The Young and the Restless wanted her. So did
The Bold and the Beautiful. But
Gina Tognoni—fresh from her gig as Dinah on the cancelled
Guiding Light—has chosen to return home to Llanview. The two-time Emmy winner will reprise her role as
One Life to Live’s Kelly Cramer—whom she played from 1995 to 2002 —but she won’t be reporting for work until January. Tognoni gave
TV Guide Magazine the exclusive scoop.
No imitations! The original Kelly Cramer is back! Congrats, Gina.I’m so happy about this. It’s been an interesting couple of months. I made this decision from the heart. I’m psyched to see Kelly come back to Llanview.
Your possible return to OLTL was all the buzz when GL got cancelled. Then there was rumor that money was the issue—that they weren’t willing to pay you enough—and the buzz died down.That made me sound so arrogant. Like, all of a sudden I’ve become so expensive? No, none of that was true. We had been in talks for a while about my coming back to the show. They were interested. I was interested. But it was a timing thing. Talks just sort of slowed down, and other [potential] soap opportunities came in, but it all worked out in the end. It was a nice courtship.
So what went haywire at Y&R and B&B? Didn’t [B&B exec producer] Brad Bell want to team you with Jack Wagner?Yes, which I would have loved. It was a wonderful experience meeting with Brad, but it came down to asking myself the difficult question: east coast or west coast? I just got married last May. We live in New Jersey. We’re still on the honeymoon! All that came into play when I made the decision, and it really wasn’t easy. The same goes for
Y&R, though we never got as far as talking about a character. It just wasn’t in the cards. I will say this: Everybody in the soap industry has so much passion these days and they’re intent is to stay alive, and that’s exciting to see. Everybody is on their game and trying to make their shows the best they can be. That’s the optimistic view, obviously. The other side of that is that this is a very changing and challenging time. Having just lost
GL, it’s all so emotional. I care about these shows. I care about what I do.
So what’s in store for Kelly when she hits Llanview? When she was last seen, and the role was played by Heather Tom, Kelly and Kevin went off to London. [Dan Gauthier, who plays Kevin, will return to OLTL this fall].I believe she is still connected to Kevin. We’ll see where that relationship is at when we see Kelly. I think they have some ideas about that, but it’s too soon to know. It’s all still in the works, but I trust them. I don’t need to know much more. I know the standard elements of the character—her family connections, her relationships in the town—so I get the basic deal. [Longtime staff writer turned head writer] Ron Carlivati has always been a champion of Kelly. He always understood her.
I just hope we get to see those flashbacks when Kelly first came to town as a funky, punky strangeoid. She was the original Kelly Osbourne!I know! She was such a kooky-head in those early days. I don’t know if I’m ready to see flashbacks—I’m still trying to lose those 10 pounds! When I played Kelly, she was a girl. It’s going to be so much fun coming back as a woman. It’s a very rich character.
And you’ll be rejoining the Cramer family—unique in all of daytime in that it’s an all-female clan.OLTL really writes well for women, and all of the Cramer gals are strong, fascinating and vulnerable.
You forget nuttier than a Christmas fruitcake.[
Laughs] I like to think of them as having…edge.
So pick your dream man in Llanview. Who do you want to see Kelly hook up with?Oooh! Michael Easton [John]. I’m a big, big fan!