Brush Strokes
Real-life twins Deidre Hall and Andrea Hall-gengler share a passion for painting, and so much more
■ DAYS’S Deidre Hall (Marlena) and her twin sister, Andrea Hall-gengler (ex-samantha/hattie), were quarantined together during the coronavirus pandemic and passed the time working on watercolor paintings. Inspired by their love of flags, the duo created a series of originals that they’ve turned into note cards. The Westbrook Collection, named for a family vacation spot, is available now at deidre hall.com/shop. Here, they talk about their artistic endeavors, their relationship and more.
Soap Opera Digest: How did your interest in painting begin? Deidre Hall:
We both have fallen in love with watercolors in the past few years. We obviously don’t live close to each other, so it’s been hard to share that passion. But when she was here for the visit, we realized we were both doing a couple of flag pictures and then we had four flag paintings. And then it was like, “Oh, wait a minute.” We also fell in love with shoes, so we have a whole series of shoe paintings that are really spectacular. We were thinking of doing a shoe series, which we will still probably do.
Digest: When did you paint during the day? Andrea Hall-gengler:
The best time of the day is when you have the best available daylight. We painted across the living room table. If I had a problem, I’d say, “Oh, my gosh. I’ve got too much water here.” She’d throw me the paper towels and say, “Sop it up. Quick! Sop it up and redo it.” And we shared techniques that we both learned in different venues. I had taken art classes here also when I retired.
Digest: Are they collaborative pictures? Is one Andrea’s and one Deidre’s? Deidre:
The first set of what we’re doing is a set of 10 but there are only five actual original paintings. I was getting letters saying, “I’m so perplexed. I really want to keep this card but I really want to mail this card to my friend.” It made perfect sense. I wrote, “Then let’s just pick five of the best ones and then we’ll duplicate them and you’ll get one to keep and one to send to a friend.” So I think, Annie, part of our conversation was sitting around saying, “Do you want to do this one? Do you want to do that one? I’ll do this one and then you can do that one.” So it was more of, “This looks like fun for me to do,” and Annie would pick one that was fun for her to do, and that’s how we did it.” Digest: What is it like to share this passion?
Deidre: I think it’s natural. We do get attracted to similar things and have an endless patience for doing it. We sat in the family room for hours just painting and painting and painting and painting.
Andrea: And a really fun part of this was that we haven’t really had a chance to be around each other more than a week or two in the summers or a quick visit at Christmas or a gathering. And how often we finish each other’s sentences. It’s what my mother used to say: “Stop finishing each other’s sentences. You’re both the same people.” And I remember coming to Daddy’s retirement. I came from Florida and Dee came from California and we both got dressed in separate rooms and we both walked into the living room ready to go in the same outfit. It’s funny now to come back in touch with that because we’re so much alike that it’s funny and we find the same things funny. We’ll both see something happen and we’ll just both burst out laughing and nobody else in the room is chuckling. It’s been such an experience because you have these nine weeks together that it’s like finding your best friend again. It’s been grand. And painting is so much fun, but we just mostly laughed.
Deidre: Annie, I remember at one point I had gotten home before you had and Mom and I were sitting at the kitchen table and you said, “Did you ever get...?” And I said, “Yeah, they didn’t like it.” And Mom went, “What the heck was that? That was a whole conversation and I have no idea.” And I said, “Oh, she was talking about a double leash that I sent her.” And Annie came in back and Mom said, “What were you talking about?” She said, “Oh, a double leash.”
Digest: It speaks to nature/nurture in very interesting ways of how you two connect.
Andrea: I don’t know if it’s a half-brain thing or a two-brain thing. Two siblings are never exactly [alike] unless they’re mirror twins that have had exactly the same experiences in so many situations. They say in family dynamics that no child is born into the same family because one child gets born an only child and the next one gets born into a family of three, which wasn’t the case for us. Whatever was going on in our household at the time was exactly what we both went through. Digest: When the two of you are together do you ever think back to when you worked together on DAYS as Samantha and Marlena?
Andrea: No [laughs]. I don’t, really.
Deidre: The Samantha/marlena was utterly different because they did have to look alike. Samantha was more of a woman on the edge. She was a Hollywood actress who was having a difficult relationship and having a problem with her career. It was just the occasion of happening to look like her sister that allowed the audience to experience that “Somebody got killed. Who was it?” storyline, which was especially upsetting because I said to the pro- ducer, “Can’t we have been triplets?” Annie, you remember how that came about.
Andrea: Yes. Dee was talking with [then-head Writer] Ann Marcus, who said, “Do you have any ideas for the storyline?”
Deidre: I’m going to correct that for a second. Let me just say that when Ann Marcus became our head writer, she met with several of the lead actors and one of the questions she asked was, “Has there ever been a storyline you haven’t done but would like to do?” And I said, “It would be fun to work with my twin sister.” And the room went quiet. I guess nobody realized I had a twin sister. It just wasn’t on anybody’s radar. She said, “Is she an actress?” I said, “No, she’s a special education teacher.” Anyway, the next question was, “How fast can they get her here?” Ann Marcus was a brilliant storyteller with an amazing imagination, just a world of possibilities with that idea. And Annie, they flew you out. You can tell the rest from there.
Andrea: I made sure my hair color matched and put on the same kind of clothes and did a screen test, just making sure that it was possible to use different people instead of the same actress playing two different parts. It was supposed to be a summer job and then it drifted through Christmas and then it went on [from 1978-80, 1982]. The audience just went crazy for it. I was still teaching. I’d work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I would fly out that Wednesday night from Florida and then work on the show whatever scenes I was in on Thursday and Friday, spend the day with
“We do get attracted to similar things and have an endless patience for doing it.”
Dee and fly back on Sunday. Digest: Were you exhausted?
Andrea: I don’t think so, but it was such a long time ago. My energy was much higher then.
It was great. The first thing that Dee did when she handed me my script was take me to the most loving and wonderful acting coach that there ever was, Dolores. And what I didn’t know about acting and screen work, etc., Dolores taught me, one little piece at a time. Nobody got embar
rassed. It was a great gift. Digest: That’s such an incredible thing to share on top of all the personal stuff.
Deidre: Yes, and what the audience might not understand is in a two-camera show it’s almost impossible to have one person playing both parts. You’ve got to turn the whole camera around to shoot the other side. Having a twin meant the production could go on a regular schedule. Digest: Andrea, do you get recognized today?
Andrea: I do. People say, “Did people ever tell you that you look just like .... ” And that’s exactly how it starts. When they speak to you, that’s what they say. “Did anyone ever tell you that you look just like the girl on DAYS OF OUR LIVES?” “Marlena?” “Yeah, you look just like Marlena.”
Deidre: It must have been so frequent because you live in a small town and then you ended up on national television; I guess everybody kind of picked it up. Do people talk about your voice?
Andrea: That’s always what I hear: “I wasn’t sure until I heard you speak. And your gestures are just the same.”
Deidre: Annie will come out to visit and friends will stop by and they’ll respond to something and say, “That’s just the way your sister does it. That’s just the way your sister says it. That’s just the way your sister moves.” Everybody else seems to see it. Digest: When do you two think you’re going to see each other again? Andrea: I’ll probably get back out in October. I had such a good time last time, I’ll probably just come and stay longer.
To purchase the Westbrook Collection, go to deidrehall.com/shop.
“Painting is so much fun, but we just mostly laughed.”