OLTL 25th Anniversary
James DePaiva
(Max Holden, 1987-Pres)
SPW 1993

"I would say my favorite long-term storyline was the relationship between Max and Gabrielle (Fiona Hutchison). There was constant passion and turmoil and such love/hate feelings between the two of them." 

"By 1990, having already left OLTL for a short time, James (DePaiva) decided to leave again right after Max and Gabrielle (Fiona Hutchison) had been reunited.  "My life was in great deal of turmoil at that time.  Misty had just lost a child," reveals James, adding that the negative things that both he and Fiona were experiencing in their personal lives had a positive result on screen.  "The fact that our lives were hell at the time created some amazing intensity in our work". 

"My favorite memory would be the scene I did with Fiona when she was modeling lingerie for me." 

...Dennis Parlato (Clay, LOVING) says rumors are started by reporters."  No, seriously, "In any work place you are going to have rumors be a part of it. [On daytime], if you work with a partner, it's not surprising to hear things about yourself, because you tend to hang out together.  I don't mind it, because people are going to think what they want anyway."  Parlato grins when asked about the rumors on the OLTL set that when he played Michael Grande, he was involved with on screen paramour Fiona Hutchison (ex-Gabrielle, now Jenna on GUIDING LIGHT).  Were those stories true? "They should have been!" he affirms. 

"Fiona is a delight to work with and her range as an actress incredible. She is unpredictable, clever and beautiful...and her Gabrielle is mesmerizing to watch." 

    "It's absolutely true that the most intense exciting sexual organ is the mind, and that's where so-called flirting happens.  I call it getting to know a woman," Nicholas [Walker] comments.  That maybe, but the erotic rapport between Walker and Fiona Hutchison (Gabrielle) extends beyond the transcendental-- especially when they're frolicking in a tub. 

    "I'm a passionate human being," he declares.  "I'm tired of playing sexual scenes the way they should be or the safe way...Sometimes Fiona will give me something that is a wonderful gift and it will inspire me to do something else.  We don't know where it's going.  I think you plunge or you don't plunge." 

Working with Fiona Hutchison (Gabrielle) has also been a blessing. 
"I have alot of chemistry with her.  That's a gift.  the Gods were kind there.  With that kind of thing it either happens or it doesn't.  She has made me very comfortable very quickly.  She is very accessible and very open as an actor," he notes.  Even their work styles are compatible .  "We speak the same language.  It is scary.  She loves to rehearse.  We both like freedom.  As actors, anything goes.  I love surprises so I give her full permission to do anything that she wants to do.  She does the same thing for me.  She will grab me or touch me in a certain way that we never discussed.  She'll lean into me and smell me.  She is really there.  To me, surprises are gifts to actors.  They force you to be in the moment.  There are some people that do not work that way.  if you do that to them they will go off...Fiona and I are very free and open that way.  I will grab her.  I put my finger in her mouth once...she just looked at me." 

Sometimes the surprises even stun Nicholas and Fiona.  Take their first love scene.  It was hot.  Max and Fiona were surrounded by candles.  "I read this scene and the action was for me to take her and romance her.  Part of the romancing was that I bump against the bar and I am over her and her is cascading back.  All of a sudden we hear a sizzle [Fiona's hair had caught fire] and Fiona runs off.  That's the first instinctive thing to do.  All I saw was her pink silk pants suit.  If you know anything about silk, it burns on your body.  I put my hand on her burning hair and pat it, to stop it.  It happened maybe in five seconds.  The pyrotechnician was great.  He put this botanical salve that they put on my hand.  It healed very quickly.