If Rebecca Staab (Elizabeth) has learned nothing else during her acting career, it’s that things happen when you least expect it. She was busy modeling when she lucked into her first acting job, that of punk rocker Cecilia Thompson on LOVING. And she wasn’t even looking for work yet when she was recruited to play GUIDING LIGHT’s tortured teen, Jessie Matthews. Her 1995 sitcom, LIVE SHOT, made it just 13 episodes, but it led to string of appearances on other primetime series. And it was just days after deciding to leave Los Angeles that she was cast for PORT CHARLES. While word of the soap’s cancellation certainly hit her hard, Staab’s experience helped her put it into perspective.
"I usually find that I get work once I’m [already] working so part of me knows that it shouldn’t be hard or take long to get something else now," she confides, adding, "And it’ll be kind of interesting to go back on auditions, play a different character and explore new material."
So Many Memories
Looking back on the whirlwind year she spent playing Alison’s self-centered, but good-intentioned vampire mother, Staab has a lot of affection for the plots she got to sink her teeth into. "My favorite storyline was re-establishing the long-lost relationship between Elizabeth and Alison, while at the same time falling in love with Stephen Clay [aka Caleb]," she recalls. "It was a magical time for my character: She was feeling like, ‘Oh my God, I’m rediscovered! I’m beautiful, I’m exciting, and he loves me!’"
While 15 years had passed between her daytime departure and her triumphant return last August, Staab says she was grateful to discover that one important thing about the industry hadn’t changed. "I loved the camaraderie of working with a family: the cast, the crew, and the directors and producers," she offers, adding, "When you’re doing an episodic or a film, there’s always an end in sight. Even when you’re on a nighttime show, it gets cancelled. So to have that ensemble of people around you that you could continue to create with and experiment with — as well as a character that you can nurture and mature and battle with when you needed to — that’s what I liked the best about it."
Ready For Anything!
Might Elizabeth’s portrayer be willing to test the soapy waters yet again? Staab says she has no regrets about her PC experience and is "definitely interested" in going on to another show. Besides, having spent the last six months globe-trotting with her boyfriend, she’s just itching to put her renewed energy to good use! "I know I’ll have to step out in faith again. Usually when I’ve made big changes, there have been monumental things that have turned the course in a positive manner," she observes. "If my life gets led in [another] direction… I think you have to embrace those opportunities and look at them as a gift, as opposed to a roadblock. It’s like, ‘Okay, here’s a door. You’ve just gotta open it.’" — Kelli M. Larson
Rebecca Staab
