| Kim Zimmer no longer has the weight of the world on her shoulders. Kim Zimmer puts on a pair of blue-rimmed glasses to study the menu at a seafood restaurant near the GL studio. There's something different about her. Maybe it's the sharp specs. Maybe it's her new, controversial skin-care regimen. Maybe it's the fact that she just dropped 10 pounds. Or maybe it's just that she's more carefree these days. News flash: Gone are the days when Kim Zimmer agonizes over Reva's next big storyline. SPW: How did you get over worrying about what your next storyline will be? KZ: I don't know. It might be the whole idea that there are more important things in life. It may be a different level of self-confidence, that it doesn't matter if I'm on five days a week, that I know fans know there is a Reva and that she'll always be around. Or maybe it's the fact that I know that if I choose to, I could have a career outside of GL. I believe that now. I never believed that before. SPW: That's shocking. KZ: L.A. was such a debacle for me that I convinced myself all I could do was soaps. (Zimmer left GL from 1990-'95 to pursue film and TV work.) I was OK with that, but I'm not OK with that anymore, because I believe that I could have a stage career. The soaps have been financially good to me; my kids will be OK as far as college. Jake (who's 13) may get the brunt of it [if I leave] --- he may end up in a junior college or some state school (laughs). If I choose to leave the soap, I'm not scared that I would never work again. SPW: You're not saying you're planning on leaving --- are you? KZ: Can I honestly say I have nothing to bitch about yet? I am so happy right now with my life and with the show. I'm so busy with my own life that that's where my focus is right now. I'm not so concerned about what my next story is or what's going to win my next Emmy. I still refuse to sit on the back burner and be Marah's mother or Cassie's sister. I will leave before that happens. What I have always said is, when I stop being challenged in this role, that's when I call it quits. SPW: Do you think you could ever not play Reva? KZ: Robert and I both have said that we're going to be playing Reva and Josh in rocking chairs on the front stoop of Cross Creek. I will continue to play Reva as long as I am pertinent. I don't think I could do what Tina Sloan (Lillian) does; I don't think my ego would allow me to. She's like, "If this job means I can climb another mountain, then I'll keep coming in and being Beth's mother." (Editor's note: Sloan once climbed Mt Kilimanjaro.) After what I've done with this character, I don't know if I could do that. SPW: What's it like working for John Conboy? KZ: I have the biggest crush on him. I find him very sexy. I don't know what kind of executive producer he is (laughs). He threw a party on the last day before our Christmas vacation. He turned Studio B into a winter wonderland. They had a disco ball in the middle of the studio. He insisted that we eat off real silverware. Then he made a little speech and he was off. He flew to Palm Springs or something, and I never saw him to thank him. It was a classy thing to do. I admire the fact that he's in rehearsal at 7 every morning. He's very hands-on. He doesn't leave it all till the last minute. He watches it evolve throughout the day. SPW: What happens if an actor wants to bitch or vent in rehearsal and he's there? KZ: Guess that depends on who you are. I don't have a problem with him. SPW: Were you nervous the first day he showed up at rehearsal? KZ: I have no problem admitting this: We had a GL tech party the night before. It is the party to go to because there's no press, there are no photographers. It's just a kick-ass party. We had it at the Alamo, so there was tequilas being poured. I was riding the porcelain pony all night long. I was so sick. I was terribly over-served. And I walked in and there is John Conboy, who had also been at the party. He was in the rehearsal hall at 7 o'clock in the morning. I looked at him and I said, "What the f--- are you doing here?" And he said, "This is my job." And he's been there ever since. SPW: Have you spoken with new head writer Ellen Weston? KZ: I met her at the P&G Christmas party. She didn't know who I was (laughs). When John introduced me to Ellen, I said, "We actually have worked together." I expected her to know that we had done this TV movie together, and she said, "We have?" I was like, "Yeah, you wrote the only decent TV movie I did in L.A.: The Disappearance of Vonnie." And she said, "Oh, yes. Who were you?" and I said, "Vonnie." (laughs) "Well, yeah, I died after the first 10 minutes, but it was a big story until I died." We laughed. That's the change in me, too. Now, I don't take that as an insult. SPW: I heard you had another interesting encounter at the party, with Joan Collins. KZ: She said, "I had a script that I was supposed to play. We were finally going to get scenes together." And I was like, "Sh--." The only time we ever crossed paths was when something came out in Star magazine (about their so-called feud). She came to me at the party and said, "I had nothing to do with it." I said, "Believe me, I know how this works." That was the first time I was ever the bad guy. The picture they had of me --- oh, my God, I looked like a rabid dog, and it was right after that that she was let go. Robert said, "You love this. You love that people think you were the reason that she was [let go]." I said, "No I don't. No wonder people are afraid of me --- they think I'm this horrible person." It was the most I ever talked to her, and she finally knew who I was. She was always asking Tina Sloan, "Now, who is she?" (laughs) Tina was like, "If I have to tell her one more time who you are, I'm going to scream." SPW: Was it hard when they let Billy Kay go? Was it just as difficult when Laura Bell Bundy left? KZ: Losing Laura Bell was harder because I felt so much like she was my daughter. She was the first older Marah. I believe Billy Kay is going to write some fabulous movie for himself and he's going to be the next Sylvester Stallone. I don't worry about him, as I never worried about Laura Bell. But I felt cheated because I was losing her. They were both handled so poorly. Billy Kay's [exit] was abrupt. That broadsided me. I understand it because I know where they're going with [the story]. The business sucks that way. I always understand it, but that doesn't make it right. The problem with that character was that they should have made Shayne who Billy Kay is. They aged the character, but they never aged the dialogue. They continued to write him as this 11, 12-year-old kid who was sitting on Mommy and Daddy's lap. This is Billy Kay, who's a thug! He's a darling, lovable thug, but a thug. SPW: OK, let's talk about your weight. What made you join Weight Watchers? KZ: I was disgusted with myself (laughs). I finally got to the point where I said, "OK now, I can't lie about this anymore. I can't say, 'Well, it's my time of life that I'm a size 12.'" I went from being a perfect size 8 to a size 12 in a year. I am at the age (48) when things are changing, but that doesn't mean that I have to put on an extra two clothing sizes. Now I'm back down close to an 8 again. That's what I want again. I don't care so much about the weight loss as I do about the size. SPW: Why do you think you gained weight? Stress? KZ: It may have been. I don't know. I quit smoking, that was a big thing. That changed my metabolism. That was what I had to blame it on for the first year, but I couldn't blame it on that anymore. I was just fat. And I thought, new producer, new me. Paul (Rauch) was on me all the time. He wasn't mean about my weight, but he was always saying, "You could stand to lose 10 pounds." I'd be like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got the young, pretty girls. Let me be who I am." I never took it seriously. Then when John came in, we had a little conversation. He never said anything; I brought it up. I said, "I've started Weight Watchers. I have every intention of losing weight. I would like to lose 20 pounds, but I'll be happy with 15." I've lost nine so far. I see it in my face, I see it in my breasts. My breasts aren't quite as bulbous anymore (laughs). SPW: Do you go to meetings? KZ: Yes. Marcy is our leader. She writes a song every week from famous songs --- Beatles songs, whatever --- that ruins that song for you for the rest of your life. SPW: Do you also keep a journal? KZ: That's the other important thing with Weight Watchers --- you have to write everything down so you can total up your points every day. Robert told me early on, "Even if you blow it, you have to write it down." That's the hardest thing for me, because I don't write letters, I don't write [anything]. I'm terrible. I didn't send any Christmas cards this year, except to my mom and dad. So, I apologize to you all. |