While You Were Sleeping
Four actors detail the unique challenges of playing comatose.
■ Eric had two heart attacks and a brain hemorrhage, so you’ve played comatose several times over the years. “I think everyone has had a coma or two in their ongoing careers. Eric used to have a coma anytime
Stephanie would come down the stairs. I got used to covering these small comas he used to have [laughs].”
Do you have a coma-playing mantra? “My joke about it has always been if you read it and you get past the fact that you’re not getting fired, you go, ‘Well, it’s good for the show because all the characters are looking at their immediate future with panic or with glee or whatever.’ ”
Is it difficult to constantly be as still as pretending to be comatose requires? “Yes! You lay there with nothing to do, with your eyes shut and trying not to fart or burp or anything to distract, and all the other actors, for days and days, have an opportunity to pull up a chair to your hospital bed and work on their Emmy reel. That’s my joke about it.”
It must be difficult to show no emotion when your co-stars are doing just the opposite. “I remember in particular episodes that I was listening to some really nice work. The writing was great, and I will not tell you who it was, but one of the actors touched me so much, and I’m playing asleep and in a coma, but a tear came to my eye and fell at the end of the take. We finished and Ed [Scott, supervising producer] said, ‘John, you can’t cry. You’re in a coma.’ I don’t do that very easily or very often, but I was so touched that it had an effect on me, which was totally inappropriate. That was the only time I’ve really blown it being in a coma.”
Do you talk about the bedside scenes beforehand? “Well, it’s not up to me to prep, but if the actor says, ‘I want to reach down and touch your face. Don’t jerk because I’m going to touch you,’ that kind of information is pretty important so you don’t flinch. That’s the only kind of preparation that the person in the coma needs to know.”
Have you ever fallen asleep in your hospital bed? “No, but I’m not surprised people do, because it’s warm because of the lights, and especially if it’s right after lunch and you have to stay there for hours. You don’t want to take a 10-minute break or something because it’s a pain in the ass for
them to wait for you to get back into bed and get all the tubes back in place. So yes, it is an easy position to fall asleep in but I’ve never done that.”
Do you have any tips for regulating your breathing or not twitching or keeping your eyes from fluttering? “I think playing dead is harder than playing a coma because at least you get to breathe in a coma. You just have to talk yourself into staying calm and cool and let everybody around you do their work. It’s not a time for funny. It’s not a time to be silly together. It’s not a time to be cavalier about it.”
It must be nice to not go through all the hair and makeup and wardrobe. “Yes. You do not want to look your best. It needs to be alarming for viewers to see you, to see your character stuck in bed. You take all of that away from that palette right there, you’ve accomplished [something dramatic]. And, you’ve got your Levi’s under your hospital gown so there are no wardrobe malfunctions.”
How rewarding is it to play the actual wake-up moment? “Well, it’s about the writing and, of course, it depends on who it is there when the patient wakes up. The audience is waiting for that moment, and it needs to be as underplayed as it can be. It has to be as underplayed as possible, because that just really tugs at the heartstrings. I think the audience wants to see the drama of the comatose person coming to, and the comatose character is coming to not knowing what’s been going on for the last few hours or weeks or months or even years! They don’t know, and for them to be slightly disoriented, the ‘Where am I? What’s going on?’ needs to be very quiet, and that makes it a very poignant moment when people are trying not to squeal with delight and jump up and down with glee. They want to stay calm for the patient. Those are nice moments, always.”
What advice would you give to actors the first time their character is sent into a coma? “Enjoy the fact that you get to come to work and you don’t have to know any lines. Just enjoy that, and don’t give anybody else any s--t, because they have to work pretty hard while you get to lay there. Be in the scene for the work that needs to be done around you, because it is not about you. When you’re in a coma, it’s never about you. It’s about all the other people around you.”
■ During Brady’s most recent coma, Kristen and Chloe had quite an emotional interaction in his hospital room. What was it like to listen to that? “It is harder than you think. Your instincts are to open your eyes and be part of the conversation. You just have to completely tune yourself out entirely.”
Your first coma was in 2005, when you were on PASSIONS as Ethan, and it lasted a while. What do you remember about that time? “I remember I was in a coma for two or three months during the summer and production had told me that they wanted me to keep my eyes open for the coma. And I did. And I had my eyes open. The air conditioner was just above that set, blowing Freon into my eyes and it would make my eyes water. You can’t blink when you’re in a coma, so all of your loved ones come to you and tell you how much they love you and miss you and hope you’re getting through, and I would be crying because of the air going into my eyes. And I remember people suggesting to me, ‘Wow, it’s interesting that he’s in a coma but he still hears them. He’s emoting through the coma.’ And I was like,
‘Yeah, he is. That’s what I was going for.’
Meanwhile, it’s like, ‘Can you turn the airconditioning off?’ ”
How did you react to being put into a coma? “I remember being slightly upset because I felt it was a diss. I felt it was, ‘Oh, well, we don’t really need to hear him talk anymore, so let’s put him in a coma [laughs].’ I felt it was more of a punishment and I later realized it’s just a vehicle
for storyline and it has a purpose and you shouldn’t take it personally when you’re put in a coma. Unless you don’t wake up. If you don’t wake up then yeah, maybe you should go to acting class, or something went wrong. Now I don’t feel that way. Now I understand the game of soap opera and it’s a necessary evil to perpetuate storyline. And this recent coma with Brady was instrumental in showing Chloe’s possible true feelings for Brady. What brings out the truth? When you feel like you’re going to lose somebody, that’s when you let it all out. It’s a shame that it takes tragedy for those feelings to come through. But it helped Chloe come to terms with the fact that she may like him.”
Did you ever have to sneeze or scratch an itch? “I’m sure. Anyone will tell you the worst thing about being in a coma is that you’re attached to all the wires and all the plugs and the heart monitor and blood pressure machines, so if you happen to be doing that section of scenes and lunch is called and then a break is called? You got Props staring you down, looking at you, thinking, ‘You’re going to stay there, right?’ And nine times out of 10 you do, so the entire set leaves for a 10 or 15-minute break and you’ll just sit there all alone, hooked up to this equipment for fear of upsetting the Prop Department because it is a pain in the butt to put you all back into that bed, so you just lay there and look at the ceiling and look at the set and think about your life.”
What do you think about? “When I’m out of the scenes, I’ve had some moments on that set where everyone is on break to get their tea or their coffee or their muffin, and you’re sitting there all alone, hooked up to these machines, and you do have moments where you’re thinking, ‘Geez, I hope this never happens,’ because you are alone on this giant soundstage hooked up to the machines and it’s surreal that way. But as far as when you’re in the scenes, you just disassociate from everything. I’m going over my list at Ralphs, wondering if I’m going to get the chocolate-covered almonds this time or switch it up for the peanut clusters.”
So, did you ever fall asleep during scenes? “No! I’m a professional. I would never fall asleep. My eyes were open and it was 12 degrees underneath the air conditioner but I have never fallen asleep. I couldn’t be that relaxed. You’re still being judged. You still have a crew looking at you. I try to hold my breath when the shot is including my character. I do try to hold my breath. But I would never fall asleep.”
■ You’ve been in a couple of comas in recent years as Ryan, and Kevin was comatose back in the day. “I’ve had a few comas in my career, yeah! I do remember doing Kevin’s coma on PORT CHARLES, and of course, Ryan has been, shall we say, nonresponsive lately.”
A rich well of coma-tosity for us to discuss! What, for you, is the hardest part of playing comatose? “For me, doing a coma, which means you look like you’re asleep, is not difficult. You just have to keep from laughing, and that is the hardest part. You have to keep from taking advantage of the situation at another actor’s expense, and I say that because Julie Pinson [ex-eve, PC] and I were doing a scene and her character had fallen in love with somebody else but she was trying to stay true to our marriage, and I’m in a coma and she doesn’t know what to do and she’s pledging her love — and I absolutely [fake] snored in her face. Just to, you know, crack up the crew and give them something to laugh at. And when I look back on it, it’s a little cruel, because someone is working by themselves when they’re talking to a character in a coma, which means they’ve got to work doubly hard; they don’t have anyone to react off of. So, it was selfish on my part, and if I didn’t apologize then, Julie, I apologize now.”
Is it easy money, earning your paycheck on a day when your character is comatose? “I mean, you are getting paid to lay there and do nothing, so you know, you can’t help but enjoy that little bit of it. It’s a break [from memorization], so you bet. The only thing is that you might have to get a cue, or take a cue, from a piece of dialogue to jerk your finger or something like that. You just have to remember when it happens. But other than that,
yeah, it’s like a day off of school — or you go to school, but you just get recess instead.”
When people are at your comatose character’s bedside, pouring their hearts out, how do you train yourself not to react? “You’ve just got to tune it out. You just pretend you don’t hear it. It’s a funny little line to walk, you know? In acting, you’re supposed to listen to what’s going on so you have something to react to, but in this case, your reaction is a nonreaction. So, how do you do that? You just have to tune it out, but you may have to be conscious enough to wait for a certain cue so that your finger will move; but other than that, it’s like trying not to laugh when someone tells a joke.”
What happens if your character is all hooked up to machines and you have more scenes to shoot, but the crew takes a five-minute break? “You lie there! If there are a lot of scenes to do, there’s really nothing you can do about it except beg and plead if you need what we call a ‘10-1’, which is a bathroom break. But when I come up [to the set] I just usually joke, ‘I hope we can get this in before the crew needs to take a 5!’ Because I don’t want to be laying there. But, again, you’re getting paid to just lay there, so it’s almost a ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ kind of thing. If you gotta lay there through the break, you’re gonna lay there through the break! And usually, someone will come over and sit down and you’ll have a conversation. Pretty good day at the office, all in all!”
Have you ever ruined a take because you accidentally moved? “No, that hasn’t happened, fortunately, because they can just edit [around it]. If you’re really still, then they would be able to lay that in from another take and make it look right. I haven’t had a situation where somebody says, ‘Oh, he blinked, we’ve got to stop.’ I haven’t had that problem. I’m just that good [laughs].”
How is playing Ryan’s locked-in syndrome different than playing a coma? “That’s such a subtle difference. In one [scenario], you’re lying there with your eyes closed, and in the other, you’re lying there with your eyes open, and obviously, if you’re a sighted person, so much of your stimuli and what you react to comes through your vision, so it’s a real challenge to do it and do it right. What I’ve had to do lately with Ryan in this catatonic state, where his eyes are open and somebody as big and demonstrative as Maura West [Ava] is jumping around in front of you and pinching you and trying to get a rise out of you, that’s a lot harder! It’s really hard to keep your eyes focused and your breath modulated — that really takes an enormous amount of concentration. And in that regard, I say, ‘You know what? I earn every penny.’ ”
■ In 2007, Victoria’s coma was scripted so that you could go on your real-life maternity leave with your son Rowe. What was your reaction when you found out this plan? “I don’t remember who it was but someone did tell me [in advance], but I didn’t give it much thought until it was happening. Comas can be really great but they can also be really scary. It can either mean you’re having a little break or you’re getting fired and your character isn’t waking up. You have to be careful of what you wish for.”
Did you think playing comatose would be easy? “You know, I didn’t realize until I was a week into playing the coma how easy it would be. I was basically rolling out of bed and coming to work in my pajamas and then staying in my pajamas. I didn’t have to go into hair and makeup and I just laid in bed the whole time I was on set. I didn’t have a single line, of course, because I was unconscious, and I was done with my scenes by 9:30 in the morning. This went on for quite a while.”
Did you enjoy the experience? “It was the most amazing time for me. I was really pregnant and ready to be done so I could go on my maternity leave. Because I didn’t have to do anything, I told them to use me as long as they needed and I ended up working all the way up to a week before my due date. I just remember everybody being mad at me because I was so lucky [laughs]. It was like winning the acting lottery. I was still working every day and after three weeks in, Melody [Thomas Scott, Nikki] would come in and have to recite these monologues over me while crying. She had so much work she had to do, while I would just lay there. One day she looked down on me and was like, ‘Uh, how long have you been in this coma?’ I said, ‘I think I’m going on week four.’ I think she got a little jealous.”
With all of that laying around to do, did you have a comfy bed? “The bed was amazing! The mattresses are always super-comfortable and the pillows were really nice. There’s just nothing bad about it. I can’t tell you enough how wonderful that was.”
Was it ever difficult not to react when actors had speeches or were crying at your bedside? “Not really because I would try to focus on not moving, which is harder than it sounds. You don’t want your eyes to blink or twitch or move around. That’s when I would try to relax my body and my mind, like I’m trying to fall asleep.”
Did you ever nod off? “No, because I don’t fall asleep that easily anyway. There’s a lot of crying when people are in comas, so you can’t goof off, which is what I like to do, but you have to respect the other actors who are being so serious in the scenes.”
How do you keep yourself entertained? “I didn’t even have to go in for blocking, so I would just roll in minutes before taping time. Since I didn’t go to blocking, I would hear their dialogue for the first time, so I would have to listen closely to their words because I had no idea when anyone was done with their lines. Usually you rehearse together and you know what everyone is going to say, but in this situation you’re basically checked out and hearing everything for the first time, so it was highly entertaining for me.”
Did you or anybody else ever laugh in scenes? “There were times when someone would come in and say something that was super-funny, then we’d all bust up. I remember when it was Eric [Braeden, Victor] in the bed because Victor was in a coma, and Josh [Morrow, Nick] said something to make Eric start giggling. All of a sudden, you realized the bed is shaking because he’s laughing. When he starts doing that, then it’s all over. We’re pretty good at not laughing but sometimes we’ll crack.”
At any point did coma playing get old? “I was never [like], ‘I can’t wait to get back to wearing pretty clothes and memorizing lines,’ but you do start feeling a little guilty from not pulling your weight. In fact, you should be working at a discount because that’s just robbery. It was like getting paid to nap. I knew it would come to an end eventually and that I’d probably never get that chance again.”
But you did! Victoria was in a short-lived coma last year when she was stabbed. “That only lasted a couple of days. I was so bummed out that it was short and as soon as I woke up, I had a bunch of lines. I remember thinking, ‘Now, that’s not the kind of coma I’m used to!’ ”