She´s got the maternal nature of June Cleaver mixed with the dominating force of a WWF superstar. Temperamental yet tender, volatile yet vulnerable, meddlesome and occasionally maniacal – there´s no mom in the world quite like THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL´s Stephanie Forrester. Nor is there any actress who could capture her essence like Susan Flannery.
*Flannery loves directing, “I get to yell at the actors,” she grins, “and they can´t complain.”
Currently enjoying her third consecutive Daytime Emmy nomination for the role, Flannery admits that she wasn´t interested in the part initially and only said yes after some persistent arm-twisting on the part of the show´s producers. “It was Christmastime,” she explains. “They called me and said, ‘Can you come in?’ I said, ‘What, are you kidding me? No, I can´t – it´s Christmas!’”.
Flannery proceeded to turn down the executives´ repeated requests for meetings. “I was so rude to them,” she recalls with a laugh.
Only after agreeing to sit down with the show´s creator, Bill Bell, with whom she´d worked previously on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, did she finally acquiesce. “I ended up meeting him at the Polo Lounge for a drink,” she says, quickly noting that her decision to take the role wasn´t prompted by one too many martinis. “Neither one of us had any alcohol.”
*For eight years, the actress played Dr. Laura Horton on DAYS OF OUR LIVES opposite John Clarke as husband Mickey.
Love Thy Enemies
For all the excellent work she´s done on the show over the last decade and a half, Flannery gives ample credit to her co-stars for helping spark some of her best performances. “I have to confess that my favorite moments always come with Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke),” says the veteran performer, who thinks her on-screen nemesis has been grievously overlooked this Emmy season. “That conflict has been the spine of the show for the first 13 years. She and I have always kind of meshed.”
*In 2000, Flannery toasted fellow Emmy winners from THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, Shemar Moore (ex-Malcolm), Camryn Grimes (Cassie) and David Tom (Billy).
Likewise, Flannery also loves playing riotous scenes with co-star Darlene Conley (Sally), particularly whenever she gets to tip her co-star into a large body of water. “Darlene is such a good sport,” she says, laughing. “She´s the one that always ends up in the water!”
Onward And Upward
While Stephanie´s battles with Brooke and Sally always make for riveting B&B moments, her latest set of conflict really has given Flannery a renewed interest in her role. “The story we´re doing now with Ridge not being Eric´s child is really wonderful,” she says. “It´s such a big, powerful kind of story, and it lends itself to such great, primitive emotion.”
She is really equally impressed with the plots that run concurrent to her storyline, including Brooke´s affair with son-in-law Deacon and the shake-up at Forrester Creations. “We´ve got three major conflicts,” she says. “Any other show in daytime would be thrilled just to be concentrating on one of them.”
As for the recognition she´s lately received from the daytime community at large, she admits that getting noticed for her work is wonderful, especially considering how proud she is of the show´s current momentum. “It´s such a nice compliment,” she reflects. “It´s just the icing on the cake – a really great cake.”
Born: In Jersey City, NJ.
Plenty o´ luck: The actress is of 100 percent Irish descent.
Where there´s smoke…: Among Flannery´s nonsoap credits is the disaster flick The Towering Inferno
Change of plans: B&B creator Bill Bell initially had in mind Flannery´s former DAYS co-star Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie), for the role of Stephanie.
Ronn Moss (Ridge):
“I remember the first day I met Susan. I said, ‘Mother!’ and she said, ‘Don´t call me mother!’ That sort of set the tone. She´s got a great heart and a great skill, and when she barks about something, she´s usually right.”
John McCook (Eric):
“What I appreciate most about Susan is just her flat-out talent, and how familiar and confident she is in what we do every day. I was impressed with that the very first day I saw her work. Her powerful opinions about how to execute these scripts are awesome and hardly ever wrong.”
Winsor Harmon (Thorne):
“Susan has changed and affected my life, and that doesn´t happen that often. She´s the first person I think of when I need to ask someone for advice. I call her at home, and she gives it to me straight. I know that she´s always going to be honest with me. That´s what I like about her.”
Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke):
“I´ve always loved working with Susan, and I love working with her when she directs because she´s a great actor´s director. She´s always there in the moment, always prepared, and she brings so much out of the other person. She´s just an all-around great lady.”
Amy Helmes, CBS Soaps in Depth, May 21, 2002.