| Most writers will tell you that there are always a few stars that they particularly like interviewing. For me Kim Zimmer is one of those people. She's beautiful, warm, friendly and a lot of fun to talk to. One thing's for sure, things are never dull when Kim's around. I met Kim at the Guiding Light studio and was thrilled to learn that her 5-month-old son Max was there. Naturally, Kim took me right to her dressing room, which she now lovingly refers to as "babyland" to meet Max. What a little doll he is. From there we decided to find a quiet place to talk and headed up for the green room. Upon entering, what did we find, more babies, 4 of them! "Reva's back and she's bad, but she's got a lot of babies," Kim says laughing. "How about a new soap opera called 'All My Babies'?" she added. "What are all these babies doing here?" I ask her. "Well, they're my on-screen babies," she said. "Four of them? I thought Reva only had one," I said. "Well, yes, but one is the on-camera baby, one is a stand-in, one is an alternate, you know," she told me. "I didn't realize they used so many," I told her. "Yes, they do." "Well, I always said that the Guiding Light cast was like one big happy family," I said laughing. "Now let's see if we can get down to some questions," I told Kim. "What is this whole thing about Reva's Back, about?" I wanted to know. "Well, I don't know. I had one day where I put on this red sequined dress, that's it! It's funny, because I had one line in the show were I was coming into the country club and Regis, the guy who always greets everybody as they come in, he says, 'Miss Shayne, it's nice to see you, I haven't seen you in a while.' And I say, 'Yes, strike up the band, Reva's back and she's better than ever'," KIm says laughing. "I don't know where this storyline is going. I think it's going to be a lot of fun if they make Reva bad again because then I've got the baby to come home to. So I could commit a murder as long as I have a baby, you know, as long as you have a baby you can go home to and have those tender moments. Kids and animals," she said. "What's happening with you and Josh?" I wanted to know. "Well, they've casted a character that is going to be Josh's mysterious wife, that he married down in Venezuela. The one he's been keeping from me. There's going to be something very mysterious about this woman and she's going to come between us, we can't be happy, we can never be together! Then I start some dealings with Alan Spaulding. So he's going to be the bad side, and Josh and I will probably be star-crossed lovers again. With the baby thing still going on, with me still thinking it's Kyle's baby and that whole business. But I'm so happy that Pam Long (GL's writer) is back, she really knows who Reva Shayne is," Kim says. "She has been floundering for a bit," I add. "Tell me about it. We've had, what, three different writers in the interim period and the audience liked that Reva and I think that it's been done very well, but I've been like a heroine on the show. I think the audience is ready for the old Reva. Every time I make a personal appearance everybody says, 'We want the old Reva, we want you to be bad again!'" Kim says happily. "What we're doing now is reestablishing, that's what Pam's doing now, she's giving all of the characters monologues to reestablish themselves in the minds of the audience. She's letting us all go back to our roots. I had an eight page monologue with Chris Bernau (Alan) where I tell him about my growing up and how I remember one day eating garbage because there wasn't anything to eat in the house and all that kind of stuff, which is why Reva is what she is. She is so determined to be what she wasn't and have her baby be something she never was. So I think that's going to be good." "Alan Spaulding has a line where he says, 'Reva's done the Lewis', there are no more to do, so it's time for a new regime.' And I so don't know if it means that we're going to have a love story or anything, but it might be a love-hate kind of relationship, which would be fun too. I've always wanted to work with Chris," Kim says. We talked about what Kim would like to see them do with Reva. She says that she'd like to see Reva involved in some kind of adventure, but she's not sure how that would work because of the baby. "I want her to be centered again. I want her to be hungry again. To the point where I don't want her to be easily satisfied like she has been. She's been so easily satisfied. She's been kind of like anything goes. It's nice that she's got more of her family now too, because if I'm not so busy there's always something happening with someone in the family. When it was just me it was, you know, kind of rough. That's the other thing, when I first started the show Reva was really a stimulus, she created things and lately I've been a reactor, things have been created for me to react to which I don't like," Kim says. "Well, that's the heroine kind of role," I offered. "Yes, right and I'm tired of that. I want to start causing problems again," she said, adding, "my contract's up again." "Again?" I questioned. "Yes, every time I win an Emmy, my contract's up. It's been great, you know, win an Emmy, negotiate a contract," she says laughing. "Do you want to stay on?" I asked her. "Yes, I would like to be able to, but we're going to have to do some serious talking. I want to be able to, I want them to do for me what they do for people like Susan Lucci or for Deidre Hall. I want a project created for me. I would like to do a movie-of-the-week, or have a part in a mini series, I think that's only fair. I deserve it. I've given them four years of my life and I would be happy to stay on the show for another two years if I knew that I could do another project every year, you know, something different." Kim also told me that she would like to be able to have the time off to go to California for pilot season but she wouldn't want to leave GL for a half hour sitcom. "I want to go out and get a Cagney & Lacey kind of thing, I want to have my own show. I mean, I'm going to set my standards high," she says laughing, "because I wouldn't leave otherwise. It's a great character, plus I am in New York and I really wouldn't want to move to L.A. So it's going to be a big stipulation in the negotiations. I'm 32 now and I just want to give it a shot before I'm over the hill," Kim says laughing. "Over the hill! I would say you have a long time to go before you could say that, you look great!" I told her. "I've been working out with a trainer to get myself back into shape. I felt like I had to pay a man mucho bucks to help me do it because I wouldn't do it myself. I had to, you know, a guy like Bodies By Jake, only this is Bodies by Dan. I go to a club over on the east side. I couldn't do it at home even with a trainer. Not with two young kids running around." With that, it was time for me to leave and Kim to go back and check on Max and get back to work. As for me, well, I can't wait until the next time Kim and I sit down for one of our talks. |