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TV SOAP:
In your current “B&B” storyline, Taylor is involved in her first younger man/older woman romance with Rick Forrester.  How do you feel about the subject?  And how did you feel about tackling this type of relationship on-screen?

HUNTER:
You could be 30 and dating 20-year-olds, as long as you are over 18, that’s what is important.  When I got my divorce, my husband, Michael Tylo, was 15 years older than me.  I had been married to my husband for 18 years and when we got divorced I knew I would be dating again.  I had always dated older men when I was younger, and with my ex-husband, he was into the fifties music and we just blended our musical preferences.  I had my thing with music in the 70’s, and here I am listening to Jim Hendrix, and he was listening to Buddy Holly.  So, it was always like a ‘Clash of the Titans’.   I did try to date men around his age range.  I think women take good care of themselves these days.  I noticed that the kind of things I like to do are still pretty energetic things.  At that age, most guys are ready to chill-out, and it’s the guy in his cave who just sits and watches football and just chills.  I am still pretty energetic.  By chance, I met a young man who was four years older than my son, and he was running lines for me. (Sometimes I hire actors to do that.)  This young man was very cute, and it’s nice to see a young man quite taken by you.  You go, “Oh wow!  I’ve still got something… OK!”

TV SOAP:
So you obviously enjoyed that.

HUNTER:
It was a feeling of, “Oh, even this young man can be interested in me.”  I had not looked at a young man, and it was a new thing.  It was becoming very flirtatious, and one night he said, “I wanted to show you some clubs.”  It did not start out as a date, but it turned into one, and I had fun.   I knew that I wasn’t going to get serious with this young man, but we enjoyed each other’s company, and it was romantic and flirty.  In the last year, I would say I met another young man, but his age difference was about 8 years, and I think about 8 to 10 years is comfortable.  This young man I have been going out with, has the right mix of going to have fun, but was settled enough.  And that’s the other thing… you have to look at it as to where you are in your life cycle.  All the women his age wanted to have kids, and I am like… done!  So, it depends on other factors of your life.  I have no problem dating younger men.

TV SOAP:
Who are you dating now?

HUNTER:
I am dating different people.  When I had the loss of my son this year, I realized I need to take my time with everything, and women should, anyway.  We don’t have moms and dads married for 30 or 40 years anymore.  Unfortunately, our culture is about: if its not working for you get out, otherwise you are going to fall apart.  I don’t think people give relationships enough of a chance, on the other hand, they don’t date long enough to know.  I have been trying to get rid of two mindsets that have been put out there by society.  I have full intention to get to know someone for two years and find out what they are really like, day in and day out, before moving forward with any more definitive plans.

TV SOAP:
Because you are Hunter Tylo, and one of the most famous and beautiful women in daytime and are a celebrity, I would think some men would be intimated to come up to you or to go out with you.  Do you find that to be true?

HUNTER:
There is an additional problem and that is that they surf the web.  They know who I am, and may have read stuff, and there is a lot of inaccurate information out there.  There are the “Haters” and the “Pro-Taylors”, and there are people who overrate me to death.  So yeah, someone would be scared.  Then, there’s the “Haters” who could be sitting there, going, “I wonder if that’s true?”  I have the double-edged sword.  When I was in my twenties, and before I married Michael, I dated men who were horrified of a woman who is self-confident, who knows how to carry herself, and looks attractive.   It does not mean beautiful, it mean attractive.  There are beautiful women who send out a different message that guys will go to.  If you are a woman who is classy and has manners, it can be intimidating to men! (I am from Texas so I was drilled with this stuff from my upbringing.)  So, when I started dating again, I had the double-edged sword.  A guy might say to me, “I recognized you when I first met you, but I didn’t want to say anything.”  I am like, “Oh great!”  Sometimes, the conversation goes to everything about the show or the business.  They are just trying to find out who I really am.  You can’t really find out that kind of information unless you have gone out with someone for a long time.  The whole first few months of dating is all about making you believe you are 100% not mental and all of that.  (She laughs)  It’s an interesting thing, this dating deal.

TV SOAP:
So, you are enjoying being single and putting yourself out there again?

HUNTER:
Yes, I am enjoying it.  This is another thing that is kind of funny, seeing the difference between when I was 24 and 25 years old and dating, as opposed to now.  We are two different generations.   Now on top of it, older women are dating younger men.  I have no trouble dating younger men.  I dated a 38-year-old black guy. (She laughs)  I am dating different people, but we are very close.   I am not going to get serious right now, but I have known him for a long time. It’s just cool when you really let yourself take time and get to know somebody.  It’s really much better than doing that whole storybook romance, and getting married after three months.  I know people do it, but generally it doesn’t work!

TV SOAP:
Many of the actors on “B&B” have commented in past TV SOAP interviews, how detailed you are to your rehearsal process and you take a lot of notes.  How do you work?

HUNTER:
I try to look at it from: “Ok, I am not really this character, but what would I do if I were in this position?”  Especially, if I need to get the specific direction that the writers wrote for Taylor.  So, sometimes I have to push it, when we only have one or two takes to figure it out.  We don’t have the time to feel it out and feel what’s right.  I already have to know the intention of what my character is saying, as if it was a feeling I would have, and it naturally makes a scene work.

TV SOAP:
How is working with Kyle Lowder (Rick)?

HUNTER:
Kyle is adorable!  I drew on those same feelings that unexpectedly happen when I was running lines with my acting friend, and it was very cool, because I do see that in Kyle, too.  Kyle can be kind of shy.  It’s great when you can get a guy to the point where he is admiring you and looking up to you.  Kyle is already that way.  He is a sweet person, so it’s nice when all of that attention gets directed at you.

TV SOAP:
All the recent emotional courtroom material and scenes were so hard to watch, as Taylor was suffering from losing her child.  It did seem to be playing out just as you were grieving from your own personal tragedy, with the untimely death of your son Mickey.  How did you do the scenes?  Personally, I was very worried about you.

HUNTER:
I did get a lot of emails from people worrying.  They would go from worrying about me to saying, “Was I okay with those scenes and after them?”  They would say, “You know it’s so weird, that the storyline is mirroring Hunter Tylo’s life!”  Other people would go, “How dare Brad Bell (exec prod and head writer, “B&B”) write that, when we all know what she is going through!”  But the reality is, and I don’t know if any other actress ever said it, but there was a thing I found on a blog over the weekend and it was frustrating, because someone said, “Hunter Tylo is letting her professional business life as Taylor spill over into her personal life,” when in fact; it’s just the other way around.  Brad and any other producer, always make a point to get to know their cast.  They get to know who you are, and they mold the character to your personality, and what’s going on in your personal life.  It actually gives them an idea.  I mean, why do you think Marcus is dating Stephanie right now?  (She laughs) Hello!  Because I know when I brought this person to a couple of show related events, Brad was like, “Huh?” At first, they thought he was my bodyguard, they did. (She laughs)   It’s great to look at real life.  I know Bill Bell Sr, (creator, “B&B” and “Y&R”) once amazed me when he had these cookouts for our birthdays.  He would find out about us, and one of the things he revealed was that he listened to talk radio all night long.  It would give him amazing ideas of how people acted around each other, depending on what the stimulus was and why they had the problem they had.  I thought that was great.  Believe me, real human behavior is more interesting than art. (She laughs)

TV SOAP:
But, when you left the set after a hard emotional day, and dealing with the loss of your son, weren’t you just drained?

HUNTER:
Well, because of the acting technique I use when I did those scenes, I had to go back and allow my self to feel what I feel all the time.  It’s the feeling that will never go away which is, “It’s not fair,” and that line I added.  Once I added it and we did the rehearsal, I thought, “I am going to say this, because that is how I feel!”  After that, it just kept coming out.  I had those days. I don’t know if I would have collapsed on the floor with a small spotlight on me.  That’s the artistic stuff, and the feeling is what the audience should be left with, and it’s cathartic.  Taylor and Ridge got divorced after Hunter Tylo did, and so did Ronn Moss (Ridge).  So, we have already felt those things just recently and that’s a smart thing to do, and we are going to access those feelings even faster.  It’s hard sometimes, but you have to be willing to go there as an actor, anyway.

TV SOAP:
You are one of the most courageous people I know and you have endured so much.  All of your fans want to know how you are doing.  So, how are you now?

HUNTER:
I am doing better.  I had to get through April, which was really hard because that would have been my son’s 20th birthday, and it’s a milestone for your child.  I am a mom.  I plan birthdays around the year, and it was hard not to be able to plan his.  It would sneak up on me.  At the beginning of April, I was planning on going to a birthday party that had been planned for a long time, and it was like no big deal till the day I started getting ready for it, and that thought kept coming back: “It’s not fair, Mickey should have had one.”  It comes back, and that was the hardest time.  I am in this place now where I have some footing, and if I can get through that I can get through the rest.  I feel peaceful, and I am at a place I can talk about it.   I am at a place where I would want to write another book about these things.

TV SOAP:
Your first book, “Making a Miracle,” provided an interesting moment during your grieving process over the death of your son.  Is that true?

HUNTER:
One day I was crying, and I go to the closet and get my Bible, and just pray.  I was there a lot.  I had words with the man upstairs… real serious words, and a copy of my book had fallen on the floor or off the shelf, or something.  I pick up the book and say to God, “Are you going to give me a message now?”  I am all ‘attitude city’ and God knows we are like that.  I turned to the last chapter and read what I had said: “Through everything that happens to Katya, I have learned to face the ultimate question, what if I lose her?”  This question in turn leads me to another: “To whom do our lives belong?  Is Katya’s life mine or her own?  Is my life my own?”  I do this passage out of Psalm139, which I also had forgotten, that I had used part of the same passage in my son’s funeral bulletin.  Then I go on to say, “What if I had lost Katya or lost my oldest son Chris, who is just now leaving the nest, or Mickey, Isabella or my husband, Michael, or my own life for that matter?”  The irony of choosing to bear my own child and then praying for my youngest child’s life reminds me, I didn’t give life to myself, God did.  Life is not in our control and it’s not meant to be, it’s in God’s hands.  So in your face, this is God words.  I am not perfect.  My own words out of my own mouth got used on me.  That’s what was beautiful, and I had learned this a long time ago.  Here I had been pitching this fit and getting mad at God.   I was stuck in that place spiritually, and I said, “Thank you for having me answer myself.”

TV SOAP:
How is your faith after this recent tragedy?

HUNTER:
Interestingly enough, this whole last year I have learned so many things, such as: because somebody is a certain color, they are a human being, too.  They are beautiful in every single way, and have the right to be who they are in every single way.  Just like people who are in different kinds of relationships: man/man…. woman/woman… whatever!  People are people and we are not perfect.  That is what I believe Christianity is about.  Sometimes, I get posts from the “haters” going, “Who does she think she is?  She is a hypocrite!”  Well… we all are!

TV SOAP:
You have become very active and involved in The American Epilepsy Outreach Foundation, because your son died in part from a seizure.  Tell us about your involvement?

HUNTER:
You can support and bring awareness to different dangers that are very under publicized for children and adults of epilepsy.  You can go to www.epilepsyoutreach.org, and see all the information and PSA’s (Public Service Announcements).  I did.  We are doing a 5K run in Chicago.  We are going to get Oprah Winfrey out there with us, running in the streets, hopefully, and I am going to hand her a pair of shoes and tell her to get her butt out there. (She laughs)  I will get back to everyone out there with the confirmed dates.

Michael “Mickey” Tylo passed away on October 18th, 2007 at the age of 19. Mickey suffered from Partial Complex Seizures.  His first seizure happened at age 15.  Mickey was at the Tylo’s family home in Henderson, Nevada when he walked outside near the pool to possibly receive better reception on his cell phone, when he experienced a seizure and fell into the pool.  Tragically, Mickey did not survive.

Hunter Tylo has now joined forces with the American Epilepsy Outreach Foundation to raise public awareness regarding the truth about epilepsy.  For more on the organization and how you can become involved log on to www.epilepsyoutreach.org

For more on Hunter Tylo, log on to www.myspace.com/homepagehunter and www.theboldandthebeautiful.com