Want a sexy spitfire who can handle every thing thrown at her including the kitchen sink?  Look no further than One Life to Live’s Florencia Lozano. As legal eagle Téa Delgado, her ‘woman on the edge’ performances have been nothing short of remarkable.   And if you follow the shenanigans in Llanview, then you know Téa has a big elephant in the room, her daughter Danielle, who the man Téa loves never knew existed, till now   So the stage is set for more of the stormy and twisted drama in the never-a-dull moment relationship between Téa Delgado and Todd Manning.  This couple spells dysfunction with a capitol, “D”.   Over the last month, soap fans have been introduced to Danielle, the newest member of the Manning clan.  And the teen seems like a chip off the old block….hating every one that wronged her.  Sound familiar?  Now the question is, when will Dani find out the man she hates is her dad?

As Christmas time approaches, after the “supposed” sudden death of Ross Rayburn (who Danielle believed to be her biological father) went over a bridge with the help from Todd and an assist from a bullet, this family is all over the map for the holidays.  Blair wants to console Todd, Eli wants to console Téa and Todd wants to tell Dani the truth, and all the while Todd and Téa seem to truly love each other, even though they cannot stop hurting one another.  In this On-Air On-Soaps interview, Florencia Lozano talks about working with the brilliant Trevor St. John (Todd), what propels Téa to “act” up, and we get a small sneak peek into life in Llanview in 2010!

MICHAEL:

Your storyline has been so dramatic for months, and whenever I watch Téa I need to take two Xanax when her scenes are over. (Laughs) Her histrionics alone are enough to make me grab for the bottle.  But I love her.  Do you think she is slightly, shall we say, “over-the-top”?

FLORENCIA:

I missed the showing of the OLTL Christmas reel, which apparently I am the star of! (Laughs)  Apparently, there was a part where I was screaming and screaming, and screaming hysterically, and then immediately was like, “Was that over-the-top?” (Laughs)  I guess I see it as melodrama that we are doing with heightened emotion.  I do have fun pushing that to the extreme and pushing myself emotionally to extremes.  Certainly, Téa has been in situations that have warranted that.  Imagine if you were fighting with someone and they went out the window.  How would you feel?  How horrifying would that moment be?  That’s all I can say. (Laughs)

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MICHAEL:

You had left the show in 2002 and came back a year ago.  How has it been different this time out?

FLORENCIA:

I am different, and am happy to say that.  I have learned a few things over the years and feel more grounded, and more appreciative, and more comfortable with myself.  I am enjoying myself more than I did before… not that I did not have a great time with Roger Howarth (Ex-Todd, Paul ATWT).  I did.  But working with Trevor St. John is equally wonderful.  I am getting to do a lot of material with Kassie DePaiva, (Blair) which is terrific.  It’s a good team over here.

MICHAEL:

Did you know when you were going in this time, that Téa was going to have a daughter?

FLORENCIA:

I don’t think anybody knew that.  I did not know.  And it has been cool to have that dimension added to my character, because I don’t have a child in real-life.  It’s been satisfying to imagine that I am responsible for this person.

MICHAEL:

You were not, “Oh God, I am too young to have a teenage daughter?”

FLORENCIA:

No, I wasn’t.  It’s a soap… all kinds of stuff happen in terms of the age thing.  I was honestly curious to explore another dimension of Téa, because for so long it’s been Todd and Téa.  This idea that she was hurt as a child by her circumstance, so therefore she is attracted to men who are troubled like herself, was refreshing to play something outside of that paradigm.  So, I was glad.

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MICHAEL:

Téa’s background… I don’t feel the show has re-established that in recent months as to why Téa is the way she is.  Can you give On-Air On-Soaps readers a refresher course?  Was she abused as a child?

FLORENCIA:

It’s less about abuse and more about abandonment.  I guess abandonment is sort of abuse. Her dad was a super who was very busy and lonely. Téa’s mother abandoned her and him.  So, Téa grew up with a dad who always had a lot on his mind, and was struggling really, really hard.  I think she felt very isolated in this Park Avenue world that she didn’t feel she belonged in, but she felt that she was determined that she was going to fit in, too.  She is used to thinking about love as something that she has to work really, really hard to get.  There is a real tortured relationship for her of getting love and being loved.  

MICHAEL:

Do you ever go, “OMG!  Now Téa’s going back to Todd… again?”  Do you think you and the audience have to suspend belief?  Or, do you think somebody would keep going back into this dark and murky territory?

FLORENCIA:

Listen, I think all kinds of things happen in the world and truth is stranger than fiction.  I could totally see that she would keep going back to Todd.  Going back and forth with Todd is basically what Téa has been doing, and it’s tiring, but I think it’s the truth of love/hate relationships and a lot of people are like that.

MICHAEL:

Do you ever get exhausted after those emotionally-packed performances and carry it with you off the set?  Can you just let it go and walk home?  Or, is it so draining that it affects your life?

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FLORENCIA:

It’s draining.  It’s cathartic sometimes too, because you get to express, rage, or sadness, or grief or pain, that as a person there is not always the appropriate time or place to do that.  And to get to express that, and to know that people will watch it, and then they get in touch with their own feelings of sorrow, is sort of the cool cathartic thing as an actor to think.  So I say to myself, “Yeah, that was tiring (and at times I am knocked out) but in a kind of uplifting way.”  I enjoy it, and that is why I became an actor.

MICHAEL:

How is playing with your on-screen daughter, Danielle, Kelley Massal?  Or as Téa says, “Dan-yell-ah.” (Roll of the tongue, too)

FLORENCIA:

(Laughs) Trevor always makes fun of me with my pronunciation.   She is wonderful!

MICHAEL:

Were you involved in the casting?

FLORENCIA:

I screen tested with all of them.  Kelly is still a kid, and it’s easy to forget that because of the work that she delivers.  It’s cool to pretend to be a mom, to touch her hair and feel I can comfort her or protect her.  I like keeping an eye on her and making sure she is all right.  It’s a lot to be here.  And to take the pace of soaps is hard at that age, with the emotion it calls for.  I think for Kelly it’s also been a lot of fun for her to get to play the rebellious teen.  You know, the Todd Manning teen!  I have actually been in awe of what she has done.

MICHAEL:

So, right now Danielle hates her mother and her father.  What do you think we can look forward to?  Any resolution?

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FLORENCIA:

She is a teenager, and for a couple years there, it’s really a true test of faith. Adolescence, if you remember, (I vaguely do) it’s a really hard time.  Mothers often times get the brunt of that, especially with daughters.  There is a lot of separating from the mother yet wanting to stay merged with the mother.  In our case, she is about to find out her father is not who she thought he was.  So we are definitely going to have a struggle.  But I would hope our love would win out.

MICHAEL:

Todd comes to Téa soon, and tells her he loves her.  Does Téa still love Todd?

FLORENCIA:

What do you think? 

MICHAEL:

I think she still loves him!

FLORENCIA:

You are right, and as we go into the New Year, things will happen.

MICHAEL:

Every one in the cast touts, and rightfully so, working with Trevor.  Can you shed some light on working with such a dynamic actor, day in and day out?

FLORENCIA:

He is very funny, and that cannot be underestimated…. the joy of that amidst all this as tragic melodrama…. to have someone who is sort of poking fun at every direction, at everyone including himself, is a real joy.  I find that very attractive.  It gives some relief.  He is very grounded and smart, and so it allows me to be able to go off into the stratosphere emotionally, because he is asking questions that are really helpful and plotting our path through all of this material.  He is very open to being in the moment. We have so few takes in daytime, and if we try something and it’s captured and it takes well, that’s the best.  We do rehearse when we can.

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MICHAEL:

If you were to say three things about Trevor off the top of your head, what would you say?  He is …

FLORENCIA:

He is unique and marches to his own beat, and he is perceptive and playful.

MICHAEL:

Tell me about working with your sworn enemy on-screen and best bud off-screen, Kassie DePaiva?

FLORENCIA:

We also share a dressing room and she is one of my closest friends here.  She is so different than me as a person and we are so different as characters, that I think our pairing really works well.  Kassie tends to have a lighter touch and a more flippant attitude, which lends itself to comedy and good dynamics for Téa and Blair.  Kassie is a really good person and a light, and brings upbeat energy into the room.

MICHAEL:

What did you think of Téa’s handling of Matthew’s case during the trial of Matthew suing his parents, Bo and Nora, for the right to have his life-threatening surgery?  Is performing the legalese in courtroom scenes difficult for you?

FLORENCIA:

I like it.  It’s a cool challenge, and it’s the opposite of the emotional dramatic feelings and this and that.  It’s very objective, and black and white, and technical terms are kind of fun to crunch your mouth around.  It brings out a side of Téa that is objective.

MICHAEL:

In a court of law, she is clever and shifty!  So watch out!

FLORENCIA:

Oh yeah… and I love doing that stuff!  As far her defending Matthew, I was telling someone this the other day; Téa is able to compartmentalize herself, and the self that is a lawyer has a large acting component to it.  It is something Téa feels safe in… in terms of, “There is a law, and I abide by that law.”  Now, there are all types of interpretations of the law, but that structure gives her a lot of leeway.  I don’t think she allowed herself the possibility with Matthew that anything was going to happen to him.  Later, seeing something could happen to her own daughter in a different way, she thought, “Oh My God!  What did I just put Nora through?  What could have happened to Matthew?  What if I was helping his surgery along and he could have possibly died?”  But at the time, Téa was invested in, “I am being hired here to defend what this person wants to do, which is legal, and he has every legal right to do it.”  So, Téa barreled ahead with her blinders on. (Laughs)

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MICHAEL:

You just did a remote in New Jersey for the climatic scenes that aired earlier this week.  New Jersey doubled as a backdrop for the Washington state border, heading into Canada.  What did you think of how those remote scenes turned out?

FLORENCIA:

It’s pretty ambitious.  And what I like about remotes is every one is on their toes, because they are doing it for the first time.   It’s not the safety of the studio where they can say, “We have done this a million times,” and they go on autopilot.  And it was cold outside!   I loved going on a field trip and staying overnight with everyone in Jersey, or wherever the heck we were, Canada! (Laughs)   I enjoyed working with Hillary B. Smith (Nora) and Bob Woods (Bo).

MICHAEL:

Speaking of Nora, Téa has only a few female friends in town in Viki and Rachel.  The rest of the town of Llanview is not too keen on her.

FLORENCIA:

That’s about it, and now sort of, Nora.  Circumstances throw us together in times where we need each other.  I think Téa really likes Nora, but she keeps her at arms length for a lot of reasons.  And yes, there is an uneasy alliance between them.

MICHAEL:

One of the best Téa moments was recently, when she along with Blair were trapped and almost gassed to death by Powell Lord.  Was that one of your all-time favorite soap gems?

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FLORENCIA:

I did enjoy playing that because we got to go places like, “We are about to die here,” and this is an extreme, extreme, circumstance that I love to play.  We had just been through this ordeal with this psycho who has kidnapped us all, threatened to kill us all… Todd is tied to a bedpost, and we are brought down to a basement, and there is a gas leak!  We think we are going to die, and what happens in those last moments of wanting to connect… what would your last words be?  It was cool to also not have to look that great. I like those moments where we have bruises and scratches. We have been there for two days and our clothes are all haggard, and I find that fun, instead of looking ‘just-so’. Usually, in soaps there is a lot of lip gloss going on!

MICHAEL:

Talking about the Powell Lord story, brings me around to asking if have you seen or stayed in touch with your original Todd, Roger Howarth?

FLORENCIA:

I haven’t.  I saw him at Phil Carey’s (Asa) memorial service awhile ago, but I have not seen him since then.  I hope he is all right, now that As the World Turns was cancelled.

MICHAEL:

Now I see more romantic entanglements in your future.   What about Elijah Clarke?   My thoughts were that he took a liking to Téa and now he seems to be hooking up with Blair.  Do I see a quadrangle developing?

FLORENCIA:

You may be right.  I am not sure how that is going to shake down.

MICHAEL:

But Eli likes Téa?

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FLORENCIA:

Yes, he does, but I think Téa is so distracted by Danielle that I honestly don’t think she even kind of registered anything.

MICHAEL:

How is working with Matt Walton (Eli)?

FLORENCIA:

He is laid back and a lot of fun.

MICHAEL:

I think down the line, we may see ‘lawyers in love’?  After all, they had some sparks when they went at it in the courtroom when he first showed up in Llanview.

FLORENCIA:

Yeah, exactly.  We have a lot of similarities that we are down to business in a certain legalese sort of way, and I have a lot of fun with him.  I had fun when we first met and Eli had secrets that he was holding over her head, and now he has switched to being my friend.

MICHAEL:

Does Téa believe Todd 100% loves her, and that part of him does not want to be back with Blair?

FLORENCIA:

He totally does love her; I think at a deep level that she may not be conscious that she knows this.  I think she can’t tolerate total intimacy, but she can tolerate the push and pull of love, because that feels tolerable to her.  The idea that they could love each other without that is terrifying for her.

MICHAEL:

You are still telling Todd not to reveal himself to Danielle.  Why?

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FLORENCIA:

Initially, it came out in a very unhelpful way in the hotel room in Seattle and Danielle was not able to process it.  Tea screwed this up so badly on so many different levels!  She screwed Ross up.  He was a good guy, and he thought he was her father and he ripped her out of his world.  I hurt Danielle and Todd a lot.  So now, Téa is trying to do things the right way, which would not be just sort of saying, to Danielle, “Hey, this is your dad.”  She wants to find someway to connect with her daughter and get some trust going with her before she just drops it on her.

MICHAEL:

How is she going to explain it away?  Have you taped some scenes when the reveal to Dani comes to light?

FLORENCIA:

You shall see, and we have taped some of it.

MICHAEL:

Did you like how the revelation comes out?

FLORENCIA:

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It’s surprising how it comes out. 

MICHAEL:

For those who may just be tuning in to OLTL, what were Téa’s reasons again for not telling Todd she had his child?

FLORENCIA:

For a long time she did not know and she then realized, “OMG!  I had sex with the guy once and I think he actually might be the father.”  She came back to Llanview a year ago and got the DNA test.  Then a couple months later, Téa walked in on Todd and Blair, so that was not the right time to tell him.  Things kept happening and they are all excuses.  She was terrified of his reaction. Then she was terrified when they got married that he would be marrying her just because she was the mother of his child, and not because he loved her, just for her.  I think she has run out of excuses. This coming year will be very telling for Téa!