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At a Loss

All My Children's Thorsten Kaye (Zach) remembers a friend

Soaps In Depth

by Kimberly Root, Published December 29, 2008

ONE LIFE TO LIVE fans are still crossing their fingers -- and toes -- that Thorsten Kaye (ex-Patrick; ex-Zach, ALL MY CHILDREN) will return to the soap.  But no one is more gung-ho about the actor resurrecting the Irish poet than his real-life leading lady, Susan Haskell (Marty)!

The week after ALL MY CHILDREN's Eileen Herlie (Myrtle) died, Thorsten Kaye (Zach) dreamt of her.  He can't remember exactly what happened or anything she said, but she was there.  It was a comfort.

"It wasn't linear," he says, brows knit as he tries to recall.  "I don't know.  But I woke up just feeling sad.  That's all."

He surveys the soundstage where he's taking a break from taping, runs a  hand absently through his hair and shrugs.  "I can't believe my friend is dead."

A Sudden Loss
Herlie's passing came as a blow to Kaye, who shared the same kind of close kinship with the veteran actress as his character did with hers.  "I've said it before," he acknowledges, "but I felt like I'd known that woman forever."

Though Herlie had been ill over the past year, she planned to return to the soap she'd called home for more than three decades  And Kaye couldn't wait to have her back.  "I guess the hardest part is that I talked to Eileen every week and she was getting so much stronger, until she wasn't," he says, his voice a bit raspier than usual.  Their last conversation was poignant in its normalcy; she asked after his daughters, McKennna and Marlowe, and teased him about being her boyfriend.  "She was sounding so strong, so much better, and was looking forward to coming back, because this place meant a lot to her."

In turn, she held a place of importance in the AMC universe, and Kaye's not sure how it will be filled.  As the show prepares a tribute episode, slated to air Friday, December 19, he wonders how his forlorn alter ego will cope without his flame-haired confidante and fill-in mom.  

"Zach needs her because he's got no one to talk to," he says. "Losing your mother twice is something that has to be addressed.  It has to."And if ever there was a time when Zach could use a little maternal guidance, it's now, with wife Kendall fading in a coma and the prospect of raising two boys by himself...not to mention his biological link to Bianca and Reese's daughter, Gabrielle. "I can't wait to see what they come up with.  I know what I would do.  Talk about the 'To be or not to be' speech -- that'd be a time to do it," he says with a slight grimace, referring to the Hamlet monologue in which the title character contemplates suicide.  "The only things that keep [Zach] hanging on are his kids.  If I were writing, I'd probably come up with just a few more obstacles and see just how thin the ice can get and see what happens."

Toughing It Out
Though Kaye can't be sure of what's ahead for Zach, he has faith in the guy who is:  AMC headwriter Charles Pratt, Jr.  "I like Pratt, I think he's a smart man.  He understands the characters.  He's happy to be here," he says, adding that while the Pine Valley tornado looked great, "People don't want to see explosions.  They don't want to see tornados; they want to see what happens to people after.  I want to see what happens after someone breaks through the ice."

If and when Zach eventually does make that break, Kaye hopes the experience etches itself in him.  "You can't go back to zero.  People don't watch for 35 years because you go back to zero," he says, sounding a refrain he hopes will keep the show as popular with fans in the future as it was during Herlie's tenure  "They watch because people change."  

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