Poker Face
Eileen Davidson sets the record straight about her Y&R exit and new movie.
Soap Opera Digest: Eileen, you have a new movie that we want to hear all about but first, would you clarify why you left Y&R? Although you stated at the time that it was your decision, many fans are still convinced you were pushed out of the show.
Eileen Davidson: I think that’s funny because I thought it was very clear. I decided pretty much a year before I left. I started talking about it seriously with my husband, Vincent [Van Patten, exchristian], about the concept of leaving the show. It really had nothing to do with Mal [Young, former executive producer/ head writer]. He actually wasn’t even technically the head at that point. I mean, I hadn’t decided completely, but I started entertaining the thought.
Digest: What brought you to that point?
Davidson: It was more about having to go in [to work] every day. The days were longer. I just found myself exhausted and completely consumed with memorizing lines. It seemed the memorization was more material, wordier material, difficult material to kind of wrap your brain around. I found myself doing a lot of homework on the weekend. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I was kind of wanting to not have to be somewhere all of the time.
Digest: Did you discuss it with any of your co-stars?
Davidson: No, because I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to say anything, have it come out and then it not happen or whatever.
Digest: Peter Bergman (Jack) loves working with you. He says, “I would give up part of my paycheck to keep Eileen.”
Davidson: He always says that, but he never does it! Show me the money
[laughs]!
Digest: By the time you made your decision, Mal was in charge. What was his reaction? Davidson: He was very distressed. He was very unhappy. He was very sad. He told me how much he loves to write for me and how I’m one of his favorite actors on the show. He was devastated. It’s not really fair for people to think he pushed me out because he didn’t. He went out of his way to write me a great exit storyline. I loved the storyline. It was controversial, but I still loved it. I thought it was something so completely different. It kind of wrapped up a lot of things that have been hanging out there for years that hadn’t been dealt with, so I loved that.
Digest: When Mal took over the reins of the show, he said on record that Ashley was one of the first characters he wanted to spotlight.
Davidson: Yeah, for sure. He never tried to push me out. He always wanted me there. At the very end, he was still trying to get me to stay.
Digest: Was your decision of when you would exit based on the huge story with Ashley and Jack?
Davidson: I told them in June that I wouldn’t be renewing and I knew my contract was up in September. He had planned the storyline, I didn’t know that. He didn’t tell me. So, what he ended up doing was speeding it up.
Digest: Ashley left Genoa City very empowered, but what did you think of the story overall?
Davidson: Some things were out of character, but I thought that [Ashley] dealt with things that never have been handled properly. I think she always kind of sucked it up. I thought it was very timely with the #Metoo movement, and equal pay. The fact that her brother treated her as “less than” and not as “good as”, then it came out that she was probably more talented than him and he was intimidated by that I thought was epic! It was a real game changer.
Digest: Will we ever see Ashley dropping in for visits?
“I just found myself exhausted and completely consumed with memorizing lines.”
Davidson: I don’t know. I don’t have anything against it. I never did. I did tell them when I was leaving that I wasn’t able to be there on a consistent basis in the near future. If they had to recast, they should do that. I don’t hate anybody. I’d be happy to come back to do a little story arc, if that’s possible.
Digest: Do you have the same attitude about playing Kristen and Susan on DAYS OF OUR LIVES?
Davidson: I’m not sure what I can say about that because I don’t want to jeopardize anything they have going on over there. I didn’t want to go back to a longterm contract, and that was put out there. It just doesn’t make sense for my life right now. Again, I could change my mind in a few months if I just catch my breath! But the way I’m feeling, it’s just ridiculous. The amount of material is just ridiculous. Maybe if I lived right next door to the studio it wouldn’t be as bad.
Digest: Did you catch Stacy Haiduk [Kristen/susan, DAYS; ex-patty, Y&R] playing your roles?
Davidson: I have not.
Digest: She’s doing a pretty good job.
Davidson: I’m sure she is. She’s a terrific actress. Digest: Is there anything that would entice you to come back to Y&R, say, for just a year? Davidson: I don’t know. Maybe. You never
know.
Digest: Were you surprised by the news Mal was leaving?
Davidson: Yes and no, just because the turnarounds have been rather shocking on that show. I know that there was a lot of turmoil going on this last year.
Digest: Did you have a good relationship with him?
Davidson: Yeah, pretty much so. We didn’t see eye to eye on certain things. I worked
differently. I wanted more collaboration but again, I can’t blame my leaving on him, and that’s really, really important for people to know.
Digest: Okay, let’s talk about your movie,
Walk To Vegas, which was written by your husband, who also plays the lead role. What’s the basic premise?
Davidson: His character has a home poker game and a bunch of friends bet that he can’t walk to Vegas. That’s basically it. It’s a lot of fun. It’s like a cross between The Sting and The Hangover. It’s just a lot of troublemakers and kind of the life of a gambler. It’s a comedy and very funny.
Digest: Your husband is a professional poker player and even hosts a reality TV series, WORLD POKER TOUR. Is his movie a work of fiction?
Davidson: Well, this is inspired by true events. My husband’s dad was taking his kids to the track. I mean, [actor] Dick Van Patten bought a house in the [San Fernando] Valley because it was close to Santa Anita and Hollywood Park [race tracks]. And this is a true story, so I’m not lying. That’s really why he moved to this specific place. He taught Vinny how to play poker when he was just a kid. Vinny’s been in that world playing with the big people since he was a teenager, putting on a fake mustache to sneak into Vegas casinos. Anyway, he’d come home from playing poker and he would tell me these stories and I was like, “You’ve gotta be kidding me! Who did what?!” We were actually rollerblading, stopping at bars, doing shots of tequila for our anniversary, and we were talking about a movie that had just come out. I said, “You should write a script about your home game and all these prop bets.”
Digest: What are prop bets?
Davidson: Prop bets, for people who don’t know, are bets on just anything; who can jump the highest, who can drink the most or whatever. So, the movie is based loosely on that whole thing. We’re not playing ourselves. It’s not an autobiography, but he did pull from his own experiences. And obviously, many names had to be changed
and all sorts of things.
Digest: How would you describe your character?
Davidson: I play his wife, somebody who is also based on me, clearly. We have shared bets over the years. It’s basically, his wife goes to these things with him and if he decides he’s against this walk or not and how she feels about it; that’s kind of basically my role.
Digest: What was it like working closely with Vinny?
Davidson: It was fun, but he was under a lot of pressure. Basically, I gave him a wide berth. He’d say, “I want you to do this. I want you to do that.” [I’d say] “I’m playing me! I know how to play me.” In the big picture, it was a pretty awesome experience.
Digest: Is this the first time you worked together since Y&R?
Davidson: Yeah! It was great.
Digest: What was it like to do movies again after the daily grind of soaps?
Davidson: I was doing them at the same time! We made the movie a year-and-a-half ago, while I was on Y&R. I was also doing a stint on DAYS and wrapping up [THE REAL] HOUSEWIVES [OF BEVERLY HILLS].
Digest: Could there be a sequel?
Davidson: Oh, I hope so! Or maybe we’ll go to a series. It’s just amazing. I mean this is all based on real life. The sky’s the limit with the amount of material this guy has. He could not put in everything. He’s had one of the most amazing lives of anybody. People don’t know that about him. I was trying to get him to write a book. I mean, how he just fell into tennis and then became in the Top 25 in the world when he had no organized training as a teenager. Most people came in through juniors and worked their way up, but he just kind of left acting and turned to tennis and dominated in tennis. And then he starts relying on poker, and then he gets the WORLD POKER TOUR! He’s always hustling, always going, always moving forward.
For more information, go to walktovegas.com.