Stage Mom

Soap Opera Digest: What are you memories of playing Betsy?

Lisa Denton: I had a great time. I really enjoyed being on the show. Kathryn Hays [Kim] was and still is incredibly genuine and generous and she, of course, was my [step] mom on the show. There was a great sense of family and support, then and now. I think that’s wonderful. Because I did some recurring roles on other soaps after that, and obviously I wasn’t a contract player, but it didn’t feel the same. On other sets, and when I worked in places in Los Angeles, there was a big difference between the crew and the cast. This is a real team effort here. I think that’s great. Everyone enjoys what they’re doing, but they are very serious about their professionalism.Digest: Were you just starting out then?
Denton: It was my first major job. I had done a lot of television commercials. Before that, I had done a lot of musical theater. But that was my first television role. Digest: Did you keep watching after you left?

Denton: I didn’t. I did a couple of recurrings on ALL MY CHILDREN and LOVING. And I was on NBC Radio [as a cast member on IMUS IN THE MORNING] for a couple of years and then I went to L.A., so I lost track. But it’s fun that it’s Colleen Zenk [Pinter, Barbara] and Kathryn and Anthony Herrera [James] —they were all there when I was there. And Maria Wagner, the director, was there as well. I walked in and said, “You look so familiar!” And she said it’s true; she had directed me back then. Digest: How did Dylan get into the business?
Denton: I left L.A. and I came back here; my husband and I had a jazz dance company for a number of years. So I was performing as a dancer while I was pregnant and nursing my kids. And then as they got a little older, I said, “I really miss it.” I did some regional theater and I was going to go back to my career. I was working with an acting coach in the city and my older son [Will] played hooky for a day and came to the city to watch me do my thing. And the acting coach said, “Your son would be perfect for commercials.” Will had wanted to act for years, and I kept saying “No, I don’t think so. It’s kind of a yucky business and I want you to have a normal childhood. Maybe when you’re older.” And then a very dear friend pointed out that I, perhaps, in the opposite way, was doing the same thing that my parents did. My parents were not very encouraging of my acting career. And I did not want to do that. He genuinely wanted a career in acting. They had grown up going to a lot of rehearsals because my husband is a choreographer. Then Will got an agent and started doing commercials and things. And Dylan tagged along, and at one point a casting director said, “We need a 6-year-old, too. Does he want to audition?” So Dylan got a commercial and right after that he got a job doing Medea, which toured the U.S., did Broadway and went to Paris. And then he started doing AS THE WORLD TURNS. Both of my boys absolutely love it and I love working with them on it because they love it so much. We get to talk about, “How does the character feel? What do you think the character wants to hear?” We have a lot of fun talking about how you become different characters. But I’m kind of the opposite of the stage mom in that I didn’t want them originally to go into the business. But they’re so happy and I just want them to do what they want to do and be happy at it. Digest: I’ve heard that he approaches the work in a very adult way.
Denton: He’s just as normal getting on the school bus in the morning, but he takes it very seriously. He sees himself as an actor. It’s cute. He is very natural; he’s usually quite prepared. He can’t wait to read the script to see what happens next. And Sarah Brown [ex-Julia] and Michael Park [Jack] have been so incredibly generous, both professionally and personally to Dylan. I can’t tell you how much that means to us. When he first got there, he had done Broadway and there’s a big difference in technique. So they would gently guide him into the light or help him be in the right space so he wouldn’t have his back to the camera. But they were also really generous with him personally, making him feel comfortable. The crew is also wonderful there. And now he’s working with Michael Lowry [Les] and Kin Shriner [Keith], too. All of them have been really wonderful with Dylan, and I couldn’t ask for more. This is funny — there’s a copy of Daytimers Magazine from 1982, and the cover has Kin Shriner and me! Isn’t that hysterical? Who would have thought, all those years later, that Kin would be playing my son’s uncle on the show? It’s been a really wonderful experience for the whole family. It’s just so ironic that out of all the shows, that was the first thing that I did and it’s his first television show, too.Digest: Now they just have to bring back Betsy.

Denton: Well, they’ve got a Betsy right here! Digest: Would you take another acting job?

Denton: The moment the opportunity is right, I will. I don’t have an agent at the moment, but I still sing and dance and I did a number of regional theater things in Connecticut. It’s in my blood.