater School. What's it like to study acting so intensely?
KP: A day can be up to 12 hours long. We do dance, plus other kinds of physical acting: voice training, speech training, combat, scene study. Then, we do a lot of different types of acting classes. We mostly used The Method by Stanislavsky, a lot of sensory exercises. But we also had some teachers that were Meisner-based, some ad-lib, some Strasburg. We basically got all the different tools so you could just choose for yourself what works best for you. But, we didn't do any on-camera work, so I did lots of student films, because I needed to become comfortable with the medium. It's such a different, different technique.
SCA: So how did this role of Marina come about?
KP: I actually auditioned for a different part in September. I don't know if she ended up being a character on the show, they usually use fake names for the auditions. I think it was a new role but, by watching, I couldn't figure out who it was so, I'm pretty sure they never actually put her into the show. Now, I was going to Hunter College, just to keep up with my studies, and the day before my first audition for Marina I had six hours of exams in a row. I got a call saying Guiding Light wants to call you in again tomorrow. I'd said when I started going to school again, I said I would never let that interfere with my acting career. So I called all my professors and I cancelled my exams, and went to the audition.
SCA: Since the show uses fake names for the auditions, did you know you were reading for Marina?
KP: I knew from the first scene, even though the names were changed. It was just so obvious. I was so thrilled to be auditioning for that part. I love the role a lot and I knew where she was coming from because I knew the character. I auditioned with Frank (Dicopoulos; Frank), and that was such a gift. At first, meeting him was like, "Oh my gosh, I've been watching you for so many years!" And then just having the gift of working with an actor who is so generous and gives you so much and is so present in the scene. I think it's such a gift.
SCA: What's it like coming into a relationship with Shayne (Marty West), when you haven't been playing it from the beginning?
KP: I think it's going to be ok. We got along instantly. He's such a nice guy, such a cool guy, that I felt comfortable right away. He made an effort to make me feel comfortable. We went out to dinner just to get to know each other and that was great. I think we'll be buddies, I think we'll be fine.
SCA: Did it help that you'd watched the show before and saw what Marina was going through?
KP: Watching helped a lot. Just kind of imagining that it was me, that's it was what I was going through. I write a lot. So I would write what were my feelings when that was happening, what was that like? I'll ask myself questions and then answer them in a written way so that I feel like I have experienced that. That helps. I work out the story and kind of close my eyes and imagine that that had happened to me. It was like I was watching a mirror when (Aubrey Dollar; ex-Marina) was on. I love what she did. Marina's a cool chick. She's wild and she knows what she wants, and she's very straightforward and she wants other people to be straightforward with her. But you could knock her down with a feather when it comes to her family. She's so fiercely loyal and she loves them and she would do anything in the world for them. I think Aubrey is really, really talented and it's kind of a gift that she set up such a strong character for me.
