In her high school
yearbook, Marcy Walker looks like she was voted "least likely to play a
villainess." With her pixie blonde hairdo and innocent blue eyes, Marcy resembles a
preppy prom queen rather than a scheming troublemaker. But don't let that cherubic smile
fool you. There's a new witch in Pine Valley named Liza - with a Z for zap!
Playing vindictive, conniving Liza on All
My Children is a real switcheroo for Marcy. "I'm a happy person," she explains.
"If I cry on Sunday, I can't on Monday. I'm walking around thinking life is
wonderful, though for this role, I have to come down and get mad and depressed. Besides,
Liza is everything that I wasn't in high school. My parents didn't allow me to date
until I was 18, so I never went to a prom or a dance. I never knew what that felt like.
And I didn't have the desire to be a cheerleader. That whole scene just wasn't important
to me."
Twenty-year-old Marcy didn't stay in one
place long enough to be crowned prom queen. Her father's job as a space engineer forced
the family to travel around the country and she attended four different high schools. At
the age of 10, Marcy recited a monologue from the children's story Alexander and the
Terrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day in a school competition, won the contest hands-down
and hitched her star to an acting career.
When Marcy graduated, she wasn't quite
sure how to go about achieving her dream. Thousands of girls want to be successful
actresses, but only a handful make the grade. Fortunately, fate lent a helping hand. One
night, she was in the audience at a local play and was spotted by a woman who worked for a
New York talent agency. This "fairy godmother" whisked Marcy off to New York and
set up a screen test with AMC. The casting director took one look at Marcy's polished,
hard-as-nails performance and hired her on the spot.
Coming east also sparked Marcy's love
life. She met actor Mark Poppel, who did a brief stint on AMC as Melanie's brother, Peter,
and the two have been steady dating for a year. But when she first saw Mark, it wasn't
love at first sight. "I didn't like him at all," says Marcy bluntly. "Mark
is one of those guys who is nice and honest. I thought he was a fake. Nobody in New York
could be that nice. But he's just a sweetheart of a guy. It took a while for him to ask me
out because he was so shy. Then, when we finally got together, we clicked."
On their first date, Mark took Marcy to
see the French film La Cage Aux Folles and capped off the evening at a French
restaurant. The first course consisted of gooey onion soup. The pair did their best to eat
neatly, but soon Mark had cheese all over his mouth and was so nervous that he dropped his
fork on the floor three times during the course of the meal! However, first date jitters
soon melted away once the two discovered how much fun they were having.
Their relationship is much more
down-to-earth than the idyllic romance of Jenny and Greg on All My Children. "Jenny
and Greg are so perfect," says Marcy. "They never fight and they always have a
good time. If Greg and Liza got together, there'd be a bit more to it. She'd nag him and
say stuff like 'Would you please pick up your socks. Your mother's coming over and I want
this house clean!'
"I knew a lot of girls like Liza who
were mean and who put people down because they were different," continues Marcy.
"I'm not like that. But I do have Liza's drive, and I know what I want. Every day you
go to work and there's always somebody out there who can take it away from you, who could
play Liza and take my place. I know - because I'm one of those people.
"I get what I want, so watch out
world," jokes Marcy with an impish grin. |
