Rewind: DAYS’ Peggy McCay on her prime time gig and memories of Frances Reid

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Actress Peggy McCay is doing double duty this week on DAYS and COLD CASE

[Editor's note: This interview originally ran in Feburary 2010 just before Peggy's Cold Case episode aired)

Peggy McCay has been acting in film, theater and television for over 50 years and is still doing something that actors often do – she’s moonlighting. In this case, the Days Of Our Lives regular (she’s played Caroline Brady since 1983!) is jumping from daytime to prime time and appearing on this Sunday’s episode of CBS’s hit series Cold Case. In the episode, entitled ‘Metamorphosis’ and co-written by Cold Case producer Adam Glass and series star Danny Pino, McCay plays a former circus performer who may have invaluable information about a murder that occurred in the past. To get a take on her very different prime time role, her experience on Days with the beloved Frances Reid, who passed away last month at the age of 95 as well as her early career working with the likes of Helen Hayes, I sat down with McCay for coffee at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills last week.

Frank Parker, McCay, Alison Sweeney and Bryan Datillo on DAYS

Jim Halterman: In this weekend’s episode of Cold Case, you play a former circus performer who is questioned about an old murder. I loved your New York accent.

Peggy McCay:  I just figured that I had to have some accent. I would’ve used a Russian accent, which I can do, but I had no time to make sure it was absolutely authentic. I don’t like to do accents unless it’s absolutely right on. So I used New York to give it that kind of feistiness, directness.

JH:  Besides the accent, how did you approach the audition?

PM: I have this hat, this big black hat and it’s so…I told people when I went in for this that I have to wear this hat because they’re not going to see that I’m right for it so I wore it and they said ‘how do you see this character’ and I said ‘She’s pretty ballsy’ and they broke up.

JH:  That’s what I was going to say about the part but I didn’t think I should use that language with you! [we both laugh]

PM:  That was the right word to use with it and they wanted someone like that so they laughed a lot and I got the job.  I had a great time. They’re a great group to work with.

JH:  Talk to me about your wardrobe for the role.

PM: The clothing and the wig were wrong. I said to the costume person that she would wear jewelry, she’d wear bright colors and her hair could’ve been made funky…she’s just isn’t the ordinary, everyday person but they would not let me do any of that. I think it takes away from the character, who is so outspoken and the fact that she’s a circus person. In the script, it described her as flashy but the outfit was not and I tried hard to do that but he simply wouldn’t. I looked at it and went ‘that’s not the right look.’ She should’ve had earrings and heavy jewelry, bracelets, and a very bright outfit but that’s how that happens sometimes.

JH: Is it safe to assume that retirement is not in your vocabulary?

PM: I don’t think so. I’m very fortunate to be working at an older age. I love what I do and that makes me very happy. I had a good time on Cold Case. The producer and the actor Danny Pino wrote the script. They were very complimentary and very charming and I had a really good time.

During the Salem Stalker days, Caroline was dead...for awhile. (McCay with Peter Reckell)

JH: We just lost Frances Reid, who you had worked with for so long on Days. Do you have a memory you could share from your time with her?

PM: When I first came on the show, I had a scene with her at a table and she was right there and I was so happy because that gives you confidence that you’re going to get the scene done. She was so alive and a wonderful actress. I was so pleased. Another time, and I hadn’t been with the show very long, I said to her ‘You know, sometimes some of these lines, they’re alright but they’re too sticky but if I ask anybody to make a change, then they have to go talk to the writers.’ She said ‘Don’t ask!’ [laughs] and she was right. If it makes sense and it’s the same thing, they don’t really notice. But once you raise the flag to change the line, it opens the doors to the writers’ objections so that was her advice. She was very sparkly and funny and was a great union supporter so I admired her for that. She spoke her mind and she had a very strong actress and had a great theater voice and a great speaking voice.

JH: She always seemed to have a sparkle in her eyes.

PM: She laughed a lot and she made fun of herself a lot. One of my favorite moments is when we had another serial killer. When I first came on the show I asked, ‘what is this?’ Charlie Shaughnessy, who [later] was on The Nanny, said ‘It’s contract time so there’s always a serial killer!’ [laughs] And that’s when you either say yes or you die!

McCay (l) cut her soap acting teeth with Jean McBride (r) on LOVE OF LIFE

PM: Yes! They killed ten of us in the serial killer thing and then they changed their minds and resurrected us. I’d never been resurrected!

JH: I don’t remember – how did they kill you off?

PM: Voodoo something and I’m such a researcher so I called my doctor and I said ‘Have you ever heard of this disease?’ and he said, ‘Will you stop it! That’s a soap opera disease!’ I just fell over and died. Frances came on the show and she was on the phone and she was to turn to us and say, ‘Marlena is the serial killer!’ and she said, ‘Marlena is the silly killer!’ and then she said ‘Good grief! What did I say?’ We all broke up and she said ‘I’m sorry!’ [laughs]

JH: How do you approach some of the over-the-top stories? For example, when Marlena became possessed?

PM: That was a very good story and got us big ratings. I thought it was a very exciting story. I even had a fun moment where I was in a chair and I was taking care of Marlena. She said ‘I’d like some water.’ I said ‘I’ll get it for Marlena but not for you, Son of Satan.’ I started out and got the water and sat down. They had rigged my chair with electrical stuff so it shook like it was possessed and I was screaming ‘My Holy Arch Angel!’ We had all these effects!

JH:  You also hold a very unique distinction regarding the Emmys, right?

PM: I’m the only actor who had a daytime and nighttime nomination the same year for Days of Our Lives and I won the Emmy award for The Trials of Rosie O’Neill. They’ve always been very nice to me to go do these other shows.

JH:  And some people don’t respect soap opera work but it’s so hard!

PM:  I used to hide my soap opera credits because I did some soaps but most of my work was in prime time. [McCay starred in the ABC prime time series Room For One More besides many guest appearances] My manager said, ‘Don’t hide it because casting directors, if they see it, they’ll  know you can deliver and learn the lines as fast as you have to.’

On The Andy Griffith Show with Griffith and Don Knotts

JH:  Looking at your credits, you’ve done a little of everything! Was it always your destiny to be an actress?

PM:  I was offered a job as an actress in my second year of college. My parents made me promise if I didn’t get a job in two years I’d give it up and I said ‘That’s fair enough.’ Two weeks after college, I made the rounds of all these agents and I came back to this lady who said ‘You’re so enthusiastic!’ She sent me to a screen test and said ‘You’re not going to get it but just go in anyway.’ We each sat around the table and had a script and when we were done the director said ‘Thank you all very much’ and [pointing] you stay, you stay and they pointed to me. I read downstairs and then got a call from the agent and she said “My God! You got the part! I have to be your agent!’ And then I just worked constantly.

JH: From your credits, there’s a lot of  sitcom work like Who’s The Boss and Night Court. Would you like to do more comedy?

PM: Oh, would I! I’ve done quite a few comedies and I love them. There’s a mood on the set, which goes with being on a comedy. People are being funny and they’re laughing and having a great time and out of that comes the show. It’s a fun place to work.

JH: If you weren’t acting, what would you be doing?

PM: Actually, I am writing a book and it’s going pretty well. I have a lot of funny stories that I’ve been privileged to have been in places where the silliest things have happened. Then the wonderful people I’ve had the privilege of working with. Helen Hayes was one of them. We toured in The Cherry Orchard and she was a wonderful woman and a real trooper. After a 21-hour trip, we arrived at 1 in the morning and photographers and everything were there for Helen Hayes. This was at a theater/hotel and she told the manager ‘these actors haven’t eaten in 20 hours. Please open the kitchen.’ The man said ‘I can’t do that.’ She said, ‘If you can’t open the kitchen then I can’t open the show.’ There’s a trooper I thought. She looked out for us. That’s Helen Hayes. She was a wonderful person and she was very generous. There was a scene with just us and she turned her back on the audience and, after we were done, I said ‘Why did you do that?’ and she said ‘Because I know you can cut it and it’s your scene.’

JH: Any role you’d like to play that you haven’t?

PM: Oh, I’d really like to play a really bad person. I think I’d do it very well. They’re the most fun anyway. You have to find something sympathetic in them.

Days Of Our Lives can be seen Monday thru Friday on NBC daytime with replays on SoapNet.

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Tagged as: Cold Case, Days of Our Lives, Frances Reid, Helen Hayes, Jim Halterman, Peggy McCay