«I am proud to replace Robin Wright in Santa Barbara»

 By Isabelle Caron, Télé 7 Jours, 1988

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She is so pretty, so thin and as blonde as Robin Wright. "Some necessary assets to replace her in the role of Kelly Capwell", says Kimberly McArthur, for who the character of Santa Barbara is her first big role on television. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, in September 1963, this actress-dancer-singer, who has just signed a three year contract, began her career in the film Don't Let Go, the TV movie Case Closed and the mini-serie Elvis and Me in which she played Joanie Esposito, also in episodes of Magnum P.I. and Highway to Heaven. In the United States, she is especially known for her commercials for the phone company AT and T, Kleenex and the big stock exchange firm Merryl Lynch.

"I had to audition three times before obtaining the role of Kelly. We were numerous and I was especially afraid of Cornelia Guest. The third time, one gave me some pages of the scenario to learn and, two hours before my screen test, the scene has been changed. I had to be appreciated, since it is me the producers chose." "She is completely what we were looking for, says Leonard Friedlander, associate producer of the show since the beginning. See Robin leave was not easy. But she wants to begin in cinema, since Princess Bride has been a success, and we wish her a great career. I know that Kimberly will succeed in making forget Robin."

Kimberly does not have this insurance : "I am proud to replace Robin. But, will I be appreciated in this role ?" In any case, Kimberly already knows what will arrive to her. The writers worked a lot. From now on married to Jeffrey Conrad (Ross Kettle), she is more and more seen with T.J. (Mayer Chip). "The beautiful love story between Kelly and Jeffrey seems to arrive to its end, Kimberly says. I understand Kelly. T.J. was there to comfort her when she lost her child. From there was born a deep feeling between T.J. and Kelly". Chip Mayer, T.J. in Santa Barbara, becomes, in the episodes already aired in the United States, one of the main heroes of the show. After an affair with Laken Lockridge, he is Sophia Capwell's lover. Sophia was going to divorce C.C. Capwell after this last one has surprised them in his bed ! "I asked the producers to make my character less unpleasant but they do not listen to me, Chip says while laughing. I have just accepted a hundred and thousand dollars from Pamela Capwell to sleep with Kelly and to pull her out from the arms of her husband ! Will I always remain the "bad one" of the show ? I wish not, because I am now really in love with Kelly. How will she react when she discovers that her mother-in-law paid me for that ?"

Chip Mayer gets along well with Kimberly, who plays the role of Kelly since June 10 and will not see herself on TV before three weeks, the producers always filming fifteen episodes in advance. "My family is impatient to see me, she says." She is very close to her parents and her elder sister. Her elder brother died in a car accident, two years ago. Kimberly will not forget her first day on the stage of Santa Barbara. " I was very nervous. But at the end of four days, I felt myself already in the family. Even if I become famous, that does not change my life. I have a very simple life, with my cats and my dog. I adore to cook, to embroider." There is a man in her life but she prefers not to enter upon this personal subject. She just says to us to think of marriage... one day. "I am not in a hurry. I see too many divorces around me. I still believe in the big love which always lasts. I am not like Kelly Capwell at all. For her, unions and connections are numerous." Kimberly Ann McArthur is a very simple girl. "I know how much Robin is famous in France. I wish that the French give me the same chance. I know that I will arrive on the French screens only in two years but, if you begin to talk about me with French, they will know me before my arrival."

And Robin Wright ? "I do not want, she says, to talk about Santa Barbara any more. It arrives one day when it is necessary to know to turn the page. I have just made a new film which does not have a title yet, a comedy, and I rest in my house of Malibu, while reading the many scenarios that the producers send to me. I am also writing one of them and preparing a love story, which, I hope so, will become a TV show..." Proof that Robin intends well to give you others rendez-vous.