The Weeping Willow- Eva La Rue finds playing Maria a tearful task (SOU 10/1/96)
"Ever since her storyline on All My Children started peaking this year ("Sam! Sam! Sam!"), Eva La Rue (Maria) hasn't been able to stop crying. And for the actress, waterworks-on-cue has not been an easy task. 'I can't tell you how anxious I get when I read in the script, "Maria breaks down,"' confides La Rue. 'Crying on cue is something I was never able to do before. I literally couldn't handle it before I started on AMC (in March 1993).' Rest assured, La Rue has been trying to pick up tips from the best. 'When I think of a great crier, I think of Demi Moore,' she says. 'She never squints or looks hysterical or weird. She just looks spectacularly beautiful, and the tears just drip from her eyes. I am the most ugly crier on the face of the earth. I wince like I've been stabbed.' Along the way, La Rue's become quite a pro, howecer. AMC viewers know well the anguish Maria felt in the airport when Edmund plucked baby Sam from her arms before she and her son could flee the country. 'The scenes were emotionally grueling,' admits La Rue.
Understandably, both La Rue and her real-life boyfriend John Callahan (Edmund) heaved sighs of relief when they finished taping. 'The producers called down from the booth and told us not to go anywhere,' La Rue explains. 'They usually do that at the end of a big scene, and then come down to thank us. We were blowing our noses, trying to put Edmund and Maria away, and deciding what to have for dinner.' But dinner was delayed. 'The director came down about ten minutes later and said, "I'm really sorry, but we had a technical problem during the scene and we have to do it again." And I said, "You don't understand, I can't do that again."' Needless to say, she did it again- that's why they pay her big bucks- and it worked.
In real life, La Rue's not crying at all. She and Callahan recently moved into an apartment together on the New York's west side and are best making it their own. 'There's a 2,000-square foot rooftop garden that was nothing but tarpaper when we moved in,' she describes. 'It took us three-and-a-half months to pull it together.' With the help of a carpenter, the couple built garden boxes and planted trees, shrubs, vegetables, and herbs. 'It was out first attempt at gardening, and everything lived in spite of us,' she laughs. And just think: When the garden needs to be watered, La Rue can just cry over it."