Catching up with Lane Davies
By Suzy Byrne, Soap Opera Weekly, 2002	Home   Cette page en Français

What do you remember most about Mason ?

Probably his sense of humor. If I surf around and look at the soaps today, I miss it. And it wasn't just his sense of humor, it was the whole irreverence about the show that I miss. I don't know if the public misses it or not. But, when I think about Mason, I think about that wit they wrote into him.

You said that that the Mason / Julia and Mason / Mary stories were among your favorite. What was your least favorite storyline ?

Lily Light. And I think the public would agree with me. When they were trying in vain to repair the damage done by killing Harley Kozak off (ex-Mary), Mason became involved with an evangelist. They put me with this girl (Lynn Clark), who bless her heart, was a very sweet person and not a bad actress, but the only reason they cast her was because she looked like Robin Mattson (ex-Gina). They thought that because she looked like Robin that they should make her Gina's illegitimate daughter. I was dragged into it because I was at sea after Mary got killed off. I had no chemistry with this girl - she was 12 years old or something. But, it didn't last long, which was the good thing about it.

Who did you have the most fun working with ?

Probably Nancy Grahn (ex-Julia). We also wanted to kill each other, but in terms of sheer fun, she was probably the most fun to work with. Followed by Robin Mattson, who was a lot of fun. A Martinez (ex-Cruz) was fun, too, simply because our characters were so antithetical to each other. He was all about morality and being the good guy; I was the Machiavelli counterpoint.

Do you have any fun on-set stories ?

You're talking ancient history now. (laughs) I have images of me trying to threaten my father, my first father (played by Peter Mark Richman, ex-C.C.), with a bottle that I was supposed to break. But after it shattered I was left holding the tiniest piece. Another funny moment was Jed Allan (ex-C.C.) sitting up in a coffin arguing with a director, who was in the booth talking over the PA, when Jed was going through a low blood sugar phase. That was a funny image. There was a lot of them.

As a member of the original cast, do you remember it being difficult launching a new soap ?

It seemed like work to me, but the executives were panicked and threatened that we would go live if we didn't start getting the shows in the can faster. That's one reason why they gave people like A, Marcy (Walker, ex-Eden) and myself so much leeway - we weren't screwing up. They had a lot of – I don't want to call them amateurs, but they were certainly novices, and they were taking up a lot set time when we didn't have it to give. Those of us who didn't screw up, were given a lot of the load of the show. That earned us favors later on in terms having the freedom to rework the script.

They were lots of backstage shakeups during Santa Barbara's run. Did that influence your decision to leave ?

No. If I was going to leave, it would have been when they got ride of the Dobsons (creators Bridget and Jerome) the first time. But, (contractually), I couldn't have left if I wanted to. I don't know if the show ever completely recovered from their leaving, simply because a lot of the show irreverence went with them. Luckily, we still had good writers that kept the show going, in spite of some shaky people at the helm for a while. We were getting back on track not long before I left under Jill Phelps' (now executive producer at General Hospital) guidance.

So your contract was up and you decided to travel around the world with Todd McKee (ex-Ted) ?

Basically, I was burn out. The show was getting too important in some ways, and I wasn't having fun. Everything pointed to it being time to move on. So, I decided to take a trip, and then come back, get married and have babies.

Santa Barbara had a huge following overseas. Did a lot of people recognize you ?

It was cool to be a major celeb over there and then be able to leave it behind. We got on a subway one time and there was our picture all of the subway. It was a little freaky, but it was fun.

Carrington Garland (ex-Kelly) said she met up with you guys in Switzerland.

Right before the holidays, we were in Kenya and our next stop was Bombay, so we decided to go back and hang out in Paris and Switzerland for Christmas. We didn't want to send Christmas in Bombay. My late uncle had a condo in Switzerland, so that's where we spent the holydays and Carrington come over.

She said you guys went parapunting off a cliff.

Yes, we leapt off the Alps, which was an interesting experience for someone with acute acrophobia. It was fun. I'd do it again - maybe. I also ran with the bulls (in Pamplona), but that was a year later after our trip. Actually, I ran from the bulls. I have no longer legs than most of the Spaniards and managed to stay out the way.

Who do you keep in touch with ?

I haven't told to Todd in a couple months. We don't socialize much. After six months of traveling together, we got sick of each other. (laughs) We have some amazing stories to tell from that trip, un fortunately you can't print most of them. But I talk to Nancy and A. We used A's daughter in our plays.

You have two theatre companies ?

Yes, the Santa Susana Repertory Company and the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company, that we spun off from it. They're in Thousand Oaks, California.

Do you play an active role in the day-to-day operations ?

I have it set up so that I mostly get to act and direct now. I have a wonderful co-artistic director at Kingsmen who sees to it that all the hard work gets done. And Santa Susana is run by Rick Rhodes, who used to do the music for Santa Barbara, and Susan Turner, a woman who is chief cook and bottle washer for both companies.

You were on The Bold and the Beautiful for a while, subbing Ronn Moss (Ridge).

Ronn went to do a mini-series in Europe and they offered me a very nice deal to come in and like make out with Hunter Tylo (Taylor). I thought : I can do that. That wasn't hard.

What was that experience like ?

It was a little tricky taking over for Ronn because we are different actors and they kept writing for Ronn. It was like working with handcuffs on. But the overall experience was good because the Bells are great people and nobody knows daytime better than they do.

Tell me about the Russian TV series that you are working on ?

It's called Force of One. It's about a Russian detective working in L.A. as a consultant to the L.A.P.D. I play the guy who hires him.

Do you have to speak Russian ?

No, it will be subtitled. It will truly be an international series in that it is going to be shot in both languages.

And you are married to Holley and have two sons ?

I'm divorced, but we are under the same roof. It's very amicable. They were living in their own place for a while, but now they are back here for various reasons. It's actually been quite fun.

What's fatherhood like ?

Fatherhood is great. Thatcher is almost 12 and Nathan is 10. Thatcher is really into gardening, which is one of my passions, and Nathan like to fish. He also enjoys basketball and skateboarding, but I'm not good at those. I do play basketball with him, but if I weren't 4-feet taller than him, he'd beat me every time.

Would you consider returning to a soap ?

Oh, yeah. It's funny, in the past whenever they've been ready, I've been committed somewhere else. And when I've been ready, they haven't been. It was a timing thing.

Any show in particular ?

I would love to work with Jill again. And I'm old friends with Lucky Gold, the head writer for Guiding Light. It would be great fun to work with him again. That would involve a move to New York, but I'm not adverse to that right now. My life is in a good place in terms of flexibility. The kids are a consideration, but they are pretty adventurous.