Q&A's

Outstanding Lead Actress. (She won her first Emmy Award for Outstanding Ingenue when she was only 17 years old!) But this year's win was especially sweet for Martha because she had taken on the challenging

task of playing a dual role. Initially, fans and critics were skeptical when Lily's loud-mouthed twin sister from New Jersey entered the picture, but over time Martha made us believe that Lily and Rose really were two different people. Armed with her Emmy, a glass of champagne and her husband - Michael McMahon - an

overjoyed Martha addressed the press. See what she had to say!

QUESTION: Why play a dual role on a soap

opera?

MARTHA BYRNE: The man who just left - Christopher Goutman] -

it was all his idea. He liked the way that I, as

Martha Byrne, played around during the off takes of the scenes as Lily. I'd

comment on her and what she would do and make jokes and he thought

that was really funny. My sense of humor is kind of strange. He wanted to

bring that to the screen, so he gave me a chance and succeeded. What

a shock!

QUESTION: So you didn't take on the dual role in the hopes of increasing

your chances of winning an Emmy?

MARTHA BYRNE: Absolutely not. Honestly, you can't work and think that

"this is my Emmy show." You just work your butt off. I have given blood to

this show and loved every second of it. How grateful just to have the

work! But this doesn't stink, let's put it that way. This is a great finale to the

year. It's like the icing on the cake - it really, really is.

QUESTION: How does this win differ from the first time you won an

Emmy?

MARTHA BYRNE: For the first win I was 17 years old and I can't

remember what that was like. I really don't. Now, I have lost a couple of

times since then. I know what it felt like to lose. I remember that very well!

I'm an adult now. I'm not a kid anymore. I've learned a lot and I've grown a

lot, so this means a lot more to me. When you're 17, it just comes from some

place you can't figure out. Now you've got places to work with and

kind of dive into those wonderful places and know where they are. When

you're a child, you don't know anything. You just do.

QUESTION: You work with Jon Hensley (Holden), Paul Leyden (Simon) and

Paolo Seganti (Damian) - how do you keep them all straight?

MARTHA BYRNE: It's so hard. They're all so ugly. It's fun. I love

the guys that I work with. I've been really fortunate. First of all,

great people - kind, hard workers, sweet, funny. I'll kiss any of them any

day! They're just the nicest people and I consider them family. I'm really

lucky. I can keep track...don't you worry!

QUESTION: What do you attribute to ATWT's turnaround? You went from

no Emmys last year to eight this year.

MARTHA BYRNE: The show's turn around is definitely due to Chris

Goutman, Leah Laiman and

Hogan Sheffer. Leah Laiman started the whole year and Hogan just ended it

with a big bang. Took her stories and made them shine. You've got to

start with the writing. Build great story and they will come. Chris just

knows how to make a great show. He's really good at it.

QUESTION: They say comedy is a hard sell in daytime, but Rose is quite a colorful

character. Do you think she will start a trend?

MARTHA BYRNE: I hope so, but it has to be written well.

If it's just camp then that's a whole different kind of audience, but for it

to last, I think you really have to give the characters heart -

funny or not funny. With Rose they've given that character heart and

a sense of morals and all of those wonderful things that human beings have. If

they can do that and add comedy, great, but it has to be written well. That's really

important.

QUESTION: Is it harder to play Lily or Rose?

MARTHA BYRNE: Lily is much harder to

play than Rose because Lily has fifteen years of baggage to deal with.

She's also the easiest in some sense because you have so much of that to

draw on. But It's much harder to make new everyday and make her

interesting and make people care about her and give her life and also be

true to her history. That's very challenging. With changing writers and

producers you never know if they know the history and care, but I do. So

that's my challenge - on stage or behind the scenes - to keep her real.

QUESTION: Does it strike you as ironic that ATWT has so many acting

nominations, but Liz Hubbard (Lucinda) was not nominated?

MARTHA BYRNE: First of all, Liz Hubbard has two Emmys on her shelf, has

eight nominations. And she deserves one every day she works as far as I'm

concerned. I've learned everything I know from her, and from Lisa Brown

EX-IVA; Light Guiding ex-Nola,...the women that I've worked with all

deserve Emmys. And Liz is no exception. Liz is awesome. She's going to get

one next year I'm sure. And she's just so supportive of everybody else, too.

IT'S a real team effort. You'll see everybody smiling for each other and

really generally pleased. We work really hard together. But without Liz I

wouldn't have this because of what she did in the scenes that I've

submitted and gave truth to her work. Without her and Lisa and Tony

Musante (Joe), who was in the other show that I submitted, I wouldn't be

standing here with you right now - absolutely not.

conversation.]

MARTHA BYRNE: He's not paying any attention - see. He's thinking about

the party!

QUESTION: What do you think the late ATWT Head Writer Douglas

Marland is thinking right now?

MARTHA BYRNE: I forgot to thank Douglas! But he was on stage - he was

there with me. He finally let our show go. It took a long time. We always felt

like he didn't want anyone else to succeed at his show. Now, he's allowing

Hogan to grow and he's let our show have peace, which is really unselfish

of him to do. It was time to move on and he's let it go. We wrote about the

stories that he started with Lily and the adoption and Hogan just made it

even better. Maybe Douglas thought, "Okay, you're respecting me now.

Thank you. I can move on."

2000

How are your Michaels?

Martha: They're great, thank you. My husband's amazing. He was promoted to sargent. Our son is talking up a storm and he's just great. There's a new word every day. We went away for a week with my family and some friends. There were a lot of kids around and he picked up a lot.

How did you feel about Lily's recent storyline where she searched for her daughter?

Martha: It was really an ensemble piece. There were certain days more difficult and more emotional than others. Months can go by where you're working every day, but lately I've found it more balanced. This has been certainly less [work] than the Diego murder storyline or the Orlena drugging storyline. Those were nonstop and I loved playing them. Things moved along quickly with the baby storyline.

I couldn't make up my mind who I was supposed to root for: Lily or Denise? Both were sympathetic.

I think that's the point. There are many aspects to the story. I wish we could have explored the avenue of Denise's abuse to herself and that she didn't know she was pregnant and the fact that she sold the baby. The issues are still there, regardless of how wonderful [Denise] is. The baby's illness is directly related to Denise's [alcohol] abuse. We shouldn't just move along from that.

Fans were thrilled when you came back to the show in 1993. What went into that decision?

Martha: I wanted to control my own destiny as much as I could and [playing Lily] was the closest thing I could get to that. Three weeks later, Douglas [Marland, ATWT's head writer] died. If he were alive today, God knows what would have happened [with the storylines], but one thing's for sure — he was so dedicated to his actors, I really feel I would have had a job for life. It was a big emotional blow when he died. My surrogate father was gone and that was true for a lot of us. We lost a lot of actors and characters when he died.

The show has gone through changes at the top every few years since Doug's untimely passing. How have you managed to keep a through-line for Lily all this time?

Martha: First, I have to say that I've been so lucky that I've made it through all these changes. There were a few points over the last six years that Lily could have been lost through the cracks. I think I just lucked out, with a few scars along the way. The audience is pretty forgiving and they want to cheer for Lily. I think that, in some ways, she's one of the characters the audience can trust will be there. That's a big responsibility in a way, but it makes me feel good that I must have established some kind of trust with the audience. Lily may make some strange turns, but she always gets back on track.

Will Lily be interacting with Bay City/AW transplants like Jake and Vicky?

Martha: I hope so. It's always nice to have new blood and I've been a big fan of Jensen Buchanan's (Vicky) for a long time and I would have liked to have crossed paths with her. But you never know. A lot will depend on the audience's reaction.

I love the AW characters, and bringing them over to Oakdale is the best thing next to the show still being on the air — but people have also said that ATWT has to be careful to stay focused on its own characters.

I think [the writers and producers] are. The only person staying around for a while is Tom Eplin (Jake). The other characters will visit. The writers can see what happens and play it by ear.

Does the fact that Lily is adopted factor into her love for baby Hope, a child who is not hers by blood?

Martha: Yes. I like the idea that Lily decided to bring Denise into the picture and allowed her to get to know Hope. She didn't try to keep Hope away from her natural mother. That's exactly what happened to Lily with [adoptive mother] Lucinda and [birth mother] Iva.

Fortunately, Lily didn't pull any Lucinda-style shenanigans.

Martha: Exactly. That's not the way Lily would handle things, and I'm glad. There are so many aspects to explore, especially in light of what Lily went through with her mothers. Regardless of what's gone on with the characters, Elizabeth (Hubbard, who plays Lucinda) and I have always been able to maintain our relationship as mother and daughter on the show. We always had that underlying love for each other.

Tell me about your work for the soundtrack to the film Jane Doe, starring Ally McBeal's Calista Flockhart?

Martha: It was an amazing experience. I was approached to write a song for the film after one of the producers saw me sing a song in New York at Tramps. I wrote it with my partner, Jennifer Marks, and it turned out very well. I also shot a supporting role in a film called Mergers and Acquisitions and I've been asked to write a song for that film as well. The character, Charlotte, was such the opposite of Lily. She calls herself "Iowa." The film's about big business trying to take over the little man and was shot in New York, so I'd go work [at the soap] in the morning and shoot [the film] in the afternoon. I hope it comes out by the spring of next year.

Sounds like the music's going well!

Martha: I'm really trying to do more. I want to have another CD out by the end of the year. We'll see. I'm definitely going to do something. I've got seven songs done right now and I hope it will be out before Christmas. That's my goal.

When you see your former TV husbands like Thomas Gibson and Paolo Seganti (ex-Derek and ex-Damian) find fame outside of soaps do you ever think about taking another break from the show?

Martha: I love my job and being in New York. I have no plans to go anywhere. I wrote a screenplay and we're going into pre-production on that. I'm really trying to do as much from my home base as possible. I say, "home" because I've spent so much of my life at ATWT. I want to maintain the integrity of the character. That's the only time I would ever think of walking out the door. If it weren't interesting any more or if the audience didn't want to see Lily anymore. Why go to work if you can't enjoy it? Right now, we have a new boss [executive producer Christopher Goutman] and there's new energy. It's like starting a new job whenever that happens. I'm really not an L.A.-type of girl. I'd work there if I had to, but I prefer being in New York.

How do you juggle all your projects outside of ATWT?

Martha: I'm trying to be better at it, to be honest. There are so many things going on. I feel I have to focus on one thing soon or else I'm going to miss everything. Nothing's going 100 percent, but that's part of the experience. You never know what's going to take off — if anything. You just have to be prepared.

On New Year's Day this year, CBS ran a classic episode of ATWT from 1987 when Lily found out that Rod/Josh and Iva were her parents. It was a powerhouse show. Was it flattering that CBS selected that episode to be re-broadcast?

Martha: It was. I don't know how they came about choosing that. I watched it and I thought, "This is a really good episode." Lisa Brown [ex-Iva] was unbelievable. I always love working with her. It was fun to watch it. Something was going on with everybody. I feel that's what soap operas are about and I think that we need to be more in tuned with emotions. The story wasn't simple as far as what was going on, but the emotions [back then] were basic and heartfelt. The fans remember those days with Holden and Dusty and so do I. It's been such a special part of my life. Seeing that episode again was like going back to your high school prom, only having it actually turn out good.

Soaps In Depth Chat with Martha Byrne 10-18-00

Sarie1991 asks: Will you be part of the upcoming Halloween party on the show?

Martha Byrne: Oh, yes!! There is a major development that occurs at the masquerade ball between Lily and Rose...and Simon and Holden...and a big surprise that comes out at the ending of this whole event!

Ellisgrey1 asks: Hi, Martha! Any chance we'll hear you sing on the show anytime soon?

Martha Byrne: I hope so! I know that Paul Leyden has been asked to play the guitar soon...so I'm hoping that means we'll get to perform together, which would be great!

Rby1013 asks: Hello Martha. What is it like to work with Paul Leyden?

Martha Byrne: He's wonderful! He's very funny. He's become a very dear friend of mine. We have a great time working together. We have a great connection, and he's great!

Dani4847 asks: Can you give us any hints as to what will happen with Simon & Lily?

Martha Byrne: It ain't over, let's put it that way! Over the next few weeks, there will be certain situations that will develop that will dictate their future. Is that vague enough? What I love about the story is that every character's motive is legitimate and it's all based on their heart and their soul, and the story is not over yet, so we still have a few surprises coming that will really shock the audience,..they shocked me, in a good way, so I hope the audience enjoys it.

Simon's sheila asks: Martha , I love your work and I especially love the Simon Lily love scenes. I hope there are more. Does Paul ever read the message boards? There is a Paul L. board on e-groups. We would love for him AND you to come and post!

Martha Byrne: That's so nice! I told him in the beginning not to read anything, because I didn't want his feelings to get hurt...but he has gone in, and he has told me he will read certain things. I never go, but I would love to check it out, as long as they're saying nice things. No one wants to hear anything negative, of course. He usually comes into work, and tells me the negative things, and I tell him "I told you so," but I'm sure he would...I would, too!

Sarie1991 asks: I loved the bantering between Simon & Lily in Atlantic City. Will they be getting back to that? The chemistry between you & Paul Leyden is so wonderful.

Martha Byrne: Our bantering is a little different now ...more passionate, and a little deeper now. The characters have really changed since that time. I loved that relationship back then, but I think it's even better now. It's very clear about what they want, and I think Rose and Simon will have more of that going on. I shot a few scenes as Rose with Paul as Simon and we couldn't hold it together, we were laughing so hard. I'm so lucky that I get that part with Paul as Rose as well and my relationship with Lily has changed. That's the beauty of playing two people. We get to play with people that I haven't worked with before, and Lily wouldn't do some of those things. I always wanted to bring that sense of humor to Lily's life, but the producers thought it wasn't appropriate so now I have that freedom in a totally different person.

BLUCOLA asks: So, did you burn that red thing after that last island episode? LOL

Martha Byrne: No, I'm actually auctioning it off at the St. Jude's Benefit on Friday, with a copue of beloved diamonds, and Paul's pants from the island, some shells, and the birthday candle.

Kathysum asks: Have you been surprised at the huge fan support for the Lily/Simon pairing given the popularity of Lily with Holden?

Martha Byrne: I'm not surprised...I'm pleased that it occurred, because I knew from when Paul started that he was going to be successful...how and with whom was still to be determined...but when you work hard trying to achieve an on-camera relationship that will be something exciting to watch, you hope that the audience will react that way...