Opposites Attract
Soap Opera Weekly
By Mark McGarry
When Susan Haskell (Marty Saybrooke, One Life to Live) was growing up
in Canada, her mother would take in troubled teens off the streets and
try to help them. They weren't ax murderers, Haskell jokes, but still
they suffered from serious problems. Now, years later, Haskell finds
herself playing someone just like them - and loving it!
What actor wouldn't? Marty is one of the most complex characters on
daytime, and Haskell's reasons for loving her go far beyond the acting
challenge. She majored in biopsychology at Boston's Tufts University
and, thanks to her knowledge of that subject, she further understands -
and relishes - Marty's many facets.
Haskell wanted to go to medical school after graduating from Tufts and
eventually practice psychiatry or become a pediatrician, but was torn.
She remembers taking a drama class at college and hating it - "I always
used to run around and sweat," she says - but she was doing
commercials, and something about being in front of the camera felt
right to her. So she enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Haskell got a part on the syndicated TV show My Secret Identity, and
then won a role in the feature film Strictly Business. But it wasn't
until Marty came along that she became absolutely certain that acting
was what she really wanted to do.
Before delving into Marty's psyche Haskell had to grasp the physical
aspects of the character, because Marty has lupus (the illness is
currently in remission). To prepare for the role, Haskell spoke with
people who have the illness. "It can come and go," she says. "the thing
I have to deal with as an actor is the exhaustion lupus patients
suffer, which seems to be the most prevalent thing; also aching and
pain. That can go from having a really hard time getting up in the
morning to bloating and rashes. And it's always important to know that
even if you're feeling better on a certain day, the next day you might
not feel that way. Knowing you have something like that should always
be in the back of your mind - even with Marty, who sort of acts like
she doesn't have it, and denies it completely."
Marty's attitude toward her condition has spilled over into other areas
of her life and has taken a toll. "I think she's not facing up to a lot
of things that have happened to her," Haskell says. "She's trying to
cope with it the best way she can, which is to put up a front and try
to act tough. But she's not stupid. She knows what's going on, but
she's been left alone growing up. And I don't think she really
understands what's happening. Marty knows that if something
uncomfortable comes her way, that's when you get tough, that's when you
act like nothing matters, or that's when you go out and drink. That's
the way she copes with it, to act like it doesn't matter.":
Mostly Marty makes her own trouble. When Andrew (Wortham Krimmer)
showed compassion for her, Marty fell for him. But when he rejected
her, Marty started an ugly rumor: that he had tried to seduce Billy
(Ryan Phillippe). The lie spun off an entire summer storyline that
examined homophobia and the right to privacy. Marty was right in the
middle of it, cunningly smirking her way through the mess she created
out of a lifelong history of rejection and loneliness.
Nothing Marty does could surprise Haskell. "I laugh," she says, "I get
the script, I look through it and I think, 'Oh, you're not going to
believe what she's doing next.' Or Wortham will tease, 'How could you
start such a rumor?' And when I was working with David Ledingham
(Suede), he was asking, 'How could you turn me in?'"
Haskell attempts to justify Marty's actions. "Sometimes when something
happens to her, she says things out of pain. And that's partly her
fault," Haskell notes. "But I think if you look from the outside in,
it's hard to understand why she does what she does. As far as Andrew's
concerned, Marty thought he deserved it. She's a smart person, so when
people come to her and say, 'Look, what you're doing is wrong,' I think
she has a clue. I think she knows what's going on; she knows it wasn't
exactly the nicest thing to do. But at that point she doesn't want to
admit what's wrong. She doesn't want to open up to anyone. It's very
difficult for her to let anyone see the vulnerable side of her."
It was hard to empathize with Marty during the homophobia storyline,
but viewers might remember one scene that turned everything around in
terms of Marty being the bad guy. The scene took place at the hospital;
Andrew was yelling at Marty for the trouble she had caused. Marty,
however, threw everything back in his face. "That's what she was
feeling," Haskell says. "She really felt like, 'No, you were wrong. You
made me do it.' He was yelling at her and she finally said, 'If you
hadn't done that, I wouldn't have done what I did.'"
Reaching an emotional peak like that "takes a lot of thought," says
Haskell, "as well as a lot of work with the other actor. But once you
make the connection with the character, the feelings kind of evolve
because you're putting yourself in her position. And it's almost like
you tease yourself. You work up to the tears, and then you hold back.
And you work up and hold back. And you get it up to the point where you
could snap when you need to. You just have to be there."
The big question now is, Who will Marty end up with romantically? "No
one!" Haskell laughs. "I'm running out of male actors on the show.
Pretty soon it's going to be Asa!"" They'd make an unusual pair. How
about Suede? "Obviously Andrew and Suede are very different people,"
Haskell says. "Marty was basically looking for acceptance from Andrew.
He cared for her when no one really had - that's why she wanted to get
close with him." As for Suede, she says, "He's exciting, a rough kind
of guy. But there was a sensitivity; a background that they both
shared, even though I'm not really sure what it is. It was that kind of
connection. It wasn't like 'Oh, let's just go to your room for a
while.' It might have started out that way, but she's just sort of
lonely. She wants to have fun, and Suede seems like he's fun to hang
out with."
If Haskell chooses not to stay with OLTL when her three-year contract
is up, she would like to do more feature films. "I'd love to do
Broadway, don't get me wrong, but I just think I work better in this
medium. There's a difference," Haskell says. "Some people have more
subtle, smaller ways of acting that the camera could catch but are lost
on stage. That's the way I am. I'm more intimate."
In her free time, the actress travels as much as she can. Just before
this interview she did a modeling job in Arizona, then she and her
sister met their brother in Santa Fe, NM. (Her brother is a lawyer in
California; her sister is studying international relations at Columbia
University in New York City.)
The conversation trails back to Marty and whether any of her has seeped
into Susan. "It's funny," Haskell says. "I was talking to my girlfriend
in Canada, and I said something really direct. She was startled and
said, 'Oh, my God, that was Marty!'"
Can Marty be reformed? Haskell thinks so. "I know from growing up, you
never know when your having helped someone will actually affect them.
You never know when Andrew's caring is going to reach Marty. The same
thing happened with those young people my mother worked with; years
down the road, they finally understood what she was talking
about."