Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994 TAG: 9401190039
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY REICHARDT
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
"As soon as I got this part, I immediately started reading up on [catatonia]," said Bauer. "It's not as simplistic as I thought it would be. Actually, it's a form of schizophrenia. People who suffer from it are in their own world. Their bodies function, but their minds close down. There are times when they'll come out of it and be intensely agitated."
Bauer was anxious to tackle the role.
"It's so interesting to think that this woman has been trapped inside her body all these years," she explained. "That she wants out. That she wants to communicate. I find the whole idea of it very interesting. Laura is a very exciting and complex character."
Bauer, who rose to daytime fame as Lauralee Brooks on "The Young and the Restless" (1973-82), admitted that she had been approached about returning to the medium over the past 11 years but declined all offers that came her way.
"I wasn't ready to go back to it," she said. "When I quit `The Young and the Restless,' I was burnt. They'd really worked me to death. I had two little babies at the time. I was working six consecutive days some weeks and doing around 200 pages [of dialogue]. I couldn't get them to reduce my days. If they would have put a ceiling of three days a week, I would have stayed."
After a nine-year break from daytime (with the exception of a "Y&R" reunion show in 1984), Bauer was finally ready to give it another try when "Days" presented her the role of Laura Horton.
"It seemed like the right thing to do with my needs at the moment," said the actress. "The `Days' studio is close to my house. I'm already saving minutes a day compared to my old commute to CBS. My kids (sons Michael, 15, and Gabe, 13, and daughter Angelica, 7) are older now, so having me gone a couple of days a week working is fine."
Bauer tested for the role of Laura opposite Melissa Reeves, who plays her on-screen daughter, Jennifer.
"She was such a sweetie pie," said Bauer. "She was really a darling. There were several of us testing that night. She had a hard job - first rehearsing with each of us, then doing the actual test. But she gave her utmost - she gave a full, beautiful performance to each and every one of us."
While playing mom to Reeves will be a stretch for Bauer - "It's technically impossible for me to really have a child that age" - she insisted that it will come naturally to her.
"There's something about being a mom," she said. "Once I became one, I found myself mothering older people that I knew, simply because they needed mothering. It's almost a spiritual connection, rather than an age thing."
Send your questions about soap operas to Nancy Reichardt, "Tune in Tomorrow," in care of the Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010-2491. Questions cannot be answered personally, but those of general interest will be answered in future columns. United Feature Syndicate
by CNB