All My Children stars on wild mid-scene recasting, Tarantino watching the show
Watch episode 3 of EW Cast Reunions: All My Children streaming now on PeopleTV.com, or download the PeopleTV app on your favorite device.
Fans were shocked when All My Children replaced actress Alexa Havins as Babe Carey mid-scene in 2007, but it turns out there was no drama behind the scenes.
On episode 3 of EW's Cast Reunions: All My Children on Thursday, Bobbie Eakes, who played Babe's mom Krystal Carey on the show, says Havins left on her own accord and everyone supported her choice. But being that it was AMC, the team still wanted the actress' goodbye to be memorable.
"Oh, that was crazy, that was wild. I don't think it had ever been done," Eakes says. "They did a scene where I go into a hug with my daughter Babe, Krystal goes into a hug, and then when we pulled out, it was a different girl."
They hired actress Amanda Baker to replace her as Babe, which Havins says "was awesome."
"It's so classic soap," she adds in the video.
We agree, although it seems tame compared to the infamous "death by pancake" storyline that other AMC alums discussed on Wednesday's reunion episode.
Eakes says a lot of viewers misunderstood the mid-scene swap, and assumed Havins was fired and forced to film it.
"I don't think people realized that this was your choice to leave, and so I know a lot of fans were going, 'How did they make her do that? that's awful,'" Eakes tells her former costar. "I had to explain to people, 'No, everybody was cool about it, it's okay."
The other reunited cast members also talk about their final days on the show, and Billy Miller shares a story that was both on brand for AMC and for one apparent celeb fan of the series.
In the clip below, the actor, who played the conniving Richie Novak, recalls how his character's demise in 2008 involved being tortured by four women in silk clothing, and how he once ran into Quentin Tarantino watching it.
‘All My Children’ Star Billy Miller on the Time He Saw Quentin Tarantino Watching His Final Scene in an Airport
Entertainment Weekly reunites the cast of one of the most beloved soap operas of all time, All My Children, in the third episode of this five-part reunion series.
"These are very petite women, and they traipse the woods this way, as you do. Then they tortured me with a hot poker," he describes. "Hilarity ensued. And then Missy finished me off with a crowbar."
Later, when Miller was stuck at the airport in New York trying to find a flight, an airline employee and AMC fan hooked him up with a ticket. That wasn't the best part though — when he went to the lounge, he saw Tarantino watching his character's torture scene.
"I'm sitting there, and this scene is playing on the screen, me being poked," he says. "I look over to my right, there's Tarantino having a drink watching this, and I'm like, 'I wish I knew how to make this work for my favor.'"
As part of AMC Week, EW also took a walk down memory lane with Vincent Irizarry, who portrayed the villainous Dr. David Hayward — a role that was supposed to be for just three months but ended up lasting 13 years. Clearly, he was very good at playing the bad guy.
"I do find it very rewarding when people would take David's side over some of the nefarious things that he would do to the not-so-good people of Pine Valley," he says. "David saw them as a bunch of hypocrites, frankly. Because a lot of them had done certain things I had done, but when I did it it was like, 'Omigosh, how could you do something like that?' But the good thing about David was he was a world-renowned cardiologist and he did have the ability to save lives. And it was always kind of ironic that no matter what was going on and how much people hated him in Pine Valley, whenever someone in their family was sick they came running to David Hayward. Even had me taken out of jail at one point to perform heart surgery on one of the daughters of one of the characters!"
Watch Irizarry's full interview below in which he reminisces about working with the late David Canary (Adam Chandler) and his TV mom Marj Dusay (Vanessa Bennett), and answered fan questions.
EW Live: Gerrad Hall with 'All My Children's' Vincent Irizarry
EW's Gerrad Hall chats with Vincent Irizarry over Instagram live.
The All My Children reunion is part of EW's ongoing #UnitedAtHome series. A new episode will drop every day at 10 a.m. ET with two being released on Friday. The weeklong event is also for a good cause, with the AMC cast choosing to support Feeding America, which is putting food on the tables of those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across the country. For those who want to donate, please visit ew.com/allmychildrenreunion.
Check out full episodes from the reunion here.
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