Love is Not Enough for Nancy Addison
TV Dawn to Dusk Magazine, June 1978
by Ronni Ashcroft
Article Provided By WandaShe is so devastatingly lovely, that it takes you a moment to realize how truly electric her personality is. It is one of those rare instances when someone's physical and emotinal content are in total accord - and in Nancy Addison's case - the
content is the best there is.Nancy is so dedicated to her career that her every waking moment seems caught up in the whirlwind of acting. At least for the moment, a serious romance is delegated to the back burner. Love is simply not enough for the talented daytime star.
For so many of us Ryan's Hope devotees, Nancy has been playing the brillant, feisty, highly individual role of Jillian Coleridge. She is nothing less than dazzling in her gutsy interpretation of Jillian. But just a short time ago, Nancy got the opportunity to play another role - one that is bound to enlarge the scope of her acting life - and very likely to take her over to the side of the stars.
In just a matter of weeks, she will be seen in a mini-series on CBS television called The Dain Curse, by Dashiell Hammett. The series will be starring a number of veteran actors and actresses including James Coburn, Jean Simmons, Jason Miller and Roland Winters. Nancy will be featured in the co-starring role and the experiences she has gone through doing this film have given her some of her happiest moments as an actress.
"I auditioned for the role. I had met Jessica Levy (the casting director) and she looked at me and said I was right physically for the role. I read for several people and eventually for the the producer--and then he said I had the role. But I was warned CBS might not agree." After she did a screen-test with James Coburn, her worries were put to rest - he loved her!
For a mumber of weeks they filmed on Shelter Island, Eastern Pennsylvania and New York City. They lived, ate and worked together. Nancy loved the feeling of being a family with these brilliant people so much so that when it ended there was a great feeling of loss.
Her face lights up when she talks about it. "It was the most incredible experience. There is just nothing like making a movie. Film for me is everything - even though I love the stage - film is everything. It was all so incredible - everyone was just so helpful. James Coburn was just terrific. He was wonderful in helping me to make choices in my performance."
Unfortunately, James Coburn never got a chance to give Nancy a super-hero-type kiss because in The Dain Curse she is the rich, morphine-addicted wife of someone else and he is merely the detective who gets her cured and helps her rid herself of the feeling of being "cursed." "It was all very intimate -and physically close." She sighs in exaggerated disappointment as
she adds, "just no kissing."If there was a lack of traditional romance, what there wasn't a lack of was camaraderie and learning experiences. This was Nancy's first film experience and every day seemed to open up bigger and broader vistas of things she could learn. Beyond that - being around actors of this caliber seemed to broaden her own vistas and horizons - especially in how she views her career.
"I feel as though I'm in a total transition period right now," she confides. "I don't exactly know what that means. I do know that there are little things that I'm not doing that I should be doing - probably I'm holding back a little out of fear."
"All I know is that when I got a taste of this experience, I knew I didn't want to go backwards in my career - I know I want
to go forward - do films. It's just so interesting - fascinating!"It's more than likely that once the film is aired (probably in April) offers may start coming in for Nancy. The whole prospect of what happens if the offers do come in - or if they don't - is "scary."
"But I have to tell you, if nothing else, this film has given me a great sense of self. I know now I'm capable. I can do it! It really has given me something. The film itself, and working with people of this kind never intimidated me for a moment- not from day one! Their success never hampered me. It was just such a family unit, and I thrive on that."
"It's also very much this way on Ryan's Hope. Everyone is so young and so talented and so committed to the show. They want their own careers to go well--and they very much want the show to go well."
All through the conversation there is a thread of caring that Nancy seems to value in almost every aspect of her life. You can so easily see how dedicated she is to her craft - she makes no bones about the fact that it is primary to her life; she yearns to touch people through her acting.
Along with her great love of acting is a bit of uncertainty. There are times when she worries that she is "inconsistent" - that her moods fluctuate so that her performances might not be stable. Nothing could be further from the truth. In all the years I've known Nancy no one coud have shown a more spiraling pattern of growth. She has developed magnificently - and it is
apparent to everyone who knows her that she is uniquely intelligent.What would she wish for in the New Year? "Oh, I'd really like for my career to broaden. I just wish that I had the confidence in me that other people do." Other people have that confidence because she is just so damn good. She is a super-talented lady and a wonderfully interesting woman. Nancy Addison proves that a woman can be fulfilled primarilly through a career, lovers be damned!
Odd that her first real, big starring role has to be be called The Dain Curse - cause cursed she ain't. She's going to show
us all just how far an actress can go!