Hard as it may be to believe by just looking at her, bruises and bodily harm are a common theme in the life of GENERAL HOSPITAL's Marisa Ramirez, and a trend that started for her in childhood. "I was a very shy kid" sighs the willowy actress. "We would go over to my grandmother's house, and all the cousins would be playing. I would be attached to my mother's hip. I did not want to leave her and play with them. Then, when I would go play with them, I would always get hit in the head with a ball or I would fall or something. I was so clumsy!" Funny, a career in modeling wouldn't seem like the next logical step, but that's just what Ramirez, um, fell into at the ripe old age of 13. "Someone came up to me and took a Polaroid and asked if they could take it to an agency. So I started modeling. And on my first job ever, I had to wear these tiny rubber shorts and this big wig and these fishnet stockings and these boots that were stilettos. They had me sitting on the floor. I was sitting on top of my legs for so long that when it was over, I tried to get up and my feet fell from under me because they were asleep! I fell over, and they had to take the shoes off me. It was hilarious!" An inauspicious start, needless to say, but it still led to a successful career that not only landed the young stunner on the covers of Seventeen and YM, but also took her around the globe. "After I graduated high school, I started [taking classes at a] community college, but I needed to get away. So I went [on modeling jobs] in Australia, and then I went to Hong Kong and South Africa. I figured it was a good way to see the world." Modeling also provided Ramirez with a way to slowly overcome her shyness. "I liked modeling because I could still be shy" she smiles. "I didn't have to say much, so it sort of broke me out of my shell. After I was done with traveling, I felt like, 'Okay, I'm ready to talk now [laughs].' So I came home and decided I wanted to try acting." With little experience outside of modeling and commercials, Ramirez hit the audition trail, landing small roles here and there. She also made appearances in music videos ("I was a video hoochie; I'll admit it" she cracks) for big-name artists like Will Smith, Lenny Kravitz and the Backstreet Boys. "But the hours for videos were so long:"she groans. "You'd be working like, 17 hours, 20 hours. And I was getting tired of that. I would see myself on MTV and I would think, 'I want to host something.' That was my dream for a long time." And one that would quickly come true. In late 1999, MTV hired Ramirez to co-host a show called SENSELESS ACTS OF VIDEO. "They re-create stunts from music videos" she explains of the show's premise. "But the stunts were just crazy. I remember thinking, 'I finally got my dream job. Whoa, what is this?"' Though the majority of stunts were performed by trained experts, Ramirez did find herself roped into a few, including a particularly hair-raising one. "On the first show that they ever aired, my co-host [Troy Hartman] and I were standing on train tracks harnessed to some hydrolic cord," she recounts. "There was a train coming toward us, and at the last second before the train was about to hit us, the cord would yank us onto these mats that were off to the side. We had to do it something like eight times." That turned out to be more of a pain in the neck than she could have ever imagined. "Each time, I was screaming, so I wasn't thinking about holding my chin to my chest and that kind of stuff. So every-time I'd get thrown on the mat, my head would hit the back of it. The last time, I couldn't even lift my head. It was one of the scariest feelings I've ever had." Until the next time. "There was this other time when my co-host and I had to fly in this little two-seater plane, and there was a helicopter that was taping us. At the end of the [shoot], the helicopter was like, 'Okay, one more pass. Fly underneath the helicopter.' So we flew underneath, but we got caught in the rotor wash and it pushed the plane down really fast. Our seatbelts weren't tight enough. so we hit the canopy of the plane; I thought I busted the thing open." Luckily, the plane proved durable enough to sustain Ramirez's head-on collision. "When I opened my eyes. I thought we were going to be in the water drowning," she reveals. "It was the most frightening experience. My co-host had no feeling in his right hand, so he had to land the plane with his pinkie, we went to the hospital afterward and found out that he had broken two bones in his neck." The show went on hiatus while Hartman recuperated. During that time, she pulled in some guest spots elsewhere on MTV ("I was a judge on SAY WHAT? KARAOKE and did a few makeover shows"), but her experiences with the network left Ramirez feeling increasingly disillusioned. "It just wasn't fun anymore" she shrugs. "My whole dream of being on MTV had been kind of crushed by how the talent is really treated. I just thought. 'What am I doing here?'" But getting out of her three-year contract with MTV would require landing a new job elsewhere. Enter GH. "[MTV was] going to resume shooting in about two more weeks, and then I got this job," she says. "So I told them, 'I really want to do this.' The producer of the show was like, 'No, I'm totally happy for you. Go.' But the head of talent [at MTV] was mean about it. It took me a while to get out of my conract so I could get my contract [at GH] okayed." Though Ramirez immediately took to her new alter ego ("She's bold, says off-the-wall things and annoys people, which I would kind of like to do" she laughs), her first day on-set left her a little worse for wear, too. "I left with bruises all over my arms from Coltin [Scott, Nikolas] and Jacob [Young, Lucky] because it was the day they find Gia in the alley and rough her up," she laughs. "When I got home that day, my boyfriend was like, 'What the hell happened to you?' And I said, 'Don't worry, I can handle it.'" As well she has. "My life is much steadier now," she reflects. "I know what I'm doing tomorrow; I know what I'm doing next week. And now I feel a lot more confident about the direction my life is going to go in now. I'm learning a lot here, which is really helping. Plus, this is a fun place to work. The people are great; the hours are great; and I love coming to work in practically my pajamas! I could roll out of bed and come here; I have a toothbrush here, and we have showers. I love it" Deadpans the actress, "I just have to make sure I don't slip or anything."
Just The Facts:
BIRTHDAY: September 15
SIGN OFF: "I'm a Virgo, but I'm not into astrology. My grandma is, though. She'll only go to the dentist on certain days when the moon is aligned with something [laughs]!
HAILS FROM: L.A. AGE 'N' SEE: "I have a 20-month-old brother, Marcel. My parents divorced when I was 4, and then, when I was 20, they remained. I was 2l when he was born."
ON A PERSONAL NOTE: She's been dating her boyfriend, Jack, for over a year. "But we've known each other for five or six years. He is totally my soul mate, and I'm very happy with him."
IN HER SPARE TIME: "I love to make cookies, play dominoes, go bowling, go to the movies and rent movies. And I've been learning how to golf."
Top(ping) O' The Morning
Though Ramirez encountered a lot of familliar faces during he music-video days, there's one that also stands out as a friendly one: Will Smith. "He ordered me a pizza at, like, 3 in the morning," she grins.
(Before anyone picks up the phone to call Jada, read on...) "Actually, it was me and this other girl. We were on the shoot for his "Wild, Wild, West" video, and we had been there for about six days - longer than anyone else had been. On out last day, we were starving, but they didn't have any more food left. He was like, 'You guys want a pizza?' So he ordered it and brought it to us. It was very sweet."