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Guiding Light Goodbye: Tina Sloan
by Michael Logan
This has gotta be a soap-opera record! Tina Sloan's character Lillian Raines has been alone and unmarried for most of her 26 years on Guiding Light, and that's hard to do on a daytime drama-especially when you're the hot blond nurse in town! But at least she's going out with a wedding. I visited with the beloved actress on the set of GL in Sparta, New Jersey, just before Lillian and Buzz (Justin Deas) said "I do" in a double ceremony with Billy (Jordan Clarke) and Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead) that'll air during next week's final episodes (the show signs off for good on Friday, September 18). I've covered GL for the better part of three decades now-going back to the great Douglas Marland years-and there are a lot of stars I'm going to miss. But Tina Sloan is my scarecrow, the one I think I'll miss most of all.
It's so odd that Guiding Light is the oldest soap yet the show's old guard-which you are certainly a part of-only arrived in the 1980s. The turnover has been intense. Much younger soaps, like All My Children and The Young and the Restless still have castmembers from the '70s. Don Hastings and Eileen Fulton hit As the World Turns in 1960!
It is odd, isn't it? So many of our great people died, like Chris Bernau [the original Alan], and Charita Bauer [Bert] and Michael Zaslow [Roger] or chose to leave the show, like Beverlee McKinsey [the original Alexandra]. And so many of the young ones went off to try things in Hollywood…[laughs] and some came back! This has been a wonderful home to return to.
Looking back, what's the period on GL you cherish most?
Right this moment! I used to walk down the halls at the studio and take everything for granted. Now, we all look at each other and think, "This is the last time you and I will do a scene together." "This is the last time you'll do my hair." "This is the last time I'll sit down in your makeup chair." I'm no longer taking anything for granted.
You were front and center and acting your ass off in the scandalous Lillian-Ed affair back in 1993. Except for the fact that it led to the death of Ed's wife Maureen--probably the worst creative decision in GL history-it was one of the greatest love triangles ever.
And the writers haven't forgotten it! Before Lillian gets married, she goes to Maureen's gravesite to get her permission. She says, "I don't come here often because I hate to remember what happened. You gave your life for my mistake. I'm so sorry, Maureen! I put aside my life. I put it on hold for the last 20 years but I'm taking it back today. Buzz asked me to marry him. I hope you'll understand. You were my best friend, and what happened when you died affected this town to this day." I get goosebumps just thinking about it. I think it's so lovely that the story is still out there, that people still remember it and care.
All that's missing is the ghost of Maureen Bauer standing at the back of the wedding. The fans would have plotzed.
Oh, I would so like the ghost of Maureen to forgive me! But Vanessa sort of does that. We have a scene where we take each other's hands and she says "Get married with me." It's almost like the spirit of Maureen. We walk down the aisle and say our vows separately, but we're really all getting married together. Buzz has lines to Lillian like "I've been really dark and you've been my light." I just love that Justin Deas! The other day, out of the blue, he said to me: "I am so grateful to have known you." [She starts to cry.] I love that man! This whole show has been like one long, wonderful love affair.
Tell me about "Changing Shoes." [Sloan's one-woman play, which she co-wrote and performs, plays September 25-October 9 at the 14th Street Playhouse in Atlanta. Go to changingshoes.com for info.]
It's about the diminishment of an actress-me!-as she gets older. It's about how I went from wearing skimpy dresses to having the skimpy role. How one day I was walking down the street with my GL daughter Beth Chamberlin [Beth] in an Oscar de la Renta gown and I suddenly realized that no one on the street was looking at me-they were all looking at her! That moment was a dawning for me. It's what the French call coup de vieux-the blow of age. I mean, you have to laugh to keep from crying. I used to walk into an elevator and people looked at me. They don't anymore. There was a time when I'd pull into a parking garage and the men would jump out to check my oil and wash my windows. Now I'm washing my own windows.
It's true in show business, and true in life.
Everyone is diminished as they get older in our society-not just women but men, too-and it's time we acknowledged it and did something about it. It really got to me for a while. There was a time when I was taking care of my elderly parents and I got very heavy. I got very grumpy. I wrote this play as I was feeling diminished. I wrote it over nine months-it was like the birth of a baby-and I performed it for the first time right after GL was cancelled. It was so emotional, and so cathartic. My whole life is in this play. Being told by [modeling agent] Eileen Ford that I needed to get a nose job-which I didn't do! Having my son go to Iraq. Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. How we care for the aging and how we prepare for our own aging. And lots of funny soap anecdotes. It's going to be a book, too.
It sounds extraordinary, Tina.
I went through the desert and found the oases, and I want to share that. If I didn't have this play, I don't know what I'd do, because playing Lillian has been my identity. I'm really going to miss her. I'm just so sad about the cancellation. But to end things in such a strong way-with a wedding!-is wonderful. I'm so grateful for the years we've had and how we've reflected society right to the very end. We have Ponzi schemes on our show! We have lesbians! People do their PHD dissertations on GL! This show is a big part of American culture. It's like we're burying a dear, close friend.
