Julie PinsonJulie Pinson talks about being Billie
Julie Pinson created her first soap-opera character, Dr. Eve Lambert Thornhart, on Port Charles.
She re-created her current soap-opera character, Billie Reed, who had originally been played by Lisa Rinna and then by Krista Allen.
When she played Eve, Pinson says there was no back story to tell her who Eve was and why she does what she does.
"I pretty much created all that for myself," says Pinson.
With Billie, the challenge was different.
"There was a lot of back story," she says.
And also a lot of tape showing how two
different actors played her. And while it may have been the 'easy' thing to carry those portrayals forward, that's not how Pinson saw it.
"Every actor brings something of themselves to their roles. And that's what makes one portrayal different from another. What I bring to Billie comes out of the way I see her."
And how does the audience react to Pinson's 'vision' of Billie Reed?
"I'm happy to say they approve," Pinson says, adding, "they love Billie."
"They love that she's rebellious, that she has a mind of her own. They love that she loves passionately with all her heart. And that she feels that what she does is right because she's acting out of love."
Which is why she took the blame for Zack's death by confessing that she drove the car that hit him. She wanted to protect her guilty daughter, Chelsea.
"This was a mother doing what Billie felt a mother should do, and that's protect her child."
Pinson says what she admires most about Billie is her strength.
"So much has happened to her, yet she
survives and grows stronger."
Julie Pinson decided to become an actor in the fifth grade.
wonderful world of the theatre
"It was that or become a veterinarian. I have always loved animals. But my mother was an opera singer, and whenever I'd go to see her, I would imagine myself on the stage, being part of that wonderful world of the theatre. And that's when I realised that this is what I wanted to do."
Where does Julie Pinson think Billie Reed will be five years down the line?
"I think she would probably go back into police work, probably return to the ISA," Pinson says.
And what about the man in her life? Will it be Bo (Peter Reckell), whom she has always loved, or will she accept the fact that his heart will always belong to Hope (Kristian Alfonso) and move on without looking back?
"I think Billie will always listen to her heart," says Julie Pinson.
