Days of Our Lives Celebrates 50 Years: Mary Beth Evans (Kayla) and Stephen Nichols (Patch) Reveal All About the Soap Opera
Glamour: What do you remember about your auditions?
Stephen Nichols: They originally wrote the role as recurring. [Steve was] someone that was going to come in and stir up a bunch of trouble for Bo. There was a dude at NBC at the time that said, "Why don't we get a character like Falcon Eddie on Rich Man, Poor Man...a guy with a patch." That's where the idea came from! The casting director for Days called me up and said, "Stephen, I've got something for you. He's got a patch, carries a knife, and he's crazy. You're gonna be great! Just go!" I went and after maybe about three or four weeks, [producer] Shelley Curtis came to me and said, "We want to offer you a contract. Stay!" That's how it went down.
Glamour: What do you remember about the first time you met Mary Beth?
Stephen: Mary Beth and I had a screen test together, and the first time we did it, she said to me, "Well, that was shit," and walked away. I chased her down and said, "No, that was not shit!" I have never met an actor in my life that after a screen test said, "That was shit." [Laughs] They would never admit that! So from that point on, I said, "I love this woman! She's the best." She had so much humility.
Mary Beth Evans: I hadn't really seen the show, and there was Stephen in his leather jacket with his scar and patch, and I was this goody-two shoes, and I'm thinking, "This is weird." [Laughs] But we had a great connection from the start! Everything changed because if I didn't get the role, I was going to have to get another waitress job!
Glamour: Steve and Kayla have had so many amazing storylines over the years. What has been your favorite?
Stephen: Basically, when Kayla first came on the show. When Mary Beth arrived, that storyline was just so good.
Mary Beth: In 1990, when Steve and Kayla had the baby. That was a sweet time. And I also loved the Emily and Gideon location shoot.
Stephen: People on the set made fun of me then because I had to run through the swamp with shackles on my legs. I run funny. I have no leg speed, so when I try to run fast, it's not a pretty sight. [Executive Producer] Al Rabin said to me, "Well, you just reinvented the art of running."
Mary Beth: When we had our wedding on the yacht, there were gnats all over. It's never as romantic as it seems, but it was so much fun because we put on these costumes, and you just feel like you're in a movie. What was really cool about doing Emily and Gideon though is that we got to play the love story again.__
Glamour: Can we talk about the first time that Steve and Kayla made love? It was this Kenny G montage that literally lasted about 20 minutes and it's so fantastic, it's hilarious.
Mary Beth: Let me just say, I was at least six months pregnant! They brought a body double in, so that is not my body!
Stephen: They got a really good double! She was built like Mary Beth and was so much like her, but just not pregnant.
Glamour: Did you have to make out with this woman?
Stephen: Oh, absolutely.
Mary Beth: Well, not the face. Only when he was touching the body.
Stephen: Back then, they would do these really involved montages.
Mary Beth: And the blowing curtains and candles, and Donna Summer's "Hot August Nights" or something. It was Shelley Curtis who made that happen. She was a big part of the romance of Patch and Kayla.
Stephen: I was dousing myself with ice water. Another time we were up shooting scenes at this cabin, and she was pregnant and they had to put bushes in front of her belly.
Mary Beth: In fact, there was a memo sent from Al Rabin that said, "Attention: Mary Beth Evans is very pregnant. Please do not shoot Kayla below the bust-line." It was such a thing. I was pregnant twice during my time on the show [originally].
