Catching up with...OLTL's Jessica Tuck

Soap Opera Weekly - December 24, 2002

By Kathryn Walsh

Some people never change. When Jessica Tuck starred on ONE LIFE TO LIVE as Megan Gordon Harrison from 1988-'92 she was known as a practical joker. Although she's 10 years more "mature," the actress -- who now plays Gillian Gray on Judging Amy -- is still up to her old tricks.

"We used to have fun," Tuck says about her time on OLTL. "We took the work very seriously, but at the same time, because we had such long hours, you had to play and have a good time. We used to do these primal screams: On the count of three, everybody would scream as loud as they could. It feels good. We got the cast and the crew doing it, just to get the blood going again."

And what did then-executive producer Paul Rauch, who isn't exactly known for his levity, think of all of this? "He was fairly well-tempered about it," she recalls. "I think he didn't particularly like the interruption, but..."

Tuck, who credits her wacky sense of humor to growing up with five brothers, says she can't help herself. "On the Judging Amy set, if there's a bizarre interruption, they blame it on me right away. Which nine times out of 10 is true," she laughs. "It's not too bad. I mean, they're not huge things; it's not like I'm destroying sets. I'm just having a little fun. It's a good thing I don't work all the time."

Gillian, Amy's (Amy Brenneman) sister-in-law, started out as a recurring role but turned into a contract gig once the pilot was picked up. "My character is certainly not the focus by any means," Tuck explains, "but every once in a while I get a spurt of action. It's nice because it's the first time in a long time that I have been employed and actually could have a life as well. If I'm in an episode I might work two or four of the eight (shooting) days. For the last four seasons I've had a job and a life, and I'm feeling very lucky."

One of the projects Tuck was working on in real life was getting pregnant, a goal she and fiance Robert Koseff accomplished this year. "I'll be 40 in February and I have wanted a child forever," she says.

Tuck's Judging Amy character adopted a child and is now pregnant -- as is the actress.

In an ironic twist, Gillian -- who thought she couldn't have children -- is pregnant now, too. "Bizarrely enough, they wrote my character as pregnant before they knew that I was pregnant. The day I was going to tell them was the day we did the table reading of the script in which Gillian discovers she is pregnant. So it worked out quite nicely. I'm due at the end of March and our season ends at the end of April, so I suspect we're due pretty much at the same time," she laughs.

Even though Tuck is busy with her new on-screen family and her burgeoning offscreen family, she still takes every opportunity to visit her daytime family. "If One Life calls and I can work it out, I run there," she says. "I love New York. Any excuse to come back. I have a lot of family there; that's where I'm from. And I love One Life to Live: the cast, the crew...I have a great time when I'm there." Even Megan's death hasn't kept her away. "I've been back three times now since I died," she laughs. "In a dream, as a ghost and then for the live show."

Tuck says she is lucky to have found another nurturing work atmosphere. "Judging Amy is the first time since One Life to Live that I have worked with a group of people that I felt were like family."

Yeah, but what does five-time Emmy-winner Tyne Daly, who plays her mother-in-law, Maxine, think about her practical jokes? "Oh, Tyne Daly is as bad as I am. Well, not with farts," she clarifies, referring to a remote-control fart machine she once used during a Gray family dinner scene. "I will say she has a little more dignity than that. But she starts singing these rather lewd lyrics. Everyone joins in. In fact, directors have been warned about scenes around the dinner table because those scenes can take six, seven hours to shoot, and if you're going to put us at a table that long, it can get a little out of control. I've been pulled aside a couple of times, but all in fun. And in the end it comes across as us all having a good time and liking each other and being connected as family."

And who's going to judge that?!


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